Joost, the online television service, has taken major blows from competitors in Britain and the States, and is “preparing for a major retrenchment,” London’s Times reports.
Hulu and the BBC’s iPlayer have been gobbling up programming rights and viewer numbers, at Joost’s expense. Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis created Joost, which operates off P2P technology.
The online video story doesn’t cite on-the-record sources or have much detail on which to base its conclusion that Joost “is expected to rein in its global ambitions to focus solely on the online market.”
Anyone on Joost’s email list can attest that the programming seems pretty thin. Today, for example, it’s featuring promos for “The Flash,” BET’s docu “American Gangster” and “Star Trek.” Joost did have rights to show Internet-only early rounds of March Madness basketball, but then many other online video sites. In Britain, Joost will face a scary new competitor in the Hulu-like video site Kangaroo, from the BBC, Channel 4 and ITV.
The Times says, however, that Joost probably won’t be closing anytime soon.
“There are too many egos involved,” said one former employee.
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