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San Diego based internet video-sharing site Veoh has closed its third round of venture capital financing.  The  $26m Series C round was led by Goldman Sachs and also included prior investors Spark Capital and Shelter Capital Partners.

The company, which was launched in 2005, has raised approximately $41m to date.  Former Disney exec Michael Eisner who sits on the board of directors and is among the notable investors through his investment company, Tornante.  Time Warner has also invested.  Unsubstantiated speculation is putting the pre-money valuation for this round somewhere just above $60m.

Like IPTV companies Joost and Babelgum, Veoh offers a Peer to Peer video player but unlike the other two, Veoh has focused more on user-generated content and syndication than on trying to be a content destination.   Users can upload videos of differing sizes or quality levels and Veoh will syndicate them to different video destinations from YouTube to MySpace.   Unlike YouTube, Veoh can handle larger sized video files and higher quality content.   

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Fads come and go and while at their peak they often get a lot of press attention.  Babelgum and Joost are the two most mentioned names when it comes to Peer-to Peer IPTV, and both are trying to prove their marketplace is no fad.

London based,  Joost has been the initial front runner.  It was first to market, raised a large amount of capital, is signing up partners, hired a big name CEO, and even hired a talent agent. Babelgum’s PR machine hasn’t been as active in informing the world of their progress but the Ireland based company has been quietly moving ahead in preparation to compete.  A few days ago, Babelgum  rolled out its own beta offering. 

Like Joost, access to Babelgum is limited to invitation, and like Joost, there’s a lot still being developed.  The offerings are anything but complete.  Still both are far enough along to merit a side by side comparison; so here’s a first look. 

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How many people regularly watch music videos? I wonder. It’s hard for me to believe it’s a gigantic number, but the recent volume of activity to provide music video content online suggests my imagination must be way off.

Just a few weeks ago, Warner Music announced it was joining with Premium TV to offer its own video collection on a private label Warner site. At the same time EMI announced that it had struck a deal with YouTube to provide EMI music video content for display through the YouTube site.

Today, movie download service CinemaNow announced it too was climbing on the music video train. It announced plans to resuscitate a prior effort to sell music videos too. The Watchmusichere.com site is relaunching today with videos from Warner Music Group available for sale and viewing on portable devices.

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In a further advancement into domain once solidly controlled by Netflix, Blockbuster today introduced an Internet Only DVD rental service. The new service, which is being called Blockbuster By Mail, will be distinct from Blockbuster’s combined Mail-order and In-store service (called Total Access).

Unlike Total Access, subscribers to the new “By Mail” service will not be able to rent titles from retail stores as well as online. They will, however, be able to return to their local stores, or by mail. Use of the retail footprint for returns will theoretically increase turn-around time for some users.

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Despite a recent history of saying it wasn’t interested in subscription businesses, London’s Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal are reporting today that Apple is in late-stage discussions with Hollywood movie studios to offer movie rentals through iTunes. The rumored plan which includes $2.99 video downloads that will expire after one month doesn’t contradict Apple’s anti-subscription position, but other rumors circulating suggest (though much less likely) that Apple might also consider a subscription rental package.

While information on the concept of iTunes rentals is too early and inconclusive to verify with certainty, it’s not an unrealistic rumor. Apple is doing well with DVD sales through iTunes but its growing market share could easily be swallowed by Amazon’s Unbox video download service (partnered with Tivo), or efforts to provide digital rental services from Blockbuster or Netflix, should they materialize. Click to Read More

No matter who gets whacked, who goes to jail, or who turns into Tweety and starts singing secrets, tonight the world will say goodbye to the Soprano family.  But their family name will stay present next to the Corleone’s from the Godfather, Tony Montana from Scarface and all the other legends of Mafiosa Entertainment. 

Whatever happens in the episode, the curtain call will also mark the end of a program that, arguably, changed the fabric of Television programming as much as any other show in recent decades.  Just as Mash and All in the Family opened new doors for sitcoms – from the subject matters considered, to the tone of the dialog – the Soprano’s too, altered TV.  In bringing a gritty, edgy, violent concept and layering it with complex psychological nuance and wildly detailed character development, the Soprano’s ushered in a new era.   The Soprano’s was more than just mafia TV.  It was a program written and filmed with the kind of creative ambition and techniques usually reserved for feature films.  The Soprano’s brought the air of film making and story telling back to the short form.

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Michelangelo Volpi, known generally as Mike, was for a long time the person most mentioned as successor to Cisco CEO John Chambers.  Before leaving this year, the man named after an artist,  spent 13 years at Cisco, including seven as the head of their mergers and acquisitions group.  During that tenure, he was responsible for the first seventy acquisitions – many across the time zones of the world.  He was also active in pushing the sale of Cisco’s networking equipment to many media power houses.  Now, Mr. Volpi will be taking on a new challenge as the CEO of hugely funded, largely hyped, talent-agency-represented, IPTV company Joost. 

In his new endeavor as CEO,  Mr. Volpi’s will likely find some overlaps to his past experiences and a host of new challenges to resolve. Click to Read More