Joost

Recently I got into a large number of closed beta programs. Among them was Joost. I've been reading about it everywhere and was dying to know what the fuss was about. Now I've seen. And I'm here to tell you all about it. Before you read this you may want to see what it looks like (on a mac, anyway).  Here's a sideshow walkthrough to give you a more detailed look.

The interface is nice. It runs well on my laptop, which is a tad old, and a little smoother on my desktop. There's still some lag when changing pages but I think a lot of that is because any change in My Channels is a small conversation with the Joost server.  The quality itself is actually very good.  Sometimes there's dropout and you have to start over and drag the slider, but that's probably a function of your connection.  It seems to work well from my apartment but other broadband locations have dropout. The format is simply On Demand. There are stations and within those stations are programs to watch. The channels are browsable by a favourites list, alphabetical or by genre. One issue is that the My Channel channels come preloaded. You can change them but it's a pain to scroll through each station and turn it on or off. It would be nice if it started empty since you haven't chosen those when you first load it up. It was tedious to turn off all the wank that they tack on there, from the strip trivia beach channel to the poker station. Really, I'm not watching those. Ever.

There are some nice choices for content. A lot of bad music channels, but a few good ones. There's a classical station that has slim pickings. A couple of good travel and documentary channels. National Geographic has one, but the content on pre-existing network stations (aside from the music and sports, so anything with real content) tends to be older than the made for net stuff. It's a shame because the production for the older stuff is less interesting but more trustworthy than the newer things you'll find. What has stolen my attention is the Circus Station. Each show is one to two hours long and is a circus performance from a global selection. I watched a good chunk of the Moscow Circus and I believe there's the Vienna one as well. Nickelodeon has some stuff, but nothing great. VH1 has nothing but reality shows. There are a few indie film stations but not from the larger indie sources like Sundance, Atom or any of the other traveling festivals.

The main question I'm left with is what market is it trying to break into? The fact that they use contracts with major stations (now through Viacom, soon more international choices through JumpTV) has the potential for greatness. It also has the option of loosing a firm marketing ploy and fizzling out like WebTV and countless other computer/tv crossovers that were half-assed successes in whatever they aimed at. Let me explain.

There are a bunch Internet/TV markets it can aim for and only a few it can win.

• There's the DVR market. This is what it should be aiming for. NBC, ABC and CBS all have the option to watch the most recent episodes of their shows online. Supposedly there are ads in them. I watched Lost on NBC.com and it was broken into 4 sections, with a single commercial between each one. At the breaks it told me it was loading and then skipped to the next part of the show. Hey, I'm not complaining. ABC just upgraded their site to run full screen. I haven't tested it yet, but from the other stuff I've seen the quality is pretty go so far. If Joost partners with these services and offers new network and (dare I say it?) cable (I said it!) shows with limited interruptions it would boom.
  
  Just as a side note, I've been noticing a lot of shows that get canceled finish out the season online now.  I like this idea, but why not produce a few really risky shows, put them online first and then move it over to network is it plays well?  Or they could just stop cancelling good programming, but what are the odds of that?
  
  
• The iTunes/Torrent market.  This one is pretty much a non-issue.  This is streaming and web based.  iTunes and Torrents are downloads and scaled on portability.  There's really nothing overlapping here.  The only thing that will bleed over is a bit of the Torrent market because there are a lot of people who just use torrents to time shift.  Technically this is illegal.  Not because you're downloading a show.  All network digital signals must be unlocked and copyable by law.  It's does break copyright law to get it from a source other than the networks themselves.  DVR a show and burn a DVD of it, that's fine.  Download it the next day to catch up and that's a crime.  Hey, it's not my law.  Anyway, since the signal would be legal there wouldn't be an issue.  Sounds like a plan...
  
  
• Standalone competitors.  This includes things like the Democracy player and Zattoo.  Comparing it to Zattoo is easy.  You can't get Zattoo in the states.  Joost wins.  Democracy is torrent based so it's a bit of a different game.  I can't see Joost wanting to add torrent to the program because it doesn't fit with what Joost is (a streaming, on demand TV set up) and that's just a whole world of legal trouble.  Oh well, it's not like Democracy is as popular as you would expect (no pun intended). 
  
  
• Upcoming competition.  I've been reading about the BBC streaming project and it makes me hot.  Very very hot.  In cases like this, it's a contract issue more than anything.  A lot of big networks and stations are going it alone.  These are the same people that Joost needs to sign deals with in order to get content that doesn't suck.  Joost, get to work!  It does look like they aren't slouching, as the Viacom V. YouTube lawsuits might be connected to Joost. since Viacom is now very protective of their clips (and in some cases, other people's clips just to be safe) and have a deal with Joost it looks like Viacom is clearing the way to put up (a lot?) of content on Joost.  Let's see.

It looks like Joost is set to pull ahead once it's released.  With the big contracts in the works there could end up with some really good content.  As for now, it looks really good and has some OK stuff.  But it's beta so it's where it should be, though it is getting released soon.  I do hope they sort out some of the location based restrictions on the channels, though.  Alliance Atlantis Sci-Fi is a worldwide channel, except in the US and Canada.  Because it's a Canadian company?  Jump TV Arabia is everywhere but the Middle East.  That's not even a country!  Jump TV Latino is global except Canada and Latin America.  Seems a little wonky.  Don't worry, though.  At least America gets the Diddy Channel, now with 24 hours a day more than your recommended daily dose of Puff Daddy.

Finally, a gift.  I have 2 Joost invites left.  I see sites like Lifehacker put up contests for these so I guess they're hot.  Leave a comment and maybe you'll get one.  I will base my choice on wit and favouritism.

Funny/Depressing P.S.  The MTV channel is located in Entertainment and not in the Music section.  I guess that makes sense since the MTV channel doesn't have a single music video on it.  At first I was shocked.  Then I found it odd that anyone would expect MTV to have music content.