The video search company Blinkx has launched a P2P video service, BBTV, that promises “a new kind of online television: full-screen, TV-quality and truly immersed in the Internet.” Sound familiar? Yep, just like Joost, which I watched a couple of times and then never returned. But BBTV has a couple cool features. First, you can click a button to get deeper information on something on-screen. Second, you can read and search a show’s transcript while it’s playing. Unfortunately, I was unable to replicate both of these features (other than basic show info) despite clicking on clip after clip. So for the time being, it’s just Joost. Most of the content is already available online (or via TiVo, AppleTV, Media Center PC, etc.), so why would you download an application to watch it in slightly higher quality? (Actually, Hulu has about the same quality). I think a critical success factor for BBTV is to focus on a niche that would make sense for that feature set: documentaries, for example. Users would want to drill down for more info, search transcripts, enjoy a higher-quality lean-back experience. By building up an expansive library of documentaries that aren’t readily available online, BBTV would be a compelling experience.
Screen grab of the documentary “Black Gold.” Stellar video quality. But the rest of the clips I saw on the site were similar to Hulu’s video quality.
