Veoh launches web TV player

Posted 20 June 2007 13:00pm by Graham Charlton with 4 comments

Veoh, the online video site, has launched a downloadable player for users to access its content, making the viewing experience as near to TV as possible.

Veoh TV will be a video browser, displaying videos from YouTube and other video sharing sites, along with content from major TV networks' websites, and organising the content into channels.

Veoh chief executive Dmitry Shapiro says he wants Veoh TV to be the 'killer desktop application' for online video.

As Veoh will find videos in the same way a search engine finds webpages, it is under no obligation to negotiate with the content providers. Whether the TV networks will be happy with this is another matter though.

The software and concept is similar to recently launched Web TV services Joost and Babelgum, though these two sites are taking a different approach, making deals with TV networks to show their content.

With videos taken from a range of sites, some of the picture quality may not match that on Joost and Babelgum, Veoh has a big advantage in terms of the sheer amount of content it can offer its users.

The company raised a massive $28m (£14m) in Series C funding last week, more backing than any other online video site. The round was led by Goldman Sachs. Veoh has now raised over $41m (£20.6m) in venture capital.