Blinkx Internet TV Launching

Blinkx CEO Suranga Chandratillake has been telling me for months about the preparations for BBTV -- Blinkx Internet TV effort. Finally, it's launching today (Wednesday).

Like Joost, Blinkx's BBTV will run on a peer-to-peer network, and like Joost, that means BBTV will be burdened with having to ask its users to download a special player. (It's a hurdle that has cost Joost momentum.) The upside is that the video can be a higher quality at lower cost than other streaming video technologies.

Chandratillake promises that BBTV will be different. "We will lean on the power of the Web itself," he says. For instance, when watching a show, you will be able to click and see the transcript scroll down as the show progresses. If you see a word in, say, a news report that you want to research, click on the word and the player will open a browser window and show you a search on that word. During a movie, click on an actor and get IMDb information about his or her background.

At launch, BBTV won't have much -- about 40 independent movies. Chandratillake says the site will soon add a lot of niche-oriented content. Like? "Sports not everyone is interested in," he says -- such as, maybe, table tennis or cricket. BBTV might have a yoga channel, and will go after "expatriot content" -- so expat's can watch shows from their home nations.

Hard to know how BBTV will fare. Internet TV is becoming a crowded space, with new sites launching constantly. In the end, great content is the draw. At this point, BBTV doesn't have it, but Blinkx and Chandratillake have the connections and clout to get it. We'll keep an eye out.

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