Babelgum's Multimillion-Dollar Original Content Push
Babelgum, the shape-shifting video startup that has yet to find its true calling, has been making a new bet as of late: original content. Backed by Italian telecom entrepreneur Silvio Scaglia, the company started focusing on U.S. content with a browser-based relaunch in April.
Context & Ripple Effects
Babelgum entered online video in 2007 as the P2P challenger in the head-to-head with Joost, and has since drifted through formats without finding a durable position. A browser-based relaunch in April shifted its focus toward U.S. audiences, and founder-backer Silvio Scaglia's telecom fortune is now underwriting a multimillion-dollar push into producing its own shows rather than licensing other people's.
The move lands in a market where peers have been choosing sides between aggregation and ownership: Jaman pushed its catalog onto AppleTV to reach viewers through devices, while Babelgum is betting that exclusive originals are what makes a destination worth visiting directly.
First-order effects
- Production budgets flow to filmmakers and creators who gain a funded outlet outside traditional TV, while Babelgum's library shifts from licensed filler to content it controls outright.
- Rivals like Joost face a competitor whose differentiation no longer rests on technology or distribution deals they can replicate, but on exclusive programming they cannot license away.
Second-order effects
- If originals drive traffic, competing video portals are pushed into their own content-spending arms race or into deeper device partnerships like Jaman's AppleTV route to reach audiences they cannot own.
- Ad-technology vendors such as Digitalsmiths stand to win as newly commissioned web series need targeting and measurement tools to justify brand spend against television budgets.
Third-order effects
- The pattern points toward online video consolidating around owned intellectual property rather than aggregation — a structure where platforms that fund originals capture both audience loyalty and catalog value, while pure distributors compete on reach alone.
- Wealthy individual backers like Scaglia become a meaningful funding class for media ventures, insulating content bets from venture-capital return timelines that favor faster exits.
The trend: Online video platforms are shifting from aggregating licensed content to financing original programming as the primary means of differentiation.