Joost and Heavy sign partnership

Online-video network Joost is expected to announce on Monday that it will feature videos from Heavy, a site popular among college-age males.

Joost, a start-up founded by Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, the duo that gave the world Skype and Kazaa, has been out striking a host of content deals with media companies ranging from Viacom to the Turner Broadcasting System to Sony Pictures.

The company aims to turn Internet video into a more TV-like experience for viewers.

One of the big questions analysts had about the company was whether it could land hot content from major TV networks and Hollywood studios. The company has gone a long way toward proving that it can.

Few had any questions about the company's peer-to-peer system. Friis and Zennstrom have built two other successful companies using similar technology.

Nonetheless, at Joost's official launch last week, customers complained of choppy images and long waits before they were able to change channels. Joost's service features more than 75 channels of video content.

A representative of New York-based Heavy said the site plans to offer three categories on its Joost channel: Heavy Animation, Heavy Comedy and Heavy Gurls.

[mrc77]

Cool, but needs more

Joost is kind of boring right now, but I do see a lot of potential in it. What it needs to get is more international programs. It also needs more news. It would be awesome if you could watch local news at any time of the day from any country. I know that is asking a lot, but it would be really cool. Joost also needs way more music videos, and you need to be able to customize it, where you can choose a certain program or artist or keyword, and Joost will only show you programming related to that. If anyone needs an invite, you can email me at [e-mail]. Later,

Mark =)

[BrianFH]

Flipping Out

The wait and lack of response in changing channels is likely to alienate a lot of us channel surfers. Reading a list and settling on a channel isn't the way it works, guys. What you do, is, 1) you bop through a long sequence of channels over a wide range of content types and form 2-second impressions of what's going on for each one. After about 15-20 minutes of this, 2) you settle down for a long, 10-15 minute session of concentrated watching of the one that interests you most. Then, 3) go back to step 1.

Sticky and complex channel selection is therefore intensely frustrating and a serious turn-off.

Just another case of an infant technology sent out to do a man's job (play), I guess.

;)