As word comes down that Viacom is ditching YouTube for
little-known start-up Joost, I thought now would be a good time to compare the
two big players in the peer-to-peer television network game, and whether or not
either one can put a dent in the telecom stronghold.
Joost and Babelgum both use peer to peer technology,
essentially meaning the backbone of their infrastructures, such as bandwidth,
is supplied by its users. I don’t pretend to understand all the technological
aspects, but basically, they’re both working to create an easy method of
viewing video on your computers, and as your computers more easily link to
television sets, that as well.
While clearly there’s opportunity for these new networks to
break the old network structure of simply them to us, there’s obviously some major
hurdles to cross as they work to avoid YouTube’s perceived pitfalls.
A little background, Joost (originally called the Venice
Project) is the brainchild of the founders of both Kazaa and Skype, Niklas
Zennstrom, and Janus Friis. Although Kazaa still technically exists, it was
essentially a casualty of the RIAA crackdown that gobbled up most peer to peer
networks like Napster. Skype, a VoIP (voice over internet protocol) was bought
by Ebay for 2.5 billion dollars.
Babelgum, was founded by Silvio Scaglia, who was also the
founder of fastweb, an Italian telecom.
Before I compare the two, it’s more important to talk about
their common challenges, as those may be the greatest battles of all.
First, can the web support it? You’ll hear many people, Mark
Cuban especially, talk about how the infrastructure of the web wasn’t made for,
and can’t handle extreme proliferation of video on the scale of YouTube, or P2P
networks such as these. And, he’s probably right. Our current systems would
likely crumble under the pressure of successful launches of either one of these
new platforms, possibly screeching the flow of information on the web to a near
stand still. These could be very real challenges we face, but I can’t believe
that these problems will not be overcome.
Simply put, there is money to be made in updating our
systems to the point these can be handled. Lots of money. Cuban-esque wealth,
even. And, when there’s money to be made, there’s usually someone out there who
will figure out how to make it. So, does this mean strengthening the pathways
or better condensing the files? I don’t pretend to know, but I’d be willing to
bet someone will figure it out.
Second, can they offer as much functionality as a DVR? Why would I use these networks if they’re just
not as good as what I already have? Neither can fast forward or rewind easily.
That’s a huge problem for me, as the blogosphere has already taken my attention
span down to that of a gnat. I like to jump around, and they need to make it
easier to do so.
If they won’t offer those simple features, Tivo could have a
greater opportunity by integrating the two. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re already
considering this direction as an enhancement to the television we know today.
Third, how much quality content will each have? Neither
Joost, nor Bablegum seem interested in becoming a heavily user-generated
experience, which can be a good thing, as long as they make it easy for serious
vloggers and amateur producers to upload their own stuff, too. I don’t have
much problem with the lack of inclusion of fourteen year-olds bemoaning the
state of humanity into their parent’s web cam, but there should be some sort of
happy medium between the two.
There’s real opportunity in helping to further steal back
control from the networks, and allowing the users to become the stars. We
really have no way to know how open they’ll be at this point, but I’d hope that
neither looks to become just another monolith.
Fourth, how will advertising be treated in this space? Both
networks plan to be completely advertiser supported, but how? Will they try to
jam the thirty second spot down our throats? Will we still have to deal with
three minute commercial blocks? If the answer is yes, then give it up now.
They’ll be wasting their time.
They have to innovate from the beginning, giving the control
of the delicate balance of advertising to content back to the users, and not
letting the almighty buck overwhelm that need. Using the Bebo, or Flip model of
allowing users to have some level of choice in the advertising they see would
be a good start, but my hope is that the commercial breaks will be minimal, and
advertisers could work with the networks toward a more mutually beneficial end.
But, with that said, how do these networks stack up against
each other? Comparing is a bit of a challenge give that they’re both barely
into their infancy. But, here it goes…
CONTENT:
Joost obviously has the advantage here. Even before the addition
of the extra Viacom content pulled from YouTube, the breadth of shows is much
greater, and actually somewhat overwhelming if you have no agenda from the
start.
Babelgum needs to make some content deals badly, or open it
up to the masses. They do have some good stuff, but it doesn’t take long to get
bored and start searching for the TV remote.
As both these networks are in Beta, I don’t want to spend
too much time with this. It’s much more important what they will do, rather
than what they are doing currently.
Winner: Joost
SEARCH:
One of my favorite Joost attributes is the ability to search
for shows, then create a channel based on that request. For instance, I could
search for Paris Hilton, and then only receive shows that involve her in some
way on that channel.
With that said, Joost’s search is still not anywhere near
the level it needs to get to. One of the
advantages of platforms like this is quantity of content. Because of this, it
will be necessary to easily find new shows. They do provide a “joost
suggests” section, but I’d much rather have the ability to search shows based
on popularity and view count.
Another major issue is with linking. It’s incredibly
important to the health of both these networks that they find a way to easily
link to shows from social networks. Right now, it’s much too hard to share
content with your friends.
Babelgum is way further behind with search. Simply, they
don’t have it. Until this feature is added, I really don’t understand what the
point is.
Winner: Joost
PICTURE QUALITY:
Actually, both are surprisingly good. Now, I wouldn’t
exactly call them television quality, but they’re definitely better than
expected. I doubt many people would actually turn up their noses. The problem
with getting much higher quality is the likelihood of skipping, which will kill
either one of these networks quickly.
Luckily, I didn’t really have many skipping or quality
problems with either.
Winner: It’s a wash.
DESIGN:
Both these guys definitely look sleek, especially Babelgum. It
has a bit of an advantage with the smaller amount of content, so it'll be interesting
to see how it looks as they add functionality.
Winner: Babelgum
USABILITY:
Both networks will have their share of troubles here as they
move towards faster expansion. Even regular techies will probably have a few
“huh?” moments as they navigate through the process. Some of these little
quirks take getting used to, and some still leave me with question marks.
For instance, Joost’s channel selection is a little awkward.
They force you to switch between the channel guide and my channels to check out
shows. So, to sample a show, you actually have to add the channel, which is a
little annoying.
Also, when scrolling through menus, you never come to the
end, it just starts repeating. On the main menu, you’ll see a rotating list of
help and preferences (like help, preferences, help, preferences…), which can be
a pain when your scrolling through a list of more than a couple items. I
generally want to know when I’m to the end.
Babelgum suffers from the same inconsistencies. You can add
your own channels, but I couldn’t figure how the hell to add any shows to
them. They do have a nice feature where
you can add a show to a “videos” section, but it’s still quite difficult to
maneuver.
Winner: Joost
TOOLS:
Both these networks are touting their social aspects, which
could really offer a tangible added benefit to regular television. This is also where Joost shows the largest
advantage over Babelgum. With features
like channel chat, which, as the names suggests, allows you to chat with others
watching the same channel, integration with Google Talk, and the ability to
create News Tickers by adding RSS feeds, Joost is well on their way to creating
a more robust social network.
On the Babelgum site, they claim to help you, “Discover new
content through friends, contacts and people with shared interests, and tell
others about the content you love or hate.” I didn’t see anything that would
allow for this, but if they’re making these statements, I would hope they’re on
the way.
Neither network is anywhere near where they have to get.
Although both allow for user ratings, neither yet allows for user reviews,
which will be radically important in differentiating from normal television. I
would hope that each will be creating (or buying) a social networking site to
coincide with the platform as well. Building a YouTube or MySpace-like personal
page, with user information, favorite shows, etc., will make it much easier to
navigate through, and find quality shows.
Winner: Joost
Overall, Joost is obviously much more advanced than
Babelgum, but as I said, their competition is less with each other, and more
with the obstacles they collectively face at this point. But, with proven
innovators at the helm of both, it’s not unlikely that one of these players
will change television as we know it.
Big thanks to Greg Verdino for the Joost beta token.
Repost of my latest Madison Avenue Journal article.
Digg this here!
It appears the only internet I'll have for the next few days belongs to Starbucks, so this will be the shortest of short Tune Ins. This week, it's the Beach Boys minus the hangover with South Carolina's own, The Explorers Club.
