AfterDawn: News

Joost to premiere new VH1 comedy

In what Joost would consider the next step in growing its online video service, a new partnership with VH1 means that a new scripted comedy series "I Hate My 30s" will premiere on the P2P-driven video service. The first season of the show will be available exclusively on the upstart Internet TV service on July 16. This means it will be available through Joost 10 days before its scheduled broadcast premiere.

"This is exactly the kind of partnership we would like to have with content owners," said Yvette Alberdingk Thijm, executive VP content strategy and acquisition at Joost. "We see this as Phase 2 in creating value with content owners." Viacom Inc., which owns VH1, is an investor in Joost after joining the likes of CBS Corp., Sequoia Capital, the Li Ka-Shing Foundation and Index Ventures in a $45 million round of funding announced in May.



The deal also means that Joost is moving toward direct competition with services such as Apple's iTunes and Microsoft's Xbox Live Video Marketplace. Joost also has deals with Warner Music Group, Turner Broadcasting and Sony Pictures Television.

Source:
Reuters

Written by: James Delahunty @ 8 Jul 2007 23:48

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• 6 comments

• MightyOne

  Joost is pretty cool. I hope they succeed.
  
  For Beta, it works extremely well.
  
  If they can line up some better shows....which they will, then i think it will Take OFF big time.
  
  Keep the up the good work.

  10.7.2007 05:47 #1

• ZzeusS

  Joost WAS cool. It used to work fine.
  
  Now it doesn't run, or self update for some reason. Then when I chase down the latest version of the application on my own, it locks up then crashes.
  
  They are in some kind of failure mode as far as I am concerned.

  12.7.2007 09:12 #2

• jgaudino

  I've had a really mixed exoerience also. I WANT really really WANT Joost to get it together. GREAT idea but so far execution of the idea is spotty. Its a crap shoot if it will work on any given day or hour. I am hoping they tackle their issues ASAP. If it finally works it will be awesome.

  12.7.2007 15:09 #3

• nm07901

  I've been trying for months to get on to JOOST, with no success. I guess they have enough beta testers. Pity, because I've heard so much about the service.

  13.7.2007 07:06 #4

• borhan9

  This Joost Service is the way to go once they get out of beta testing watch the traffic this will generate.

  16.7.2007 23:21 #5

• ZzeusS

  Well it finally seems to work, and I Hate My 30s is damn funny. I had never seen it before.

  17.7.2007 09:26 #6