Skype may expand into online video

• The telecoms group will launch a set-top box that will enable users to download programmes over broadband internet lines.
• Skype's foray into content distribution starts today with the launch of Personalise Skype, a feature that means that callers can receive and send pictures, sounds and ringtones over the Skype network.
• Part of the message we want to send out is that Skype is open for business and that people, third parties, can work with Skype to provide content."
• Skype also announced the full release of a call-forwarding service that allows people to forward free internet calls to mobile phones or a conventional landline for 1p a minute.
• Ringtones might be just a "first move" into content for Skype, but they are a significant market in their own right.
• Ringtones now account for more than 10 per cent of the $32.3 billion worldwide music market, according to industry estimates.
• It is to explore advertising models where its clients pay for sales leads via Skype calls.
• However, Skype also appears to be be moving towards becoming a platform for online video content in a move that could eventually see it square up against conventional television companies.
• Skype could offer a massive audience for content producers.
• Since its launch in August 2003, its software has been downloaded more than 174 million times in 225 countries and territories.
• Around 56 million people are registered to use Skype's free services, with more than 3 million people using Skype simultaneously at any one time, according to the company.
• Earlier this month, Terry Semel, the chief executive of Yahoo!, said he wanted to develop a global internet television network, and invited British broadcasters to provide programmes that his company could distribute.