Joost news

Joost are an IPTV company founded by the two clever cogs who brought us Kazaa and Skype. Hundreds of channels, available legally, free and worldwide. If it works, it will change everything. People will want their Flat screen TV’s to be “Joost ready” when they buy them.

In fact I applied for a job with Joost the other day, thats how much I believe in what they are doing over there. The fact that they haven’t got back to me, or that I haven’t been invited to their beta test hasn’t dulled my enthusiasm for the project either.

Today they revealed a massive deal with my current employers. They have signed with Viacom to show their programming on the fledgling Television platform. The very informal press release goes a little something like this:

Today we’re announcing a major partnership with Viacom. Which will bring programming and lots of channels from Viacom’s key brands and properties available on Joost on our imminent launch. MTV will offer popular shows, both past and present, including Laguna Beach, Beavis & Butthead, Real World, Punk’d and My Super Sweet Sixteen, while COMEDY CENTRAL will feature episodes from Stella, CCP’s and Freak
Show. Nickelodeon, CMT: Country Music Television, MTV2, Logo, Spike TV, mtvU, and Gametrailers.com will also provide content. VH1’s offerings will include episodes of Flavor of Love, Surreal Life, and I Love New York. BET’s Networks’ offerings will include some of its biggest shows, including Beef, DMX: Soul of a Man, Comic View and recent smash hit American Gangster. Also, Paramount Pictures, Paramount Vantage and Paramount Classics will be providing full-length feature films from its catalog of classics and recent releases.

If you are in the UK and none of that content takes your fancy (and apart from Stella, I don’t blame you if it doesn’t), yeserday’s Times reported that ITV are in talks with Joost, as are Channel 4. I thought Joost would be a rival for traditional TV networks, but if they embrace this, Joost’s real fight will be with cable and Satellite providers. Watch a short demo of Joost software below. and if you are reading this, people of Joost, stop stalling on the invite!