Skype Television

Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, who have founded the service of communication via internet, called Skype, will release the next year an international service of internet television.

The two visionaries have reached the final stage of launching the new service of global television, which will be supplied to the consumers via a broadband network. The service, which will be supported by advertizing, will offer the customers high definition programs and the opportunity to personalize the programs schedule.

Called «The Venice Project, » it needed considerable investment, a huge amount of the 2.5 billion dollars, which Skype founders got last year, on the taking over of the company by the online bidding site eBay, being blurred by the new application in the domain of television.

Unlike other similar services like YouTube or video on demand sites “The Venice Project” will offer only the programs of conventional channels, but at high standards, offering in the same time the possibility to watch a full screen image. The service will use the peer-to-peer technology, which allows files sharing between users, without the necessity of a central server.

The new service is already tested by about 6,000 users, “The Venice Project” having offices in Holland, London, New York, and Toulouse, but its owners have not concluded yet contracts with any of the great media companies in order to supply video materials. However, it appears that Warner Music is interested in this project, and they want to create specialized channels for some of the artists that they represent.