TV over internet service Joost is finally available - but so far only for friends of the original beta testers. The rest of you will have to wait another few days before seeing what all the fuss is about.
Joost yesterday confirmed deals with Time Warner , Sony and NHL (National Hockey League). Among the content is news from CNN , TV shows like Charlie's Angels and Starsky & Hutch, as well as highlights from various NHL icehockey games.
It has also signed up 30 major advertisers ahead of its public launch this week. Among the advertisers are Hewlett-Packard , Microsoft , Coca-Cola, Nike, and Visa.
Open for business
"Today marks the beginning of an exciting phase for Joost; we are officially open for business," said David Clark, executive vice president of global advertising for Joost, in a statement .
"We're enabling our viewers to share Joost with their friends and family, and we're working collaboratively with the world's leading advertisers and agencies to design a new ad model for the next generation of television."
Joost is the latest project from Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, the men behind internet telephony service Skype , and file-sharing network Kazaa . It aims to be a legal source for TV over the internet, without loss of quality. It offers some 150 channels of video content.
P2P
Joost streams videos of TV shows using peer-to-peer technology over the internet. You pick what TV channel you want to watch via the Joost interface on your desktop, which is similar to a remote control. Joost is free to use but is advertisment-supported.
Most of the content is targeted towards US audiences but Joost confirmed that more shows for an international audience will be added "in the coming months".
The beta version of Joost has been around for a few months now. Beta testers have been able to invite a limited amount of friends to test the service. That barrier is now gone, and beta testers can invite as many people as they want to use Joost.
