Zingarelli, in Babelgum’s statement to paidContent:UK says…

“I feel that an important phase of the Babelgum development has been completed successfully. My mission when I joined in July 2007 was to transform an ambitious but fragile start-up into an established company following best industry practices, respecting deadlines and meeting goals, with a very efficient cost structure and a distinctive content and channel strategy. I think that these objectives have been achieved”.

Funded by Italian telecoms billionaire Silvio Scaglia, Babelgum was originally started up in 2005 with Erik Lumer at the CEO helm. But Lumer was swapped in 2007 for Zingarelli, in a move that prefaced the exits of the company’s chief technology officer, chief architect and chief operating officer.

Valenti became CMO the same year. She had previously run press relations at Scaglia’s FastWeb and her previous experience is all PR, though Babelgum says she “led the group’s IPO”.

In November 2009, the service opted to cut costs by closing its Dublin HQ and Nice office to consolidate at its London, Milan and New York offices; its New York-based executive vice president left.

Under Zingarelli, Babelgum has dropped its original desktop application for a Flash web player and has continued aggregating and commissioning what, for what many such sites, is unusual amount of original documentaries and more in the categories of film, music, comedy, earth and metropolis.

Brooklyn video maker Adam Quirk conceived the event as spectacle, using a Kickstarter page to raise money for the Gulf Disaster Fund.

But it was Babelgum, the video site funded by Italian telecoms billionaire Silvio Scaglia, which sent its own camera crew and is hosting the video. It also donated $2,000.

Babelgum’s own content commissioning fund has backed several environmental documentaries.

The service capped a couple of years of executive reshuffle by closing its Dublin HQ and Nice office in November in a bid to save costs.

Authorities allege that individuals at Fastweb and Sparkle (the international carrier unit of Telecom Italia) funneled more than

We also heard its New York operation is being wound down, but the company says the office there will stay open. Update: Word reaches us that NY-based EVP and chief revenue officer Michael Rosen has left; his bio has been removed and sales queries are instead directed to Seth Graeber.

Operations from the other two offices will be consolidated across Babelgum’s London, Milan and New York offices. Staff were notified on Thursday. The company isn’t giving us a number on job losses.

– When Babelgum was moving up the gears in 2007, the Dublin office employed over 50, and Babelgum intended to employ more than 100 there.

– Nice was Babelgum’s primary development centre, responsible for its original P2P system, desktop app and iPhone app; it employs around 15, according to a source. Milan only has a third of that and there’s concern development may now need to slow if staff there are to take on the extra systems work. Still, much of Babelgum’s tech work has been done, the rest is about content.

Babelgum tells paidContent:UK: “This decision allows Babelgum to streamline its approach, improve its cost effectiveness and ensure its continued growth in future years. Babelgum will keep developing apps on a large scale from other locations (Milan, in particular, where a large part of its tech team has always been based). Despite the current economic downturn, Babelgum remains one of the very few aggressive players in the new media market.”

The move has come swiftly – it was only on October 27 that Babelgum advertised for a senior sysadmin in Dublin. Dublin-based COO Michael O’Callaghan left 12 months ago and, according to the company’s exec list, hadn’t been replaced.

It looks like a wind-down of the company or a big cost-cutting exercise. One rumour is Scalgia may move Babelgum away from video distribution and focus more on content production.

Scalgia, rich from selling Fastweb to Swisscom, started Babelgum with scientist Erik Lumer in 2005 and is thought to have invested tens of millions of his own euros each year.

But Babelgum has had to work hard to differentiate itself – dropping its P2P desktop app for a Flash web player, focusing on five key content channels and particularly courting independent film and documentary makers with a

Metacafe likes Babelgum’s iPhone app so much, it has picked the underlying template to power its own free iPhone app, available from today.

In return, Babelgum is getting the opportunity to host its professional film commissions through Metacafe’s app, as well as in a Babelgum-branded area of the Metacafe site and in Metacafe’s subject-specific video sections.

It’s a surprise move; two video aggregators collaborating. And it’s also a recognition that Babelgum is not only only a platform but also a producer – its production wing finances the making of several independent documentaries and the company is trying to focus on the independent shorts sector.

Metacafe CEO Erick Hachenburg, in the release, calls it a “win-win”. Babelgum CEO Valerio Zingarelli says “both companies are ensured maximum visibility”. Metacafe already has a number of branded channels for outlets like Hulu, CBS (NYSE: CBS) and ITN.

In a crowded online market, Babelgum, which lost several senior execs in 2007 and 2008, has been searching for what it should become. It has targeted the indie film and documentary segment in particular and seems intent on gaining traction in mobile video. It says it will unveil apps for the G1 phone this month and follow-up HTC Dream next month, with BlackBerry Storm, Samsung Omnia, Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N97 and 5800 to come. It began its mobile ambitions in December when it partnered with Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) in the UK and Italy to make data transfer free from its service to its new iPhone and Symbian S60 apps. CEO Valerio Zingarelli, in the release, said Babelgum had found success localizing mobile programming in the UK and Italy: “We

– ITN on iPhone: ITN’s incredibly busy ITN On multimedia division is getting yet another distribution outlet, unveiling an iPhone app for its news video. ITN says the app is the most downloaded free news app, and the eighth overall, from iTunes Store in the week since it went live. It includes UK, world, sport and trivia stories, each shareable with friends.

– Babelgum: The VOD service is doing another deal to get independent films on-site. It’s hooked up with digital distributor Content Republic to get rights for 24 indie world flicks as online exclusives. Two of the films will be added per month, starting in May. The exclusive window lasts one month.

Last month Kangaroo had made its proposal in response to the commission’s range of options, offering to give up the exclusive rights to its content. Kangaroo said two other proposals – reverting content rights back to producers and giving access to rivals – would make the project unworkable.

Babelgum highlighted the commission’s concerns that UK VOD players could be disadvantaged when seeking syndication deals, saying Kangaroo’s rivals could be exploited through unrealistic prices for BBC, ITV and C4 content. “The only way to fully address the concerns identified above with the least cost impact would be to prohibit the JV,” the statement says

In the event that the commission does give Kangaroo the green light after hearing further views before its February 8 deadline, Babelgum conceded that limiting the JV’s ability to wholesale catch-up content and allowing content rights to revert back to producers would “go some way towards meeting certain Babelgum concerns”. But the existence of Kangaroo at all would still distort the market and prevent new entrants to it, it said, echoing earlier concerns of rivals.

Babelgum quietly launched its iPhone app globally, certified by Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) a few days ago, around the same time its big P2P TV rival Joost did the same thing. But, unlike Joost’s app – and unlike that under development by live TV streamer Livestation – Babelgum’s will work over 3G as well as WiFi. Vodafone, which carries iPhone 3G in Italy, is eliminating the data charge. Babelgum will also tomorrow launch a version for Nokia N95 and 6210 via Vodafone’s live! portal, with an N96 version to follow, and is investigating an Android version. Though Vodafone doesn’t have the iPhone in the UK, the data arrangement applies there, too. Vodafone will market the app through its portal and direct to customers.

Almost all content from the web-based Babelgum is accessible through the mobile apps, but not some shows for which it doesn’t have mobile rights, and the service will focus on promoting short-form content of 30 seconds to five minutes. Content will also be tailored for British and Italian audiences and will include concerts from the Coldplay and Kaiser Chiefs. Playlists created on the web version also appear in users’ palms through the mobile version.

For Babelgum, which is heavily backed by Italian telecoms billionaire Silvio Scaglia but has replaced three of its top executives in just over a year, this is a commercial trial to examine how viewers use its normally web-based TV service on mobile. The iPhone app comes with some nifty features – shaking the handset refreshes the program listings, and users can click to share shows via Facebook and Bebo.