Written by Liz Gannes
Posted Wednesday, April 11, 2007 at 1:13 PM PT

 

Babelgum Launching in One Week

Internet television outfit Babelgum has let us know it will be accepting beta testers starting next Wednesday, April 18. Interested users can request beta access starting Friday on the Babelgum website and will receive invites by Wednesday. After that, the site client will be open to the public, leaving beta status next month if all goes as planned.

BabelgumBabelgum, often compared to Joost (see our early review from this January), says it will focus on niche content that is not available elsewhere online — “independent films, short films, documentaries, travel programming, international sports video, etc,” according to U.S. spokesperson Wilson Cleveland– rather than the high-profile deals Joost has been signing.

It’s perhaps a decision made less by choice than by necessity, but Babelgum touts some impressive early deals. First up: exclusive distribution rights to Spike Lee’s new documentary about poverty in Africa, premiering on Babelgum on Wednesday and running for the next three months. Cleveland also touted partnerships with 20 independents and two yet-to-be-disclosed majors, with 3,500 hours of content to be available on the site next week. Content will be either bought outright or monetized through revenue sharing from advertising, he said.

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Comments & Trackbacks

  1. [...] TV is steaming up with Babelgum accepting beta testers from the 18th of April, NewTeeVee has reported. Babelgum is often compared to Joost, but it plans to focus on niche content that will likely be [...]

    Vic Okezie » Blog Archive » Joost ‘competitor’ launching soon on April 11th, 2007 at 4:23 pm - Permalink

  2. Hi Liz,

    thanks for the post.
    Just a couple of things for the sake of precision.

    The content will not be on the site: Babelgum is a downloadable client. And not everything is 100% correct, we posted about it:

    http://www.babelgum.com/blog

    Babelgum on April 12th, 2007 at 11:01 am - Permalink

  3. Hi there,

    I changed the text to say “client” instead of “site,” just to be clear. As for the content of my article, it was derived directly from an email and phone conversation with your official spokesperson. It is inaccurate to describe what I wrote as a “rumour,” as you do in your blog post. However, if there are any specifc errors, please bring them to my attention.

    Liz

    Liz Gannes on April 12th, 2007 at 2:54 pm - Permalink

  4. [...] Here are some rumours unconfirmed news on us and here are the confimed news by us. [...]

    What is (really) going on at Babelgum Blog on April 13th, 2007 at 3:54 am - Permalink

  5. [...] Hasta mañana, miércoles 18, aún se puede solicitar convertirse en un beta tester de Babelgum. Si todo va según lo previsto, la aplicación pasaría a ser pública en un mes, según informa NewTeeVee. [...]

    Últimos beta testers para Babelgum « TV 2.0 on April 16th, 2007 at 6:29 am - Permalink

  6. [...] are suddenly looking at P2P TV companies, here is a short list of names that might come in handy: Babelgum, RawFlow, Jaman, Zattoo, and [...]

    Share… » Joost gets $45 mil from pals, partners [GigaOM] on May 12th, 2007 at 12:56 am - Permalink

  7. can you send me a invitation of Babelgum？
    rrrinfo@gmail.com
    Thanks！

    Sergey on May 18th, 2007 at 9:43 am - Permalink

  8. hey~. i heard that friend invites are unlimited.so….
    can you send me a invitation of babelgum?
    daodao.gc#gmail.com

    daodao on June 5th, 2007 at 4:30 am - Permalink

  9. The public beta of Babelgum is out and can be freely downloaded at http://www.babelgum.com

    anonymous on June 6th, 2007 at 3:13 pm - Permalink

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