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Joost- The Next Step In TV Evolution?

May 10, 2007 by: UKStevieB

Joost TV Have you heard of Joost? It has had quite a lot of publicity of late and it looks like it may well be the next step in the evolution of on-line entertainment. If you are not sure what Joost is, here is a description from their website:
Joost is a new way of watching TV on the internet. With Joost, you get all the things you love about TV, including a high-quality full-screen picture, hundreds of full-length shows and easy channel-flipping. You get great internet features too, such as search, chat and instant messaging, built right into the program - so you find shows quickly and talk to your friends while you watch. And with no schedules to worry about, you can watch whatever you want, whenever you like - as often as you want. Joost is completely free, and works with most modern PCs and Intel Mac-based computers with a broadband connection.
It is the brain-child of created by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, the founders of founders of Skype and Kazaa, so these guys have some experience in the development of web technology. The original financing for the development of Joost was from the sale of Skype to eBay, but more recently they have also raised an additional $45m in funding from five backers (Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Li Ka Shing Foundation, CBS and Viacom) in exchange for a minority share in the company. The application works as a P2P TV client, which if you are a bit of a technology dummy like me doesn't mean much, so here is the explanation from Wikipedia:
As opposed to streaming technology in which all clients get the feed from the server, P2P TV technology differs in the sense that the servers serve only a handful of clients; each of the clients in turn propagate the stream to more downstream clients and so on. This moves the distribution costs from the channel owner to the user.
Which means, as far as I can tell, the more people that use it the better the service is, as there is less strain on the original file. To download the application itself you need to receive an invitation from someone who already has it, similar to the way Gmail used to work. The invites were limited to only 3 per participant but as of the beginning of this month invitations to join Joost have been made unlimited, though it is still in Beta. I have been using it for the last month or so and it seems to work pretty well, and with more and more channels being added it seems to have something for everyone. If you would like to try this out you can receive an invite from me by letting me know in the comments below. With a reasonably fast connection the download only takes a couple of minutes and the set-up takes even less time. Listed below are the channels available and the areas they are available in as of the 10th May 2007.
  • 88HipHop: Worldwide
  • Aardman Animation: Worldwide
  • Adult Swim: United States
  • Alliance Atlantis Sci-Fi: Worldwide excluding Canada
  • Atlantic Street: United States
  • AXN: United States
  • Bad Boy Records Presents: United States
  • Beauty TV: Worldwide
  • Best of National Geographic: United States, Canada
  • Beyond the Pit: United States
  • Bite TV: Worldwide
  • BoomChicago: Worldwide
  • Braindead: Worldwide
  • Brazilian Music Channel: Worldwide
  • Bridezillas: Worldwide excluding United States
  • Bugeye Music: Worldwide
  • Channel Frederator: Worldwide
  • Chat the Planet: Worldwide
  • Classica Channel: Worldwide excluding Austria, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland
  • Comedy Central: United States
  • Critical Shorts: Worldwide
  • DR: Worldwide
  • Explora Channel: Worldwide
  • Fabchannel Concerts: Worldwide
  • Fifth Gear: United States
  • Fifth Gear Shortcuts: Worldwide
  • Fight Network: Worldwide
  • Floating Worlds: Worldwide
  • Fueled by Ramen: United States
  • Funny Bone: United States
  • G.I. Joe: United States
  • GameStar: Worldwide
  • Gametrailers: United States
  • GONG: North America, Europe
  • Guinness World Records TV: Worldwide
  • Havoc Action Sports TV: Worldwide excluding Japan
  • Havoc Music TV: Worldwide excluding Japan
  • HealthiNation: Worldwide
  • Heavy Animation: United States
  • Hollyoaks: United States
  • Hot & Wet Worldwide
  • i-concerts: United Kingdom
  • IMF Asia: Worldwide
  • IMF Australia: Worldwide
  • IMF France: Worldwide
  • IMF Germany: Worldwide
  • IMF Hip Hop Society: Worldwide
  • IMF Italy: Worldwide
  • IMF Journey to the Centre of the Rock: Worldwide
  • IMF Mexico: Worldwide
  • IMF One World: Worldwide
  • IMF Passage To India: Worldwide
  • IMF Puerto Rico: Worldwide
  • IMF Scandinavia: Worldwide
  • IMF Spain: Worldwide
  • IMF The Bridge- Latin America: Worldwide
  • IMF The World's Best Music: Worldwide
  • IMF UK: Worldwide
  • IndieFlix Premier Hits: Worldwide
  • Indy 500 Films: Worldwide
  • IndyCar Series: Worldwide
  • Intimate & Interactive: Worldwide
  • Joost Suggests Worldwide
  • Jump Off TV: Worldwide
  • Jump TV Arabia: Worldwide excluding Middle East
  • Jump TV Latino: Worldwide excluding Latin America, Canada
  • Lassie: United States
  • Lazy TV: United States
  • Lazy TV UK: Worldwide
  • Lime: Worldwide
  • Live @ Much: Worldwide
  • Logo: United States
  • LXTV: Worldwide
  • Ministry of Sound TV- Access All Areas: Worldwide
  • Ministry of Sound TV- Music Videos: Worldwide
  • MTV: United States
  • MTV (International): Selected countries in Europe, South America, US and Japan
  • MTV Staying Alive: Worldwide excluding United Kingdom, Ireland
  • Much Does Wakestock: Worldwide
  • MuchAdrenaline: Worldwide
  • MuchMusic Video Awards: Worldwide
  • MuchNews Weekly: Worldwide
  • MuchOnDemand: Worldwide
  • Music Nation: Worldwide
  • Nardwuar: Worldwide
  • National Geographic History and Exploration: United States, Canada
  • National Geographic People and Places: United States, Canada
  • National Geographic Wild: United States, Canada
  • National Geographic Animals and Nature: United States, Canada
  • Nettwerk: Worldwide
  • New Atlantis: Worldwide
  • Off the Fence Docs: Worldwide
  • OnSet: Worldwide
  • PokerHeaven TV: Worldwide
  • Red Bull: Worldwide
  • Rehearsals.com: Worldwide
  • Ren and Stimpy: United States
  • Reuters: Worldwide
  • Rhino Records: United States
  • Roadrunner Records: United States
  • Saavn: Worldwide
  • Saturday Morning TV: Worldwide
  • SecondsOut.tv: Worldwide
  • SHORTSTV: Worldwide
  • SHORTSTV Corto: Worldwide
  • SHORTSTV France: Worldwide
  • Snowvision: Worldwide
  • Spike TV: United States
  • Sports Illustrated Swimsuit on Demand: Worldwide
  • Terra: Worldwide
  • The Circus Channel: Worldwide excluding Italy
  • The Fit Show: Worldwide
  • The Hobby Channel: Worldwide
  • The Horror Channel: Worldwide
  • The New Music: Worldwide
  • The Recipe Channel: Worldwide excluding Spain, Portugal
  • The Roger Sisters: Worldwide
  • The Silent Movies Channel: Worldwide
  • The Soccer Channel: Europe, United States, Middle East
  • The Trance Channel: Worldwide
  • The Westside Eclectic: Worldwide
  • Transformers: United States
  • Travelistic: Worldwide
  • U.S. Soccer: Worldwide
  • VH1: United States
  • Virgin Fest 2006: Worldwide
  • VOY TV: Worldwide
  • Wall to Wall Documentary: Worldwide
  • Wall to Wall Lifestyle: Worldwide
  • Warner Bros. Records: United States
  • Watchmojo.com: Worldwide
  • Whereitast.tv: Worldwide
  • WildLight: Worldwide
  • Witness: Worldwide
  • World Championship Sports Network: United States
  • World Poker Tour: Worldwide excluding United States
  • World's Strongest Man: Worldwide
  • XL Recordings Channel: Worldwide
Take it for a test run and be part of the next step in TV evolution.

Topics: News Bites, Testing |

9 Responses to “Joost- The Next Step In TV Evolution?”

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    Posted by: the face behind the blog at reflections on May 11th, 2007 at 12:26 am

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    Posted by: The Silent Movies Channel" stream - Eniro on May 13th, 2007 at 12:30 am

  3. could you please send me an invitation to join Joost?

    Cheers
    James

    Posted by: James Whitehead on June 22nd, 2007 at 8:54 am

  4. Hi James, thank you for stopping by, I hope you visit again, in the meantime enjoy your Joost, your invite should be in your inbox, if not then check your spam folder in case it has been mislabeled. Joost seems to be coming along very well at the moment, I’m sure you will have lots of fun with it.

    Posted by: UKStevieB on June 22nd, 2007 at 12:44 pm

  5. May I please join Joost?
    email boki3jaki at gmail dot com
    Thank You

    Posted by: Boki Jaki on July 22nd, 2007 at 2:11 am

  6. Your invite is in the mail. ;-) Hope you enjoy Joost, I know i do!

    Posted by: UKStevieB on July 22nd, 2007 at 9:37 am

  7. I have been part of the initial testers and looks promising so far. Now, the content has to be built up so we have more interesting channels.

    Posted by: Traveller on August 20th, 2007 at 11:30 am

  8. Hi StevieB.,
    I would like an invite if possible. Sounds great. Dig your site too. I’m still working on getting the hang of mine, nothing much yet but it’s coming. Thanks allot.
    Steve

    Posted by: Steve on October 3rd, 2007 at 8:33 am

  9. could you please send me an invitation to join Joost?

    Posted by: google reklam on April 10th, 2008 at 12:55 am

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