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While the theories of technology convergence lend themselves toward the marriage of the set-top box and the TV, the stand alone TV peripheral isn’t ready to go away.  Just the opposite, from Apple TV to efforts from Cisco and Motorola to Tivo, the set-top box continues to try and reinvent itself as its own model for a convergence device.

Entering the fray with a Hollywood caliber entrance (in the form of a substantial new financing) is Building B, a year old company founded by former semiconductor entrepreneur and Harvard professor Buno Pati and Chaired by Phil Wise, the former CTO of Sony of America.

Building B hasn’t gone far beyond cryptic descriptions and buzzwords in public description of their stealth startup and in-development hardware but they have convinced investors there’s substance behind their speech.  In a first round, just closed, the company has secured $17.5m

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Brightcove, the Cambridge Massachusetts Internet TV syndication and service provider announced this week they are officially crossing the pond. 

After previously signing UK based media programmers British Sky Broadcasting, Sony BMG UK and others, Brightcove will open London offices.

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Every year, the celebrities and power brokers of big business converge on Sun Valley, Idaho for the pinnacle of exclusive schmooze and booze deal making conferences. Investment banker Herb Allen’s five day event is legendary.  This year, it began officially on Wednesday, under the scenic skies of the mountain resort town.

Guests with the privilege of attending include such heavyweights of media and technology as Rupert Murdoch (News Corp), Robert Iger of Disney, Jerry Yang and Terry Semel from Yahoo, Warren Buffet, Steve Ballmer, Bill Gates and others.  Also on the guest list are the folks from a number of high profile, high-buzz startups including representatives from IPTV player Joost, from news aggregator Digg, from Facebook, even newly funded Ning.

Between golf, meetings and private events,  among the crowd, ideas are circulated by the pine trees or the pools. In the boardroom or lounges, strategies and business cards are exchanged. Partnerships are contemplated. 

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Peer to peer television over the Internet, a niche of so called IPTV, is an industry in its infancy.  That hasn’t stopped investors from making huge bets on its future.   So far, combined investments have climbed into the hundred million dollar range (Veoh has received more than $40m and Joost has received $45m).  With such high stakes, the three early leaders, Babelgum, Joost and Veoh, are finding themselves in a heated race to capture marketshare as early, and as fast, as possible. Amongst this competition, exclusive content, the kind of “find it only here” video that might lure audiences from a competitor, and help separate the otherwise similar services, is revealing itself to be major part of strategy.

Today,  The Hollywood Reporter reports Joost will announce a major exclusive content deal with Viacom’s VH1 sometime this week.   According to the initial report, Joost’s 500k member audience will be able to watch the entire premier season of VH1’s new comedy series ten days ahead of the series Television broadcast premier. 
The episodes will run with advertising to support them.

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Just as Microsoft is re-branding its IPTV software, and touting the newly named Media Room, the company has bought itself a small sandbox for experimenting further with TV integration.  Microsoft has agreed to buy approximately 1% of Chinese TV and appliance maker Sichuan Chanhong Electric Co. 

At a reported price of only about $12m, the investment is pennies in a wishing well and not even a blip on radar tracking Microsoft expenditures.  (Microsoft’s 2006 Research and Development expenses exceeded $6.5b and that number doesn’t include equity investments that may provide R&D contributions).   Still, even a one percent stake in a state-backed business in China is significant.  Further, the investment provides Microsoft with more tools to explore linking consumer appliances to the PC with a manufacturing partner, and that is notable. 

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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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