BOSTON--A New York-based start-up is trying to get ahead of the video-on-the-Internet wave, hoping not to get swamped.

Blip.tv was created by five friends in May 2005 to provide an easy way for amateur content creators to get video on the Internet. Unlike YouTube, which posts user-generated videos for maximum short-term impact, blip.tv features episodic content that attracts a regular audience and includes advertising and sponsorships.

“The great thing about TV over IP is that it allows anybody with a $200 camcorder to produce a show people will want to watch,” said Mike Hudack, blip.tv CEO. “We provide the infrastructure to help people distribute these shows. They worry about the creative content, and we have the software that lets them put content on the Internet. Plus we sell the ads, sponsorships, etc.”

At VON this week, blip.tv announced a deal with Akimbo which will put the IP content onto TV sets as well, through the Akimbo set-tops boxes. RSS feeds may become a standard way of putting IP video onto TVs, Hudack said, although that isn’t certain.

With the movement of major players such as AOL into the video game, blip.tv could well find itself swimming with the big boys--or a target of acquisition.

“Video over IP and IPTV are going to be huge markets, and we think there will be niches for multiple players,” Hudack said.

Right now, blip.tv is making more money licensing its software platform to companies such as CNN and CondeNast to enable them to quickly put user-generated content on the Web, but the company expects ad revenue to become its biggest source of income, he added.