More legal wrangles in Italy… Silvio Scaglia, the founder of online video portal Babelgum and the former CEO and founder of Italian broadband ISP Fastweb, has been named as one of 56 people issued with warrants in a money laundering investigation in Italy. Authorities allege that individuals at Fastweb and…

Is billionaire investor Silvio Scaglia‘s inclination to keep bankrolling Babelgum running out? The video service is shutting its Dublin HQ and Nice office, paidContent:UK has learned and confirmed. We also heard its New York operation is being wound down, but the company says the office there will stay open. Update:…

Is this a sign of greater collaboration to come amongst YouTube’s chasing pack? Metacafe likes Babelgum’s iPhone app so much, it has picked the underlying template to power its own free iPhone app, available from today.

Video service Babelgum has redesigned again, finally going Flash-only, and has unveiled its mobile app for the US market. The company - which is located between Dublin, Milan, London and Nice - in November moved from relying on a downloadable app to going in-browser, but still required a small downloadable…

—iTunes HD UK: After Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) made ABC’s Lost its first HD addition to the UK iTunes Store last month, now BBC Worldwide is adding the first homegrown HD production there. Planet Earth is selling for a pricey £2.49 per episode or £24.99 for the series - pretty steep,…

Babelgum’s chief operating officer Michael O’Callaghan is to leave the P2P online video platform, we have learned and confirmed with the company - just the latest senior-level switch this year. O’Callaghan is based in Dublin in his native Ireland, where the company is headquartered for tax reasons. The company will…

Under-the-spotlight Babelgum has quietly promoted its chief technical architect Egidio Corsini to be its new chief technology officer (CTO), hoping to bury a year of animosity between its tech team and its new leadership. The heavily-funded outfit is also hiring general managers for each of its five key content areas.…

—NI appoints digital business director: Tiscali commercial and media director Alex Hole is moving over to News International where he has been recently appointed to head up its recently consolidated digital trading business. Hole, who spent seven years at Tiscali, starts on November 1 and is charged with developing the…

Swooping in to give the VOD platform the attractive content it needs, BBC Worldwide has done a deal to provide three new branded channels on the Babelgum platform from next week. Short-form shows including David Attenborough docs and the inevitable Top Gear will all include ads and will run across…

Babelgum has done a deal with PBS to get 100 hours of programming from the American public broadcaster. It’s particularly championing Scientific American Frontiers, an 18-episode science series. A PBS channel launched on the struggling Dublin/London/Milan/Nice-based P2P video platform today, available in North America. The pair said it’s PBS’ largest…

The BBC and ITV (LSE: ITV) have sought the advice of lawyers to determine whether the deep-linking that online TV listings site TVguide.co.uk does to their online video streaming is legal or not, reports nma.co.uk. TVguide.co.uk, which has some 1 million unique visitors a month responsible for some 8 million…

It seems Babelgum is enjoying the search for quality content so much, it’s becoming a content company. The heavily-financed P2P platform is creating a 10 million euro (£7.64 million) fund to invest in 15-minute new and exclusive productions, “transforming (us) into a digital media studio”, according to the press officer…

Is Babelgum‘s bubblegum bursting? Three months after CTO Mallku Caballero quit the well-funded Dublin-based P2P TV startup, now chief technical architect Gianni Scenini tells us he has also gone. Caballero quit in November saying he “did not fully adhere to the vision and to the management style brought in by…

BT (NYSE: BT) Vision’s director of business affairs Mark Cranwell is joining Babelgum as director of content strategy. Babelgum has tried to differentiate itself from similar platforms like Joost with a leaning toward indie films - a kind of content for which you’d think producers would be happy to get…

Well-financed P2P TV platform Babelgum is seeking a new chief technology officer after the departure of its second senior member in two months.  We have confirmed with Babelgum in Milan that CTO Mallku Caballero left the outfit around a month ago; the company refused to give a reason. Caballero told…

Ireland-based, Italian-funded P2P TV platform Babelgum is pressing on with cosying up to independent movie producers. After September’s launch with Spike Lee of its own film festival for indies, it’s now partnering with the Encounters Short Film Festival (formerly Brief Encounters) over in Bristol to showcase productions on the net…

Joost will eventually reach the living room, isn’t planning a mobile launch but can expect more attention from one of its founding fathers. In Cannes for the Mipcom TV programming market, CEO Mike Volpi outlined the company’s strategy to paidContent:UK from a Riviera rooftop apartment. The overriding message - still…

Joost plans to begin testing add test live TV shows alongside its on-demand content in the first quarter of 2008. In an interview with paidContent:UK in Cannes, content strategy and acquisition EVP Yvette Alberdingkthijm said the programming has been arranged for testing, though she declined to identify the source. Alberdingkthijm…

Some major executive turnover is afoot at Ireland-based, Italian-backed online video startup Babelgum: Erik Lumer, one of the co-founders of the startup, has left the company to become the CEO of RawFlow, a P2P streaming technology specialist. Lumer had already been taking more of a backseat at Babelgum in the…