Babelgum joins the many companies in the P2P streaming space. The most recent and notable is Joost with its pedigree of wealthy founders who sold Skype.

Babelgum brings a lot to bear as well. Founder Silvio Scaglia sold a quarter of his stake in Fastweb, an Italian ISP, for about $300 million. The service is similar to Joost. It's oriented to high quality for IPTV, uses P2P for share distribution, and doesn't allow users to save video or share other files.

Babelgum has something Joost doesn't, a 'smart channel' similar to Tivo that airs recommended programs based on what you've seen in the past. Babelgum however does not yet have any major content providers, unlike Joost which has deals with Warner Music and Viacom.