BY PAIGE MACGREGOR
Joost (pronounced ‘Juiced’) is a video web distribution system that uses P2P networking to stream television shows from networks like MTV (parent company Viacom, who snubbed Apple’s offer to carry MTV programming in the iTunes Movie Store, recently agreed to work with Joost), National Geographic and Comedy Central, as well as other forms of video, over the Internet and straight to your PC. Joost, the third major brainchild of Skype and Kazaa creators Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, is still in the beta-testing phase, impressive progress considering its mid-2006 conception as “The Venice Project,” functioning as an invitation-only, ad-supported television and video streaming service.
Due to the program’s apparent popularity, a form that allows interested individuals to request an invitation to the beta-testing platform appeared on the Joost Web site (www.Joost.com) on July 23. Only two days later, the number of Joost registered users jumped from 800,000-plus to well past the one-million-users mark.
Once launched (no official launch date has been announced, but the company is aiming for later this year), Joost will offer users an alternative to Apple’s near-monopolistic online video distribution network, comprised primarily of iTunes and video iPods. Unlike the iTunes Movie Store, Joost provides users with a completely different—and free—viewing experience, delivering content in a layout similar to TiVo. This full-screen, live streaming video service allows users near total control over the content at hand. In addition to high quality streaming television and video, Joost also offers users instant messaging, channel chat and search options designed to allow users to share their online television viewing experience with others.
At present, the company, based in London and headed by former Cisco executive Mike Volpi, plans to support itself via internet ads appearing in brief spots between programming and as small brand graphics embedded in the stream. Joost has also secured $45 million in additional initial funding from partner companies like Index ventures, the CBS Corporation and Viacom. As Joost’s popularity grows and an increasing number of consumers spend time watching television in front of the computer, rather than in the living room, more companies are expected to partner with Joost in order to exploit its relatively untapped advertising potential. This is good news for users, as it means that the service will probably remain free of charge even after Joost’s official release.
While some have pointed to Joost as the harbinger of death for online video sharing Web sites like YouTube, the concepts of these sites are fundamentally different. While Joost’s main competitors are the Apple iTunes Movie Store and other online television streaming programs, all of which offer products designed as portable, convenient substitutes for traditional television viewing, YouTube focuses on user-uploaded material, catering to anyone with video recording equipment and some free time.
Joost promises a growing list of content providers (in addition to those already named, the service has also secured partnership with VH1, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. and the HD men’s channel, Mojo), as well as exclusive television shows (the entire season of VH1’s new show I Hate My 30s, which premiered on VH1 July 26, was available on Joost as of July 16). The company has also promised, in a move that follows in the footsteps of the popular social networking Web site Facebook.com, that in the near future users will be able to write their own add-ons, customizing their Joost experience beyond which television and videos they want to watch and when.
