While it won’t move the needle much on its content library, IFC Entertainment announced yesterday that it will offer 53 films through Netflix’s Watch Instantly streaming service, reports Variety.

True, that’s not a very large number, but it marks the first time IFC is providing its content to a subscription streaming service. Up until now, the company has placed films from its 300-title library on EST destinations like Amazon, iTunes and Blockbuster.

IFC titles heading to Netflix’s streaming service include Errol Morris’ The Thin Blue Line and John Sayles’ Return of the Secaucus Seven.

As we’ve written before, Netflix’s Achilles’ heel is its streaming content library. Though it has over 17,000 titles, it needs to make sure that service is robust enough so that the number of subscribers using the service keeps growing. Check out Om’s recent talk with Netflix CEO Reed Hastings at our recent NewTeeVee Live Conference for more on his company’s streaming efforts.

Separately, though we didn’t see anything official announced, it looks like Netflix also just got a whole boatload of Saturday Night Live content in this week, including seasons 1 – 5.

To learn more about streaming directly to TVs, check out the report on The Evolution of Over-the-Top Video over at our subscription research service, GigaOM Pro.

UPDATED: Babelgum is closing down its Dublin headquarters and an office in Nice, according to a report in paidContent, moves that could signal the end is near for the online video site.

Babelgum says the cuts will allow it to streamline its business to “ensure continued growth.” The company told paidContent that it will continue to develop applications from other locations, spreading the operations from its shuttered offices across those in London, Milan and New York. But there are questions as to whether Babelgum will continue to develop technology or keep focusing on content investment.

Babelgum is backed by deep-pocketed billionaire investor Silvio Scaglia; he invested €50 million ($73 milllion) in the company in 2008, and has said he plans to spend €40- €60 million annually on the company over the next 2-3 years. But the recent cuts could mean he’s losing patience while waiting for a return on that initial investment.

The office closures come not long after a Babelgum executive detailed plans for an extensive — and expensive — plan to spend many millions of dollars obtaining and developing exclusive, original content. Then-executive vice president and chief revenue officer Michael Rosen told NewTeeVee in October that Babelgum had ramped up operations in the U.S. and that it had a “mandate to launch 10-15 content initiatives per month.” Rosen has reportedly since left the company, according to paidContent.

Babelgum isn’t the only web video aggregator trying to differentiate itself in a market dominated by YouTube, which still delivers about 40 percent of all online video streams in the U.S. Veoh, which was founded around the same time as Babelgum, laid off a number of employees earlier this year as it shifted its focus to developing its video compass technology from that of content. In the meantime others, like Dailymotion and Metacafe, have been trying to cash in on the growing consumption of online video.

Babelgum has also suffered from a lack of strategic focus. On the technology side, the company began as a P2P-based streaming provider, but shifted to browser-based Adobe Flash streaming earlier this year. Like Joost, which also launched as a P2P-based video provider, the slowness with which it moved from proprietary technology to streaming based on a widely adopted video platform may have also held it back from attracting wider user adoption.

Update: Babelgum issued the following statement after our story ran.

This week Babelgum announced to its staff that it would be consolidating its operations into its London, Milan and New York locations. This decision is a natural response to the company’s growing focus on content and viewers, following Babelgum’s commercial launch earlier this year. Despite the current economic climate, Babelgum remains one of the very few aggressive players in the new media arena. In the past two months, Babelgum has: 1) pioneered the release of Sally Potter’s “Rage” – the first time a narrative feature film with A-list talent premiered on a mobile video application; 2) launched the innovative Babelgum Metropolis Art Prize (chaired by Isabella Rossellini)  to seek out the world’s best and edgiest video artists; 3) launched numerous new series – including Hayden Black’s “The Occulterers” – originally created, and exclusively produced, for its mobile and online platforms; 4) premiered the latest Weezer video “(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To” as an exclusive; and 5) entered into a partnership agreement with RingTales to exclusively premiere the new Dilbert and New Yorker animated series. The company continues to streamline its approach and improve its cost effectiveness to ensure its continued growth in future years. Other major content and partnership deals will be announced before the close of 2009.

BBC Gives Technical Details of Its New iPlayer On the Wii; the U.K. broadcaster has encoded streams using H.264 at a 700 kbps bit rate, compared to 1.5 Mbps for regular TV or even 3.2 Mbps for HD. (BBC) Speaking of British TV, the U.K. version of YouTube debuted its new site section that hosts roughly 4,000 full-length programs. (Variety)

Silverlight 4 Beta Launches for Developers; new features include out-of-browser capabilities, advanced business application development, and native multicast and offline DRM support for video. (Ars Technica)

Sony Announces Plans for Digital Media Store; new Sony Online Service will sell music, movies, books, and other downloadable applications for mobile devices. (BusinessWeek)

Disney Launches Its First Branded Entertainment Channel; “The Possibility Shop” will be exclusively sponsored by Clorox and promote Clorox products. (Ad Age)

Blu-ray, DVD Sales Expected to Stabilize in 2010; high-definition Blu-ray DVD sales have yet to make up for the decline in standard def DVD sales in 2009. (Video Business)

Digiboo Does Partnership with Movie Gallery; deal will put 100 Digiboo movie kiosks (see previous coverage) in retail locations. (Video Business)

Grey’s Anatomy Gets a Web Spin-Off; Seattle Grace: On Call will be a six episode run that’s on immediately after Grey’s is aired. (The Hollywood Reporter)

DirecTV and EchoStar Get New CEOs; Michael Dugan to come out of retirement to run EchoStar, while Michael White is leaving Pepsi to head up DirecTV. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Spot Runner Intros a Web Platform; company says the Malibu Media Platform helps to algorithmically match ad buyers and sellers. (MediaWeek)

Report: Vivendi Wants More Cash from GE; company wants a bigger portion in cash for its 20 percent stake in NBC in regards to the Comcast deal. (Bloomberg)

Lawyers Launch Class-Action Redbox Site; RedboxLateFees.com let’s people figure out if they are eligible to join the lawsuit. (Video Business)

GlideTV Intros On-Screen Keyboard App for Macs; the GlideTV OSK links the living room to popular application and web sites when used with the GlideTV Navigator. (GlideTV)

CoolIris Now on TV.com; TV portal now using the 3-D visual interface in its “Shows” section. (TechCrunch)

Which HD TV is Right for You? HDGuru provides a walk-through when picking a new set. (HDGuru)

Online video platform providers, CDNs and other media infrastructure companies have gathered in San Jose., Calif., this week for the Streaming Media West conference. Here are some highlights from vendors releasing news on Day One of the show:

Internap Updates Its CDN Offering

After a lengthy silence, Internap is announcing new features to its content delivery network that it believes will help make it competitive again. The features are primarily focused around improved ease of use for its enterprise customers, including new “set and forget” capabilities such as single-upload transcoding and continuous bitrate adjustment. The CDN has also been tweaked to leverage Internap’s Managed Internet Route Optimizer technology, which it claims delivers better performance by making sure that content is delivered from the right point of presence. Finally, the company updated its reporting features to provide more granular analytics.

While Internap has struggled to compete in the CDN market ever since it acquired the assets of Vitalstream two years ago, the company’s VP of marketing, Peter Evans, says the latest update may finally make the company competitive in CDN. “Now we have a product that we’re comfortable standing behind,” Evans said. “Do I think we’re going to go head to head with Akamai or Limelight? No. But I do think we can compete with them in an RFP, and I think we can go up against Nos. 3 through 50 in the CDN market.”

Ankeena Introduces Media Flow Director 2

Ankeena Networks introduced the latest version of its media delivery system today, with support for multiple screens, devices and delivery platforms. Media Flow Director 2 is designed to allow service providers to improve the quality of service for IP video that’s being distributed over their networks, just as such service providers are beginning to deploy TV Everywhere capabilities. With support for live and on-demand distribution of Flash, Silverlight, iPhone and video formats, Ankeena says that it can drastically increase the server capacity, meaning that customers need less infrastructure to deploy the same amount of video. Ankeena recently announced a strategic partnership with and investment from Juniper Networks, which will serve as a channel for selling into the large service provider market.

HD Cloud Supports Adobe FMS 3.5

Cloud encoding vendor HD Cloud announced today that it supports multibitrate streaming through Adobe Flash Media Server (FMS) 3.5. With the latest release, HD Cloud says that it will automatically convert to all formats necessary to take advantage of multibitrate streaming, which requires multiple renditions of each file to enable seamless switching between bitrate files under changing network conditions.

Kontiki Intros Enterprise Video Portal

Enterprise video firm Kontiki released its new VideoCenter enterprise employee video portal. Calling it a “YouTube for the Enterprise,” Kontiki’s video platform is designed for social and community features that employees can use to share ideas, while still being protected with enterprise-level security and controls.

NewTeeVee at SMW

And check out NewTeeVee co-editor Chris Albrecht today as he grills representatives from Motorola, Move Networks, HBO Broadband and Boxee about the threat that broadband video poses to traditional cable providers. The panel he’s moderating, entitled “Bridging TV and Broadband and Cutting the Cable,” starts at 4 p.m. PST.

NBC Launches Social ‘Communicator’ Tool; new ad-supported application allows users to watch full-length episodes of NBC programming, with built-in texting and unlimited VOIP calls. (paidContent)

CBS High School Sports Site Inks Deal With Comcast; MaxPreps.com will produce hundreds of short-form video features on local high school sports teams for Comcast’s Houston affiliate. (MediaPost)

Fliqz Launches Video SEO Product; new SearchSuccess tools will be sold as an add-on to the company’s Gold Edition hosting solution. (FierceOnlineVideo)

ABC News Partners With Ustream for Nightline Twittercast; anchors and correspondents from the show will participate in a half-hour web program once a week streamed by Ustream. (emailed release)

Cox Tests Dynamic VOD Ads With NBCU; the companies will dynamically insert ads against episodes of The Office and Monk that are viewed on Cox’s MyPrimetime video-on-demand service. (Multichannel News)

Tinychat Launches Ustream Competitor; the new Tinychat.tv service will allow users to share their live video conversations with anyone on the web. (TechCrunch)

Pirate Bay Tracker Really Shutting Down Now; founders want to encourage other BitTorrent sites to move away from torrents. (TorrentFreak)

As we’ve written before, a big problem facing the newteevee world is finding what you want to watch. As millions of video choices become available, the up-down-left-right grid view on-screen guide just won’t cut it. Search will be key to navigating viewing option, and today Cablevision rolled out a new enhancement for its subscribers to do just that.

The cable company’s new iO Search lets its TV viewers type in search terms based on a show’s title, genre, performers, network or other attributes using an on-screen virtual keyboard. iO Search then brings back results from both the linear and VOD options. From there a user can either launch the program if its available on demand, or set the DVR to record it.

iO Search isn’t necessarily revolutionary, but it inches viewers closer to what an electronic programming guide will need to offer and at the same time shows the limitations of current technology offerings — virtual keyboards are clunky and lame.

From the screenshots provided, it looks like Cablevision is offering a keypad based on a phone keyboard, which is smart given how people are already familiar with triple-tap key entry from using their phones. And this could be indication of where Cablevision is headed — tying your mobile phone to your set-top box to use it as a remote control. While smart phones like the iPhone and the Droid are increasingly popular, dumb phones with their standard keypads will still dominate for a while longer.

In a non-exclusive content deal YouTube is heralding as one of its most comprehensive, Univision will provide both short-form and long-form content to the video site starting early next year. The most popular U.S. Spanish-language network is to offer both new and catalog programs including Nuestra Belleza Latina, Cristina and Don Francisco Presenta; will participate in YouTube’s Content ID program for user uploads; and will make use of the site’s pre-roll and overlay advertising.

YouTube has seen 80 percent growth in Spanish language visitors in the past year, up now to 6.5 million per month, said Chris Maxcy, YouTube’s new head of content partnerships, on a conference call announcing the deal. Kevin Conroy, president of Univision Interactive Media described the U.S. Hispanic online community as fast growing but under-served audience in terms of web video. In part due to a recent court decision regarding streaming rights, the deal does not include Televisa content, Conroy noted.

Color us surprised. Not only is would-be cable killer Sezmi not dead, the company announced today that it has received $25 million in new funding from existing investors and it has launched a pilot program in Los Angeles.

Sezmi’s two-part set-top box solution consists of a receiver that receives over-the-air transmissions (Sezmi leases spectrum to broadcast content) and a 1TB DVR that stores shows and aggregates broadband content.

To get Sezmi, customers will either rent the equipment for an undisclosed amount, or purchase the equipment outright for $299. Ongoing service fees are $5 a month for broadcast-only channels or $25 a month for a broadcast/cable combo. As the service expands, it is supposed to be available through retail channels and through small and medium telcos and ISPs.

While Sezmi has pulled together a lineup of cable channels including Bravo, CNN, MTV, TBS and more — it still lacks any channels from FOX or Disney, including ESPN, severely hobbling its content selection.

The LA Times points out that the company is being a bit cagey about the HD it will offer. Sezmi didn’t say how much HD content it will deliver and told the paper, “The most popular content on the most popular networks will be in HD as available.”

With the influx of new capital, Sezmi has raised $71 million by our count. But the company will need the cash to establish and explain itself to the market. We still think its solution is too complex for most people (even though it’s not that complex) to grasp quickly, which could turn potential customers off.

If you live in L.A. and want to try out Sezmi for yourself, you can sign up here. Let us know how it goes.

Shortly after we learned some more details about Comcast’s TV Everywhere trial yesterday at NewTeeVee Live, Disney CEO Bob Iger said on his company’s earnings call that he believes TV Everywhere solutions should not be offered to consumers for free. Broadcasting & Cable reported on the call yesterday, and here’s a transcript of what Iger said (emphasis ours):

Look, TV Everywhere is maybe an example of what we have talked about often, and that is digital technology providing us with more opportunities to reach consumers and consumers more opportunities to consume our product. And to the extent that TV Everywhere serves consumers better, we are in favor of it. However, when you serve consumers better, when you provide more convenience or more utility, you should be able to charge for that and charge an appropriate amount. And some of what we have heard about TV Everywhere suggests that interest in charging the consumer for greater access is not necessarily a priority and we believe it should be.

We also believe that we should still have the ability if we go to a world where there is authentication and TV everywhere for the multi-channel subscriber, we should not be precluded from offering our product directly to consumers who may not be subscribers to multi-channel services, because we believe that would — and even though there aren’t many of them, that wouldn’t necessarily be good for consumers and while we realize we are trying to serve many masters, the master that is most important to serve for us is the consumer.

We’ve been skeptical that MSOs would offer TV Everywhere for free for very long — operators never pass up the opportunity to add a charge. In this case, we wonder if Iger should be so quick to want people to pay. Yes, there are monetization issues surrounding TV Everywhere plans, but as Comcast Interactive president Amy Banse told us yesterday, we’re in the first inning of this new online video world, there’s a lot about how the service will work and how consumers will use it that’s left to be determined. Prioritizing a fee out of the gate would most likely dissuade people from giving the service a fair shot. Besides, every good pusher knows the first hit’s always free.

Not to pat ourselves on the back, but you know how we know yesterday’s NewTeeVee Live conference was awesome? We’re not exhausted. Typically after an all-day show packed with interviews, on-stage moderating, and shaking hands, you’re pretty wiped out.

But the energy was so great yesterday that we’re just pumped for the year ahead. If you weren’t able to attend, you should check out the video from the day (thanks, Livestream!), but if you’re looking for something faster, here’s a recap of what we learned:

Fireside chats = awesome
We went out on a limb yesterday and built our day around one-on-one chats and short presentations and only had one panel. The result was the ability to have deeper conversations and extract real news from our guests.

Take Comcast’s TV Everywhere To Go
Comcast Interactive president Amy Banse is a charmer who could sell ice to the Eskimos. Talking with her, you literally start thinking “Hey, Comcast isn’t so bad… maybe I should get that triple play package.” While she’s a cagey one, Banse did provide us tasty TV Everywhere nuggets:

• First, it sounds like Comcast’s On Demand Online will be available “by Hanukkah” (which starts Dec. 11).
• You’ll need to download the Move player along with an authentication app, and you can authorize up to three devices in the home.
• Also, contrary to earlier reports — Comcast subscribers will be able to access their On Demand Online content outside the home. So you can fire up your laptop while traveling to catch up on content you may have missed.

YouTube Goes 1080p
If there’s any one thing to show you how far video technology has come, during the first NewTeeVee Live in 2007, YouTube co-founder Steve Chen dismissed HD and said his company wanted to provide video quality that was “good enough.” Fast forward to 2009, now YouTube is playing 1080p video as announced by head of product Hunter Walk during an on-stage interview. This comes less than a year after YouTube switched on HD, and will apply to the site’s whole library of previous uploads of 1080p-quality videos. Walk said about 10 percent of YouTube videos are uploaded in some form of HD, though the percent of views for such videos may be smaller given many people are better served with a smooth lower-quality stream.

Redbox Sees Beyond DVDs
The controversial DVD kiosk company recognizes the DVD won’t be around forever and has already started testing direct digital downloads in some kiosks.

Xbox LIVE Gets Social Next Week
Creating social TV experiences is a big emphasis for Microsoft and Facebook and Twitter will be landing on the platform on Nov. 17.

Boxee Knows How to Get Press
Making the prediction that in five years there will be more Apple subscribers than Comcast subscribers while at a conference where Comcast is speaking is an easy way to grab headlines. Regardless, Boxee still has tongues wagging and that will only increase when it unveils its upcoming mystery box.

Roku is Becoming a Platform (But Still Likes the Hardware Biz)
The company’s Channel Store will be launching imminently, enabling just about anyone to create a channel for the box (and the TV, by extension). But while the company is building a flexible and potentially powerful TV-connected platform, Roku still likes being in the (tough) hardware business and will keep making boxes.

Video Helping PBS Get Hip
PBS is now drawing 26-minute sessions to its video portal, and will soon introduce a version of its site that automatically syndicates local stations’ content.

Adobe Pooh-Poohs Open Video
CTO Kevin Lynch said HTML 5 is trying to do what Flash already does today.

CNN Refocuses Web Video Effort Around Live Events
The network sees more promise in its social TV efforts with Facebook than in linear newscasts, and talked up the live event coverage on the same day it laid off its web news anchors.

VIZIO is the New Fred
Last year, crowds flocked around young YouTube star, Fred. This year it was Matt McRae of Vizio. The head of platforms (i.e. widgets) for the country’s No. 1 TV manufacturer was mobbed after his chat and had to pass through a gauntlet of eager developers looking for a home for their apps.

Thanks to all of our speakers, the rest of the GigaOM Family who furiously liveblogged our talks (newbie Ryan Lawler had a baptism by fire this week!), all of our sponsors and all of you who came out, including a sell-out crowd of 600 to the venue and 12,000 more uniques via the live video stream. See you at NewTeeVee Live 2010!

At NewTeeVee Live this afternoon, YouTube announced plans to improve the quality of video streams available on its site, upgrading the maximum upload encoding streaming quality from 720p to 1080p.

The site will roll out 1080p video over the next few days, said Hunter Walk, director of product management at YouTube. In addition, the company is in the process of re-encoding all previous 1080p-capable videos, and is about halfway done that process, Walk said.

The move comes as the Google-owned site is attempting to ramp up monetization of videos from premium content partners. But the uploads are not limited to premium content providers; all users will be able to upload videos in the highest-quality format, Walk said.

The number of high-definition videos that are being uploaded to YouTube has increased dramatically since the company enabled 720p videos. A year ago, about 1 percent of videos were uploaded in HD; that has grown to about 10 percent in recent months, Walk said.

Walk wouldn’t comment on how many viewers currently watch content in HD, but said that the company has been an aggressive promoter of HD video, optimizing for viewer preferences and defaulting to high-quality video when it finds that users have chosen HD over SD streams.

Walk also wouldn’t comment on the effect that the move to 1080p video uploads would have on the company’s cost structure, both in terms of storage and bandwidth. “There’s a lot of speculation about our infrastructure. We make these decisions in an intelligent matter, and we’re able to scale quite gracefully,” he said.

Corrected: 1080p is the new maximum streaming quality.

Forrester Research is bringing some visibility to the fast-growing market online video platform (OVP) market with a new report issued Friday. But while some OVP competitors got positive marks for their offerings, the vast majority of players were noticeably absent from the research.

“The Forrester Wave: US Online Video Platforms” ranked a handful of OVP vendors according to 37 criteria that could be broken down into three “high-level buckets”: current offering, strategy, and market presence.

Brightcove and Ooyala both ranked favorably in the report, and both issued press releases touting their rankings as “leaders” of the OVP segment. But there’s only one problem — Forrester evaluated only six vendors (Brightcove, Fliqz, Kaltura, Ooyala, Twistage, and VMIX), overlooking a large percentage of the overall market.

That’s not to say that Brightcove and Ooyala don’t measure up well against competing offerings. Brightcove is clearly the early leader in the space, and Ooyala has gotten a good amount of buzz and attention since it launched two years ago. (NewTeeVee also sees good things for Ooyala, naming the company to our Next Big Thing List for our NewTeeVee Live conference this week.)

But clearly there’s more competition than the Forrester report lets on. Research firm CDN Quote tracks 62 white-label video management providers; VidCompare, which calls itself a “free comparison service for business decision makers looking for an online video platform provider,” tracks 60 OVP companies. With just six platforms evaluated in its report, Forrester is missing out on the vast majority of companies operating in the space.

In a blog post, Forrester analyst Bobby Tulsiani defends the narrow scope of the report, stating:

“While the number of companies in the space is certainly larger than six, we decided to focus on a set of vendors that serve a variety of clients, regardless of size or industry.  For that reason, some vendors that primarily focus on high end media companies, such as Digitalsmiths, The Platform, or Move Networks were not included.”

Fair enough. Not everyone has the need for the type of all-encompassing, TV Everywhere-type video offering that is being pitched by companies like thePlatform or ExtendMedia.

But there’s no explanation for why Forrester left out companies like Delve Networks, Episodic, KIT Digital, Kyte, Unicorn Media, or any number of other OVP players that serve media and enterprise customers, and offer similar services to those that were included in the report. (Note: I fully expect a rash of emails asking why I didn’t include the other 50 or so vendors in this story.)

The good news is that a report like this, from a leading analyst firm, brings attention to an increasingly competitive space like the white-label video management market. The bad news is that by including only a small number of players competing in that space, the report overlooks just how competitive the segment has become.

ZillionTV Signs Paramount; new films will be available via electronic sell-through, while catalog titles will be available for free with ads. (emailed release)

Fox Adds Second Screen for DVD Interactivity; “FoxPop” will debut on Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian and via a downloadable app; facts about the movie will appear on a laptop or iPhone in sync with and about the movie. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Netflix on the PS3 = Sucky; experience of loading and moving through streamed films are slow, reports one user. (Business Insider)

Microsoft Taking a Multi-Screen Approach to Ads and Games; company putting ads on its Xbox LIVE platform as well as dynamically delivering ads (including video) to breaks built into games. (MediaWeek)

Chase Sponsoring Oprah/CNN Webcast; 90-minute webcast with author Uwem Akpan happening tonight at 9 p.m. (Broadcasting & Cable)

NCR and MOD Systems Begin Technical Trial; kiosks let you download movies to an SD card (see our previous coverage). (emailed release)

Tudou Looks to Mobile, Despite Lagging Chinese 3G; TechCrunch has long wrte-up about the company’s strategy. (TechCrunch)

UK-based P2P video platform VODO published its second feature film on dozens of file-sharing sites Thursday, hoping that worldwide exposure will bring in donations, subscriptions and traditional distribution deals. David Miller’s documentary In Guantanamo, which is the result of a press tour of the controversial detention facility, has been downloaded around 15,000 times within the first 24 hours, according toVODO founder Jamie King.

The site’s first feature, Us Now, got downloaded around 250,000 times since its release in mid-October. Part of the volume is due to VODO’s relationships with a number of well-known BitTorrrent sites, with Isohunt and The Pirate Bay currently featuring In Guantanamo on their front pages. VODO hasn’t been quite as successful in making money from these downloads, but King hopes that a combination of one-off donations and a subscription level for documentary geeks and movie buffs will help eventually make the site sustainable and provide an additional revenue stream for filmmakers.

VODO is short for voluntary donations, and King is no newcomer to the idea of giving content away in exchange for contributions from viewers. He is the maker of the pro-piracy documentaries Steal this Film and Steal this Film 2, both of which were released for free online. Viewers donated around $30,000 since the first part of Steal This Film got released three years ago.

The new site’s first documentary Us Now hasn’t been quite as successful yet. The film has brought in less than $1,000 in donations since its release in October, according to King. “If we can get it closer to $5,000 we’ll be doing well,” he told me, adding that he views donations as only one piece of the puzzle for filmmakers. King was able to sell his documentaries to several TV networks around the globe in part because the films were so successful online, and he hopes that others can follow in his footsteps.

VODO passes 100 percent of its donations directly onto filmmakers, but it also asks viewers to become paying members of the site. VODO supporters who pay around $5 a month get access to a pool of movies that are considered for distribution. “We’ve got (around) 15 films we’re considering right now,” explained King. Paying supporters can vote on which of these movies will get picked up for P2P distribution, and VODO also wants to organize online events with the filmmakers for these members. So far, around 50 people have signed up for this online film club. VODO hopes to grow this number to at least 1,500 in the near future.

King and his collaborators have received grants from the Channel 4 British Documentary Film Foundation, the Arts Council England and the Emerald Fund to start VODO , with the total funding being just shy of $250,000. King isn’t sure whether VODO will sign up corporate sponsors in the future. Right now, the funding is enough to keep the site and its development going for a year, and filmmakers seem to be eager to sign up. King told me that he has another dozen movies in the queue, and is talking to a couple dozen more filmmakers who want to get their movies out to P2P sites. “We’re building the new world here,” he said.

Coinstar, the parent company of DVD-vending company Redbox, reported third-quarter earnings yesterday, with the unit’s revenues up 90 percent to $198.1 million. The company also added 2,700 kiosks during the quarter, bringing its total DVD kiosk count to 20,600 nationwide.

Revenue growth for Coinstar’s latest quarter actually slowed from previous quarters this year, as the LA Times points out. The company’s revenue grew 110 percent in the second quarter and 155 percent in the first quarter.

But, growth is growth, especially when it comes at a time when DVD and Blu-ray sales have dropped and home entertainment revenues are depressed.

Redbox’s growth probably won’t ease the heat the company is feeling from some Hollywood studios, which are none too happy about the kiosks’ cheapo dollar-a-night movie rentals. But not everyone is against Redbox; the company recently signed distribution deals with Summit Entertainment and NCircle Entertainment.

Redbox has also started experimenting with higher rental prices in select markets, in a move that could be an olive branch to grumbling studios, or a way to maintain revenue growth.

And just a reminder that we’ll be chatting with Redbox SVP of Marketing and Customer Experience Gary Cohen at next week’s NewTeeVee Live conference. If you act quick, there’s a $50 discount going on tickets until 5 p.m. PT today.