MGEITF 2007: Joost To Provide New Opportunities For Content Owners
It wasn’t all self-flagellation at the recent MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival (MGEITF), as internet entrepreneur Janus Friis explained more about his peer-to-peer television project, Joost.
Given Friis’ background as the co-founder of both the file-sharing website Kazaa and the online telephony business Skype, many in the audience could have been forgiven for being wary about the effect his IPTV platform might have on the industry.
However, Friis said that Joost is not a replacement for linear TV, but rather a “new medium” for visual entertainment.
He added that instead of being scared of the platform as a disruptive force, content owners should welcome it as a new opportunity.
Joost’s global reach will allow content owners to reach every part of the world, said Friis, remarking on the relative ease with which Skype created a worldwide telephony network without the need for huge investment in physical hardware and avoiding immense logistical problems.
With regard to the type of content that will be shown on the platform, Friis dismissed the argument that some have been having about short-form versus long-form online video, stating simply that Joost is just a platform that viewers can use to watch what they want, when they want to watch it.
As well as being a “global virtual TV network”, Friis called Joost the “Holy Grail” of interactive TV, as content providers can actually interact with viewers, adding applications as the project develops – in a similar way that many people add new applications to their Facebook page – although he stressed that Joost should not be seen as a social networking site.
The applications which were demonstrated in the highly entertaining seminar were all directly related to the shows being watched and are, said Friis, intended to add value to the show and introduce people to new ways of interacting with each other whilst keeping the content at the heart of the debate.
In the fast moving online environment it is impossible to predict definitively how successful a new product like Joost will be, particularly with many major players in traditional media now scrambling for a piece of the pie.
Friis agreed with this analysis, but said that the signs look good, with the beta version of Joost picking up an increasing number of subscribers (see Joost Ready For Lift Off), and the feedback from the current testing period set to reveal what it is that viewers want to see and how they want to interact with it.
Joost: www.joost.com