Startup, Akimbo, Announces Plans
for Internet-Based VOD Service

At the recent Demo show in Scottsdale, Arizona, a new company called Akimbo--founded by former ReplayTV exec, Steve Shannon, based in San Mateo, California, and funded to the tune of $5 million by Draper Fisher, the Sprout Group and Zone Ventures--announced plans to roll out a "DVD-quality" subscription VOD service, that will allow consumers with an ADSL or cable-modem connection to view Internet-based programming on their television sets.

According to the company, the service, which is scheduled to launch in May, will provide more than 20,000 hours of video, organized into 50 categories, such as independent films, foreign- language programming, health and fitness, sports, children's programming, and educational programming. The company says that much of the service's programming will be niche content which has never before been available on TV, though that it expects to offer more mainstream content at a later stage. It also hopes to eventually make it possible for end-users to upload their own videos to its servers for download by other users.