I have been graced with being a beta tester for Joost since near the begin of its launch as The Venice Project.
In case your not sure what Joost is, here is a reminder: Joost (pronouned “Juiced”) is a program for your computer which lets you watch television shows, when and where you like. All you need is an internet connection and a quick one at that.
Ok, so lets get down to the dirty facts! Firstly, no. That’s right, no, there are no shows like ‘Ugly Betty’, ‘The OC’, ‘ER’ or ‘Lost’. In fact, I haven’t heard of any of the shows on Joost! However, before you think that this new piece of software is doomed to fail, let me tell you that every show I watched on Joost had my attention and I live in Ireland so I can’t tell if any of the American shows are mainstream but they aren’t this side of the Atlantic. The only channels I recognised was National Geographic and also several MTV shows. I watched a wide selection of shows in the Joost TV guide and they were all good and worth watching. However, a bigger selection of shows are needed if it is to satisfy a mainstream audience and something it will need to do before it ditches the beta tag. At the moment the teams are in negotiations, but have secured Warner Music, Endemol, MTV Networks and Paramount Pictures.
Secondly, you need a fast connection. With near TV quality video, you can download as much as 320mb per hour of viewing and upload up to 105mb, meaning you will need a quick connection so that playback is stutter-free and delays in getting content are hardly noticeable. Also many broadband providers limit the amount of downloading their customers can do e.g. a 20gb per month cap. This means that with a 20gb limit you could watch 65hours of Joost per month. Not bad but that’s just two hours a day which you would probably do now watching normal TV anyway, so as the broadband market gets more competitive the download limit might be something that gets more attention in the near future. For me I have a 1mb connection (:cringe: at times I wish it was so much more!) and a 12gb limit per month (Don’t they realise I have to watch Joost!?) and even with this connection Joost usually (note usually) flows loud and clear.
In case you didn’t know TV on demand is the future of TV, hence the title of this post. Just look at TV stations today, on this side of the Atlantic we have Channel 4 with their 4oD (4 on demand), and BBC is begin to follow suit. Both let viewers watch TV shows when they like, on demand. I’m sure there are equivalents in the US and around the world but what is different about Joost? It’s free. Also it has interactive features which I failed to mention until now. 
Yes that’s right you can chat about the show your watching with someone else on the other side of the world or just next door. The Joost software has support for widgets which enable your favourite RSS feeds to be just a click away and pop over the show your watching (transparently, of course!). And to get rid of them when you’ve caught up on the latest news? Just click on the show your watching and they fly off the screen!
Now that I’m coming to an end (a little out of breath), why not see what I’m talking about and look at a few of the Joost screenshots. They give you an idea of the simple, clean interface and the quality of display and content.
Well that’s my review of Joost. I like it very much and believe TV now has a future! Not just in Joost but in on demand TV. Joost keeps improving by the day and if there are any major features or extras that I think you should know about I’ll post again.
By the way, are you interested in seeing Joost with your own eyes and I don’t mean the screenshots! I have 1 invite to give away to the first person who emails me (alanblogging [at] gmail [dot] com) or comments to this post! This invite gives you full access to the beta, lets you create a new account and download the software. Get going!
All invites gone I’m afraid! If I get more I’ll share them around.
