Akimbo to launch Net video-on-demand service for TV
Silicon Valley startup Akimbo hopes to become the first major provider of cinema straight from the Internet to the living room boob tube.
The promise of Internet-based video has long been hamstrung by copyright and piracy worries, slow dial-up connections, technical challenges and consumer disdain for watching blotchy videos on their home computers.
But a Silicon Valley startup is tackling those obstacles, hoping to become the first major provider of cinema straight from the Internet to the living room boob tube.
"Twenty years from now, everyone's going to be getting all their video mostly from the Internet," says founder of Akimbo Systems Inc Steve Shannon. "You see it happening with music. You see it happening with phone service. Video is next."
With new video and copy-protection technologies, and the rapid expansion of high-speed broadband connections, the time may be ripe. Akimbo hopes to tap the vast vault of programming floating on the Internet, repackage it in DVD-quality, and bring it to a set-top box so viewers can easily choose what they want to watch from their sofa -- not from their desktop.
The San Mateo-based startup, which delayed its launch date from the summer to October after it hit technical snags, appears poised to be the first to deliver an Internet-to-TV video-on-demand service.
