ZeroPaid.com » joost

Sony’s ‘YouTube killer’ to debut tomorrow

Jared Moya — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 01:26:45 +0000

Wants to gauge eyeVio’s reception in Japan first before it launches overseas.

Sensing an opportunity in the bustling world of online video distribution, Sony is scheduled to it try out its new “YouTube killer” tomorrow that will also allow users to upload and distribute their own videos.

“This is part of Sony’s quiet software revolution,” CEO Howard Stringer said at a news conference.

Sony plans to establish itself as an attractive destination for companies looking to release and publish content

Sony plans to eventually make a profit on the service through the sale of advertising and media company partnerships, both of which will be particularly attractive to companies because Sony plans to closely monitor the service for any copyright violations committed by users.

Google’s deep pockets have made YouTube an attractive target for companies like Viacom alleging rampant copyright violations, a selling point that Sony emphasizes won’t be a concern with eyeVio. Rather than companies having to monitor and report any copyright violations to Sony, Sony will be instead be pro-active and continuously monitor the site for any infractions on its own.

“We believe there’s a need for a clean and safe place where companies can place their advertisements,” Honma said.

Users will also be able to select who can view their content, and for how long.

I don’t know how Sony expects to sell this new service to users, I mean the whole allure of YouTube lies in the plethora (love that word) of content that is available. With the market for video streaming sites getting increasingly crowded, i.e. Joost and the expected NBC and News Corp. site, content could be a big issue for Sony.

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CBS inks online content distribution deals

Jared Moya — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 21:10:01 +0000

CSI, Survivor, Late Night With David Letterman, news, sports shows, and more will all be offered online.

CBS today agreed to deals with Joost, Microsoft, ComCast, and Time Warner to begin allowing them to provide CBS content online in exchange for a share of all advertising revenue generated.

Some of the other companies involved in the online distribution deal include Brightcove, Veoh, Sling Media, AOL, Netvibes and CNET Networks.

CBS already distributes many of its shows online through Yahoo!, iTunes, and its own Web site.

Viewers will be able to watch shows like crime drama CSI, Survivor, Late Night With David Letterman, news, sports shows, and more with free content supported by advertising revenues which will be split between CBS and its partners.

According to an earlier report in the Wall Street Journal, the broadcaster had wanted to keep 90% of the ad revenues generated by its shows but, details of the exact division are not yet known.

This is big news for CBS as it allows it to further expand the reach of its content, add an additional source of revenue, and also perhaps even cut down on the number of people who grab CBS shows from P2P and file-sharing networks.

It’s also big news for Joost, the still fledgling on-demand online content distribution service from the guys behind KaZaA and Skype. It already worked out a deal with Viacom a few months back to offer content from MTV, Comedy Central, BET, and Paramount Pictures.

70% of the US regularly watch online videos

Jared Moya — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 02:29:15 +0000

In a sign of things to come, nearly 123 million people in the US, some 70% of the total online population, watched an online video of some sort in the month of January.

The duo behind Joost correctly surmised some time ago that the future of television will really be the internet via online streaming. People want to watch what they want, where they want, and when they want. It’s that simple.

With our lives increasingly filled with such a wide array of entertainment choices to choose from, be it videos games, music, movies, you name it, the TV is forced to compete for precious time just like anything else.

Well, comScore, a “leader in digital media measurement,” recently released a report detailing the US streaming video market from its Video Metrix service.

In January of this year, nearly 123 million people in the US, some 70% of the total online population, viewed more than 7.2 billion online videos. The average person streamed some 59 total videos, nearly 2 a day. Most of them are apparently of the YouTube variety as the average viewing time per video is 2.6 minutes.

Google Sites was ranked as the top streaming video host, as measured by “…total unique streamers (54.7 million) and total video streams initiated (1.167 billion).” Of the sites which Google owns and maintains, YouTube, of course, was by far the largest as it accounted for some 992 million of the total number of video streams initiated.

In another piece of interesting data to note, the “primetime” hours for video streaming activity occurred between 5 and 8 p.m.. Considering that traditional TV primetime hours occur between 8 and 11 p.m. there is a huge potential for broadcasters to be able to essentially DOUBLE their primetime viewer ship and marketing audience.

Some networks, particularly ABC which was the first to do so, have started to embrace online streaming of their primetime shows, and this data now proves just how savvy the decision was after all. The data shows that not only is there an established demand for streaming content but, that more than an amazing 2/3 of the country now make up this new and emerging market. I guess this ends all the doubts people may have had about Joost once and for all.

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/tech_news/STUDY_70_of_the_US_regularly_watch_online_videos’;

SOULXTC: “walkin’ the streets of P2P”

Viacom gets “JOOST” up P2P style

Jared Moya — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 23:44:59 +0000

In a slap to the face of YouTube, Viacom said it plans to soon deliver free films and television shows through Joost, the global on-demand broadband television service from the creators of KaZaA and Skype.

After failing to reach a deal with YouTube, Viacom found a partner that was more than eager to satisfy its demands in order to solidify a content delivery partnership.

Founded by Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, the two Scandinavian entrepreneurs behind KaZaA and Skype, which shook up the music and telephone industry respectively, Joost delivers on-demand advertiser-supported TV programming.

Powered by a secure, efficient, piracy-proof internet platform, Joost enables a high-quality video experience based on premium content, while guaranteeing copyright protection for content owners and creators. Content security was crucial to winning over Viacom’s execs, and actually made Joost a far better choice than YouTube, which has no content security or DRM whatsoever.

“The Joost platform is in essence a closed system,” said Allen Weiner, an analyst at Gartner Inc., a market research firm in Stamford, Conn. “The ability for piracy and content to be stolen is minimal.”

In a chain letter I received from Joost this afternoon, Dirk-Willem van Gulik, CTO of Joost, describes the new deal with Viacom:

Joost Unplugged!
Great news from the Joost Content Team. 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 andParamount Classics will be providing full-length feature films from its catalog of classics and recent releases.
This content isn’t available yet. We’re working hard on shipping, transcoding and feeding the P2P network (and no, despite malicious gossip to the contrary – engineering is not giving Star Trek or Ren&Stimpy top priority) it will all be there for our launch.
Stay tuned!
Dw. — Dirk-Willem van Gulik, CTO, Joost.

If this does indeed prove to be true, and the content options live up to their promises, I think Joost just may revolutionize TV after all. Up until now the options have been limited to pretty boring stuff, content of a cheap cable TV nature that really weren’t worth watching. But now, if it begins to offer quality programming like “Beavis and Butthead”(love those guys) and full-length feature films, then I’ll definitely be tuning in.

Unfortunately for those that aren’t already BETA testing Joost, it’s still limited to invite only.

SOULXTC: “walkin’ the streets of P2P”

Shunning YouTube, Viacom hooks up with Joost

Jared Moya — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 20:33:45 +0000

Viacom has announced a deal with Joost that will see the new P2P-based video start-up "broadcasting" Viacom’s music videos, TV shows and other materials on the service.

Viacom will provide Joost with content not only from MTV, but also from BET, Comedy Central, and even movies from Paramount. The news comes less than two weeks after Viacom backed out of talks with YouTube and demanded that their content be removed from the site. YouTube pulled down more than 100,000 videos.

According to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), which first broke the news, Viacom usually takes a 2/3 stake in the advertising profits stemming from such deals. The terms of this specific deal have not been disclosed, but we believe it’s in that general ballpark.

"We’re extremely pleased to be working with Joost, and couldn’t be prouder to be a key partner in the launch of the next generation in broadband video technology," said Philippe Dauman, Viacom President and Chief Executive Officer in a statement. "In addition to strong partnerships we have with traditional distributors, we will continue to seek out partners like Joost, which has created an exciting breakthrough platform that represents not only a fantastic user experience, but one that is built on a compelling and sustainable business model that respects both content creators and consumers."

Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman told the Journal that Joost’s promise to protect their copyrights was a major factor in their decision, and also a stumbling block in their discussions with YouTube/Google. At the moment is it quite easy to download and store video content from YouTube, but no such exploit for Joost is known to exist. It is difficult to know exactly what Dauman means by protection, however.

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SOULXTC: “walkin’ the streets of P2P”