The service is expected to launch next year and is being tested by about 6,000 individuals, Mr Friis said. At present, it has attracted few big-name channels, and the company would not disclose its partners, but one person close to Warner Music confirmed it was using the service to create channels for some of its artists, including Paris Hilton.

Mr Friis said he hoped to provide outlets for traditional broadcasters, independent producers who struggle to reach a global audience, national broadcasters wanting to reach expatriate audiences and entertainment companies looking for new ways to promote their acts.

The Venice Project, in true Web 2.0 startup style, has a blog which explains better than almost anything else (which is not a very high bar) what precisely is on offer and how it works. It would seem to be precisely what Jeff Jarvis calls "Exploding TV" and what the new Om Malik blog newteevee is intended to cover, although as of this post I can find nothing on either site about it.

Probably the most controversial part - although it seems to me to be common sense - is that this project will eschew all DRM. This is a good thing because DRM simply makes it harder to entice viewers and this project is all about attracting viewers and getting paid via advertising (i.e. the google/youtube model) rather than pay-per-view.