Last month we reported on the Beta launch (invite only) of VeohTV, a full-screen online video application which is pitching itself as a more ‘open’ alternative to the likes of Joost or Babelgum. Rather than being restricted to formal licensing agreements, VeohTV pulls in videos from thousands of sources — which currently includes NBC, CBS, FOX, YouTube, MySpace, and Veoh’s own video-sharing site — with content browsable via a cable TV-style program guide. However, it was only today that I finally got a chance to test-drive the (PC-only) application.

Zattoo is an Internet TV service which, like Joost and Babelgum, utilizes peer-to-peer technology to deliver streaming video to a PC. However, that’s where most of the similarities end. For a start, Zattoo isn’t an on-demand affair, and instead offers live streaming of existing ‘over-the-air’ and cable channels. And rather than attempting to re-create the lean-back experience of traditional television, the service is more at home used in a multi-tasking environment, where users watch television in one window on their computer, while accomplishing other tasks in another, such as chatting to friends over IM, surfing the web or writing email.