“Working with Akimbo creates new markets and revenues for Reveille’s unique brand of entertainment,” said Ben Silverman, Reveille’s founder and chief executive officer. “We like to explore new ways to distribute our content, and Akimbo is well known for its compelling video collection and consumer-friendly Internet VOD service.”

The Akimbo service allows subscribers to download on-demand shows, movies and videos over the Internet, for viewing directly on TV. Akimbo will carry shows originally produced by Reveille for network TV, including “House Wars” and “Meet Mr. Mom”.

“Reveille is recognized in the industry for its innovative partnerships and award-winning programming,” said Anne Lakstigala, Akimbo’s head of acquisitions. “Akimbo helps Reveille unlock the archives of content, bringing some of the most talked-about shows in recent years to new and broader audiences.”

Reveille uses its relationships with broadcasters and producers to purchase, produce and distribute entertainment programming across the television spectrum. The deal between Reveille and Akimbo was brokered by UTA Online, a new broadband division of talent and literary agency UTA.

Akimbo features over 14,000 movies, TV series and shows from more than 200 content partners for watching on-demand TV. Subscribers can browse the site and chose from a variety of videos covering 100 categories.

The service is available on the RCA Akimbo Player, an Internet video-on-demand set-top box for $99 on Amazon.

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Of course, we’re guessing Dina got that spunk during her brief stint as a Kentuckian. She tells me she was a TV reporter at WAVE3 News in Louisville for three years (Louisville, by the way, is only really in Kentucky on Derby Day – we don’t care much for red birds and figure them Louisvillians can just be Hoosiers the rest of the time).

We caught up with Dina at the Podcast and Portable Media Expo to chat with her about her company. Blip.tv bills itself on its webpage as a video-sharing site. But it’s no YouTube, says Kaplan. Blip.tv hosts web video shows, not just “one-off” amateur videos, and helps promote and monetize them.

“You should have to worry about creativity. We’ll take care of the servers, the software, the workflow, the advertising and the distribution,” reads the About blip.tv page.

Kaplan also said the company just signed a deal with Akimbo to make Blip.tv content available on television through its remote-controlled, Internet-connected RCA Akimbo Player. Sounds like the Internet on your TV is pretty much here.

Unfortunately, Dina just informed me, Amanda Congdon blew straight by Kentucky while we were in California. Too bad for Amanda. Kentucky is only like the most beautiful dang-ol’ place in the world! And we can prove it. Stop and smell the goldenrod, it’ll be worth your while.

Watch the WebProNews Video interview with Dina Kaplan.

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San Mateo’s Akimbo Systems disclosed its latest round of fundraising brought in a couple of well-known names along with the cash infusion.

Both Cisco (CSCO) and AT&T (T) have gained a toehold in Akimbo, which does Internet video-on-demand service for television. Many see TV over IP as the next significant advance in Internet usage, and privately held Akimbo with its 12 patent applications on over 150 claims could be the player to enable it.

Users of the Microsoft Media Center 2005 system can already access the Akimbo service. Akimbo said it offers a collection of over 10,000 video and movies in about 100 different categories for its customers.

“These new investors position us perfectly for the future,” said Joshua Goldman, CEO of Akimbo. “Cisco and AT&T are emerging as two of the most innovative companies in the world in terms of creating new ways for video to reach consumers.”

The companies do provide impressive heft to Akimbo’s plans. Cisco ranks as the leading networking company while AT&T has returned to some of its pre-breakup telecom dominance with its melding into SBC and subsequent acquisition of BellSouth.

Akimbo will open for availability to AT&T Homezone subscribers, in a service scheduled to debut later in the summer of 2006. Other Akimbo plans include a set-top box from RCA released as part of Akimbo’s deal with RCA owner Thomson Corp.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

… and his new venture sounds exciting. As opposed to TiVo and Akimbo, Brightcove will not be going the hardware route to IP video, but rather, a software platform to span many, many devices:

“Instead of developing a hardware platform, the company will base everything it does on open standards, and will essentially be a software platform that will run on any kind of device – Microsoft Media Centers to TiVo to connected DVD players. In other words, he is gunning for a market that is the super nova of consumer-acquired devices.”

Om goes on to point out that this is not an option for large broadcasters, but rather for video bloggers and short film makers.

Article Link: BrightCove, the new IP Video platform

Nick Wilson is the publisher and founder of Threadwatch.org.

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