We're big fans of Rdio here, so when we heard that the guys behind it would be launching Vdio soon, we started licking our chops. Little is known about this service, but you can bet it's going for Netflix's jugular.
Janko Roettgers at GigaOM did some very nice sleuthing and confirmed that the recently launched Vdio.com is in fact the creation of the same guys that started Rdio, Skype, KaZaA, and Joost. There's very little on the site right now. It asks, "Are you watching?" and flashes scenes from A-list movies and TV shows like Dark Knight, Rebel Without a Cause, Enter the Dragon, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and others. It prompts you to log in using Facebook, but if you're in the states you get, "We're sorry but VDIO is currently available in the UK only." Do it from the UK, and it tells you that it's "coming soon."
Roettgers makes a couple of other great points. While Joost was a pretty major failure, the place they really fell down was a lack of good content. Judging by the movies and shows they're teasing on they're lining up content from Warner Bros., AMC, Showtime, Sony and Fox. That's a pretty nice haul. He also points out that the timing on this is pretty perfect, what with Netflix hemorrhaging users following their rate hike and subsequent failed DVD/streaming split, and Hulu is now suddenly not for sale (or actually, maybe it is?). We're excited to see what happens with this. [GigaOM]
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