Full-screen Web videos

NEW YORK (AP)

Online video in small, fuzzy boxes is heading the way of rabbit ears.

Some highly anticipated Web sites aim to make the experience of watching video online more like watching television. These sites rely on software that enlarges the interface so it fills the computer screen — from edge to edge.

This new wave of applications is being led by Joost and includes VeohTV and Babelgum. Though all are in beta (testing) phases, the hype has been mounting, leading many to claim the next big advance in online video is imminent.

“The distribution problem is starting to get solved by many different people, but the experience of online video is still very poor,” says Veoh founder Dmitry Shapiro. “Companies like Veoh and Joost are trying to create a more TV-like experience for viewers.”

Of course, YouTube, which Google Inc. bought for $1.76 billion in November, is the site that blazed the online video path. Though YouTube offers the option of a full-screen mode, video typically is watched in a smaller box that can be embedded in other sites.

The new sites, all of which are ad-supported and transmit video with peer-to-peer technology, are seeking to move beyond YouTube by improving video quality, attracting professionally produced content and expanding the viewing experience — which is to say to be more like TV.

Babelgum’s slogan is: “TV experience, Internet substance.” Veoh touts: “VeohTV makes watching Internet as simple as watching television.” Joost simply says: “The new way of watching TV.”

All three work nearly the same way. You download the application from the respective Web site. When that’s finished, you have a desktop icon that launches the application. It then fills your screen with an on-demand-style choice of videos arranged in near-broadcast-quality channels.

Joost, founded by Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom (the founders of the Internet telephone company Skype and the music-sharing service Kazaa) says it has created enough buzz to attract 1 million beta users.

Joost’s strategy has been to sign deals with major content providers, making copyright lawsuits unlikely. (YouTube, on the other hand, is being sued by Viacom Inc. for more than $1 billion.) It has inked deals with Viacom, CBS, CNN, the National Hockey League, Sony and others.

“The early stages of video content on the Internet was a lot of user-generated stuff, stuff like my grandmother and her cat,” says Joost Chief Executive Officer Mike Volpi. “What we’re trying to do is evolve that experience into something that the viewer doesn’t view just out of interest, but actually builds an affinity with that particular programming content.”

Mr. Volpi notes that users won’t watch long-format video “on a postage-stamp-size thing.” However, altering viewing habits to watch more than five-minute clips even on a full-screen application may be difficult.

A poll conducted last September by Associated Press and Time Warner Inc.’s AOL found that only one in five online video viewers has watched or downloaded a full-length movie or TV show.

James McQuivey, a TV and media technology analyst for Forrester Research, says he thinks people will grow more accustomed to long-form material as it becomes easier to download.

Yet he cautions that Joost is “an evolutionary step, not a revolutionary one.”

“If there’s anything that Joost does, it moves the ball forward,” Mr. McQuivey says. “It tells people that the TV and the PC are not two separate worlds. But as long as we’re still mimicking the TV on the PC, we’re failing to appreciate the value of combining those two worlds.”

Babelgum bears many similarities to Joost but is focused primarily on video from independent producers rather than mainstream sources, says co-founder and CEO Valerio Zingarelli.

Mr. Zingarelli says Babelgum also plans to embed its platform in set-top boxes by the end of 2008, which would make its content viewable on traditional TV sets. Apple offers such a box for video purchased on ITunes, and more video companies are expected to follow suit.

Veoh has both a YouTube-like site at Veoh.com and VeohTV, which Mr. Shapiro calls a “video browser.” Though VeohTV is pursing deals with the major TV networks and many Hollywood studios, its approach is to collect all the Internet’s free video in one place — “like Google for video,” Mr. Shapiro says. It also enables viewers to record video like a DVR.

Veoh even took the pre-emptive step recently of suing Universal Music to bar it from taking legal action against Veoh. Many content providers would prefer their material to be shown on their own platforms, where they control the surrounding advertising.

“For the consumer to try to figure out where to find video that they’re interested in and navigate their interfaces becomes extremely difficult,” Mr. Shapiro says.

The Internet and television increasingly are being portrayed as being on a collision course, destined to fuse within 10 to 20 years, when TV could become just another deliverer of high-speed data. However, those visions remain relatively far in the future. Online video is still in its infancy, Mr. Shapiro says. “People are just starting to discover it and understand it.”

Joost, Babelgum and Veoh have several heavyweight competitors, including Microsoft’s LiveStation, Apple TV and the recently introduced Hulu, a joint venture of NBC Universal and News Corp.

Mr. McQuivey says he doubts YouTube should worry because its interactivity has “created a social kind of viewing.”

Joost, in particular, hopes to accomplish something that similarly fosters discussion among viewers. Mr. Volpi says Joost will blend the viewing experience with real-time water-cooler conversation.

Joost plans to become available to the public before the end of the year, Babelgum is planning to kick off in March, and Mr. Shapiro says he expects to keep VeohTV in beta no longer than a year from now.