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BitTorrent is working hard to become a good boy and, even more, the savior of the media industry applying its wide-spread technology and client for legal purposes.

Since last February, BitTorrent has been reaching agreements with major media companies like Fox, Paramount, MGM and Warner Bros. for legal delivery of their contents. Now, BitTorrent has just launched a new service called Delivery Network Accelerator (DNA) which is intended to speed up downloading and streaming video content extending the open BitTorrent protocol into a managed platform for commercial-grade content delivery.

Particularly interesting and innovative is the streaming side of this service as it is supposed to help the industry in developing band-width efficient TV over the Internet services providing P2P cost-savings in delivering richer content. The first one is already online, Brightcove is using BitTorrent DNA technology for streaming video content in a P2P way.

Using this technology it is now easier for any industry player to build up TV services to compete with Joost or Babelgum as as cost-effectiveness competitive advantage has been made available for all of them taking advantage of the over 150 million of clients already downloaded from the very first moment. What comes next? Time will tell.

In late 2005 eBay acquired Skype, the number one internet-calling company, for $2.6 billion. Today Skype’s price is half that one.

Yesterday, eBay confirmed that it overpaid for Skype showing once more that value never is equal to price. About half billion of the charge were to pay Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, Skype’s founders, and other early Skype’s investors. Although it looks like big money, they could have earnt up to $1.7 billion if Skype would have met targets for users.

At the same time, eBay announced that Zennström and Friis will leave the company but while the former is leaving CEO post for a nonexecutive chairman post in board of directors, the latter will no longer play a role in the company. This situation leave both them more time to spend on Joost!

BitTorrent is planning to use its widely used file-sharing software to launch a legal download site, called the BitTorrent Entertainment Network, that will distribute more than 5,000 titles including digital movies, TV shows, games and other media.

Considering that BitTorrent have got a well-deserved reputation for quickly file distribuition and an existing user based of 135 million, they could be a serious competitor for the increasing online video market, which current heavy players as YouTube, Joost, Babelgum, Brightcove among others.

The battle’s just begun and another important issue is to reach agreements with content owners. Joost has just partnered with Viacom so has BitTorrent with Hollywood studios like 20th Century Fox, Lions Gate and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios. What comes next? Only time will tell.

Tons have been talked lately about whether YouTube’s video about how to get into Google TV is hoax or reality. Well, it is still not clear if it is hoax or reality. Some people claim that it is an amazing hoax while other people are conceited to have got a Google TV account.

Anyway, I believe that even if *this* Google TV is hoax, it will be a reality soon. Looks like, after social networks revolution, IPTV (TV over Internet) is the next big revolution and such player as Google won’t be out of this business.

Evidences? Friis and Zennstrom, the Skype and Kazaa guys, have recently launch Joost a new TV service based on peer-to-peer technologies. There is another new TV service called Babelgum, which combines social networking with TV viewing experience (web 2.0 with IPTV 1.0 ;-). Both, Joost and Babelgum are available only as a closed beta. There is also Apple with its Apple TV presented in last MacWorld Expo, a mixture between TiVo and an Internet computer. Even Bill Gates has been talking about this revolution lately while the brand new Windows Vista is more TV-oriented than ever (will Microsoft come next with Zune TV?).

Is there anybody out there who thinks that Google is not going to launch a “Google TV” service? What comes next? Only time will tell.

Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis are the creators of Skype and Kazaa, two of the most important (both but particularly the former one) Internet initiatives of the last years. Both products were a combination of new technologies and new defined protocols plus the needed new applications that together are part of new revolutionary services. Well, they did it again.

Joost, formerly Venice Project, is now a reality. It is also a new software application plus its relevant technology wrapping it that makes a new service but that’s from the technical boring side. Joost is, as said in its site:

A new way of watching TV that provides the best of both, the Internet and TV worlds.

They are still in beta phase looking for beta testers under application (and approval). You could also get into Joost by invitation. Look forward to watching it. What comes next? Only time will tell.