The Internet TV space just got even more crowded.

Hewlett-Packard and Dave Networks (a white label IPTV provider) are teaming up to launch Next.TV, a P2P-based Internet TV service not dissimilar to Joost, Babelgum and — to a lesser extent — VoehTV.

According to PC Magazine, Next.TV will debut later this month as a software update for HP’s consumer notebooks running Microsoft Vista, and by early 2008 all of the company’s consumer notebooks will come pre-installed with the service. Eventually, the company plans to offer Next.TV to non-HP customers as a software download available from its website.

A Wall Street Journal article today says Sony is to challenge Apple in TV and movie downloads.

On one hand, that makes sense. Sony is carefully positioning its PlayStation 3 game console as the entertainment hub in people’s homes. The PlayStation Portable (PSP), linked to the PS3, provides the mobile view-on-the-go component, and Sony just last week introduced the first Walkmans that can play movies, trailers, and music video clips, in addition to playing music. Also in the mix is Sony’s line of Bravia televisions, which delivers the high-definition monitor to view content, either through the PS3 or a module connected to the TV that allows downloading of Internet content.

With Internet connections becoming faster and broadband more readily available, it makes sense that the downloading of television and movie content only increases in the coming years, perhaps even eclipsing the digital music market as some analysts are predicting.

Sony and its CEO, Howard Stringer, is betting big on video downloading.

NBC’s recent decision to end selling television shows through the iTunes store, is a reminder that, unlike digital music, Apple isn’t the undisputed king of online video. In fact, far from it. Aside from the numerous ad-supported video sites, of which YouTube is the industry leader, there exists a plethora of paid-for video download stores — both rental and purchase-to-own — each of which is hoping to take a large slice of this emerging and potentially lucrative market.

In this post, we take a look at eleven paid-for video download stores, noting that while there appears to be much competition, many of the resulting services lack innovation, in terms of their technology choices and how they approach copy-protection.

Movielink

Originally a joint venture created by five of the major studios: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Studios and Warner Bros. Studios, the service was recently acquired by Blockbuster. The content on offer includes television shows and movies from those studios, along with Walt Disney Pictures, Miramax, Lionsgate and others.

Although you can browse and pay for content from the Movielink website (which requires Internet Explorer), to download and manage videos, users need to install the Movielink Manager software. From then on it’s a standard Windows Media DRM affair, whereby rentals can be stored for up to 30 days and expire 24 hours after the first viewing, and in some cases, downloads can be played back on up to three PCs (depending on the original content-owners’ wishes), while others are limited to one PC.