Babelgum, the free-to-view global television network, is today announcing the launch of its new Web TV platform. The new, fully redesigned interface incorporates a whole host of new popular Web 2.0 features and social networking tools. Additionally, the platform is now compatible on Macs as well as with Windows XP and Vista operating systems.

With this new platform, viewers can now join one of three Babelgum Communities: Films & Festivals, Motorcycling and Nature & Conservation, these three being the first of a series to come. Each of these niche collaborative environments includes video clips, an interactive message board, and links to custom profiles of other members that share an interest in the subject area.

Furthermore users can now create and manage new niche communities as well as customize their own profiles, saving their favorites and creating their own personal video playlists.

Valerio Zingarelli, CEO of Babelgum comments, “At Babelgum we are committed to giving our viewers the best experience possible. The new site sophistication, along with an ever burgeoning content library certainly ensures we are giving our users what they want and when they want to view it but with much greater ease and enjoyment.”

With the introduction of communities, the new platform makes content available to users in the widest and most meaningful way possible to them. In addition to communities, content is accessible through the traditional genre or branded Channels within the channel directory; the search engine; the smart channels (created by each user and personalized according to their interests and passions); and the most watched, rated videos.

Other features of the new Babelgum Web TV platform include:

 An advanced search function which provides an automatic selection of keyword options as users type in search terms, and allows viewers to search by best-rated and most-watched.

 ‘Most popular’ are now the result of an enhanced collaborative filtering that ranks video on the basis of implicit (most watched) as well as explicit (most positively rated) choices.





 Babelgum users are now also able to share content with their friends, and embed video on personal Web sites, blogs and in outside social networks such as MySpace and Facebook.

A full content management system is now available to professional content producers, rights owners and program partners to easily manage and monetize their assets. This feature includes:

 Video Preview (opportunity to see video online before they are approved for Babelgum use);

 Working copy (content owners can modify their clip while it is published on the system without having to remove it and upload again);

 Autotag (content owners can now freely tag their content to ensure it can be easily found and therefore viewed by Babelgum users);

 Multiple upload facility (producers can schedule the simultaneous upload of multiple pieces of content, not having to repeat the operation for each single piece).

Babelgum’s Web TV platform is available at www.babelgum.com. After following simple instructions to download the software, users will have access to the services and wide-ranging content including the 1000-plus short film entries recently made available as part of the Babelgum Online Film Festival.