We Want Media

My invitation to Joost has arrived.

If you remember my previous post, I had signed up to be a beta for this new internet television program. Well, for the last week I’ve been testing it out, and although Joost makes a lot of bold claims about “revolutionizing” television, I’m just not convinced.

Firstly, Viacom is involved with this venture, so I figured there would be tons of programming from which to choose. This is not the case. See, although MTV is a channel on Joost, there’s only two shows on that channel. (However, lucky for me, one of them is "Laguna Beach"). This also goes for Comedy Central, National Geographic and a couple of other channels worth watching.

Despite that, I did find myself spending a lot of time with Joost. It has a decent-quality, full-screen picture, and it features whole seasons of shows, so it’s easy to get sucked in. (It also has Ministry of Sound Presents music videos, which are amazing, by the way.)

The first version I downloaded had a lot of problems lagging and freezing, but the newer version I got today seems better. (I found similar criticisms in the blogosphere with more tech-appropriate responses.)

“Joost” was the most-searched term on Technorati last week. Clearly, there is some buzz about this. Maybe I’m missing something or maybe they're just in the early stages of development, but I don’t see how such a little slice of television is going to satisfy anyone’s appetite.