This is just the story I need to hear to convince myself that Joost is doomed. Apparently Joost’s former CTO Dirk-Willem van Gulik was fired and then hired by BBC on the same day. Sounds like there’s some unrest within the Joost office, that would cause them to fire a guy who the BBC things is a prime for the job. This just reinforces my position that although Joost is a cool application/technology/delivery network, it is doomed in it current state. They haventsigned the critical big-hitter partnerships that are needed to get it the must-see content it needs. The player is full-screen only, hogs bandwidth, and isn’t as flexible or familiar as other sites. I’ve been using Hulu a lot lately, and I like it because it A. has decent content (although Hulu’s doomed too, for other reasons..), and it has a familiar web-video interface, with some nifty extended features to make it more conducive to watching full tv episodes, tv style – full screen, dim the rest of the screen, playlisting, etc.
Content is kind. And if Joost could manage to sign a few big content deals, they might have a fighting chance. That, however, seems unlikely. NBC might be re-hasing their deal with iTunes, (which is why I think Hulu is going away) and Fox is offering their content both on itunes and on their own “Fox on Demand” site.
Joost, you were cool while you lasted, and your interface/bit-torrent-y technology is cool, but step up the content, or else you’re toast.
Comments
4 responses to “Joost doomed?”
I download Joost after your Hot Topic and was bored with-in a week. Whatever content they have isn’t the “right” mix to keep the average TV watchers around long enough to score the big ad dollars. I too have been using Hulu a lot and I think it has the mix of content and delivery to make it similar to watching TV on demand which would translate into TV ad dollars. If I were NBC I wouldn’t make the move to iTunes, I don’t watch anything on it nor would I want to pay.
Yeah, the ad-supported model has worked for me far more than the subscription/purchase model.. i’d rather pay by giving some time to advertisements, rather than pay by giving dollars.
[…] copyrighted content in sanctioned environments is a step in the right direction. Sounds like my prediction of doom for Hulu might have been a bit off…which I’m glad to […]
[…] copyrighted content in sanctioned environments is a step in the right direction. Sounds like my prediction of doom for Hulu might have been a bit off…which I’m glad to […]