Joost shows more promise with CBS deal

Joost (pronounced ‘juiced’) has been the talk of the internet for months now, and is really starting to ramp up the publicity as of late. I was invited to beta test Juiced two or three weeks ago and have spent a little bit of time playing around with it. These are my impressions:

From What’s Joost?:

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.

They get it pretty much right with their description, but they leave out a few fundamental differences between television the way we know it, and television the way Joost wants us to know it. While Joost does have channels (actually, a lot of them, but more on that later), they aren’t channels in the current sense. You can’t just tune into a channel and have the day’s programming continue playing. You choose a channel, then choose a show on that channel you want to watch. If you don’t change the channel or pick a different show, it will pick another show from the channel you are on. While similar, it is not the same.

Although I haven’t spent as much time playing around with Joost as I would like, one of the big things I’ve noticed is that there isn’t much in the way of advertising—yet. It is clear and should be painfully obvious that this will change as Joost expands both it’s user and content bases.

On the content base topic, while we’re there, Joost is doing very well for themselves so far. Joost currently sports a lineup of more than 75 channels, including some household names: BET; Fifth Gear; Guiness World Records TV; IndyCar Series; MTV; MuchMusic; National Geographic; VH1 and more.

However, the biggest news on the content front was announced just yesterday: CBS will be offering a ton of its top content on Joost. For free.

This CBS deal marks a huge milestone for Joost as it marks the first time they’ve inked an agreement with one of the top over-the-air networks. The major deal, however, is not exclusive. CBS will also be licensing its content to AOL, Microsoft, CNET, Comcast and others. Notably absent from this list is Google, and especially YouTube, where CBS has been providing some content since September of 2006.

If Joost can come to an agreement with at least one more of the major networks (NBC, ABC or FOX, specifically) and keep the program free (well, ad supported, but what TV isn’t?) I can see it really take off. I expect my Joost viewing time to sharply increase as soon as the good stuff from CBS is added, and I’m sure it will for a lot of other people as well.

Joost still has a sign up for their beta program available, and if you’re at all interested I would suggest going for it. It took months for me to get my invitation but I think they’re ramping up their invites as they get closer to public release (now at version 0.9.2).

UPDATE May 2, 2007: If you would like to receive an invitation to download the Joost beta, leave a comment with your first and last name, and fill in the email box with a working email address. If that doesn't work for you, drop an email to stephen [at] tooreal [dot] net, with your full name and email address. I'll make it happen. - SG

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