Joost, the impeccably pedigreed, funded, and hyped Internet TV platform is releasing its software to the general public on Monday.
Joost is seeing 50,000 beta downloads per week, and with open access hopes to receive between two million and three million users by the end of the year (for this figure the company counts unique user IDs, not downloads of every upgrade of its player), CEO Mike Volpi said in an interview last week (see the video below).
So, is it going to kill off TV as we know it? Probably not yet, is the short answer. The problem is, although it’s video – and very good quality video at that – it currently has to live on your PC, which means the office or spare room rather than living room.
“œToday marks the beginning of an exciting phase for Joost ““ we are officially open for business,“ said David Clark, executive vice president of global advertising for Joost. “œWe‘re enabling our viewers to share Joost with their friends and family, and we‘re working collaboratively with the world‘s leading advertisers and agencies to design a new ad model for the next generation of television.“
Last week, Joost announced that it had signed more than 30 blue-chip brands, including The Coca-Cola Company, HP, Intel and Nike, as advertising launch partners. Beginning today, advertisements from some of the ad launch partners will begin to play on the platform. Advertisements from all ad launch partners will be on Joost later this month.
Previously available in an expanded beta, Joost now is available to an unlimited number of friends, family and colleagues of existing beta testers. Starting today, when beta testers visit the “œInvite Friends“ widget in the “œMy Joost“ area of Joost, they will be able to invite anyone they know to the Joost community. Both new and existing users can download a new version of Joost today.
