Viacom To Strike Content Deal With Skype Founders

Viacom in the US is set to become the first major TV/movie producer to sign a deal with Joost, the forthcoming television and video over the internet project from the founders of VOIP service Skype.

The deal involves licensing hundreds of hours of programming from Viacom’s properties, like MTV, Comedy Central, Spike TV and Paramount Studios. Joost’s other deals include Warner Music and Endemol, the Dutch production company behind the likes of reality behemoth, Big Brother.

Unlike YouTube, where clips are typically restricted to a few minutes, Joost will screen entire programmes. It is not known whether the content will be geographically protected to prevent it being downloaded outside of the United States.

The founders of leading VOIP service Skype, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, developed the idea of Joost in order to create a video-sharing service where all television, DVD and web content are exchanged between users.

It will also add real-time social networking and chat features to make video a more interactive experience. It will be a free program that sells ads to make money and is expected to be released at the end of June this year.

Joost, formerly the Venice Project (see Skype Founders Launch New Internet Project), quietly launched its beta testing at the end of last year, with its creators inviting thousands of people to begin using the service to help its developers work out early bugs (see Skype Creators’ Revolutionary TV Project Begins Testing).

Its founders sold Skype to eBay in 2005 for £1.4 billion. The pair also founded Kazaa, the file-sharing website, selling it in 2002 to Sydney-based Sharman Networks.

Joost: www.joost.com