Joost

As Vint Cerf, the founder of the internet has predicted, the future of the television is online. His prediction has been preceded by a daring project, which began in 2006. This project is Joost, a service that offers free hundreds of programs and TV serials. At the beginning, though it has been known under the name of Venice Project. Its creators are Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, who have also founded services, which revolutionized the internet, especially concerning communication and file transfer, like Skype and Kazaa.

The purpose of Joost is to offer freely a diversified range of serials and television programs. Thus, its owners have signed contracts with owners like Viacom, and Warner Music. Another important producer in the list of future contracts is FOX Networks.

In order to enjoy the multitude of programs and serials broadcast by Joost you have to do two things. First, you need an account. Up to now, you needed an invitation in order to create an account. However, since 2 October, when the 1.0 beta version was released, Joost is available for anybody. Then you have to download and to install the program bearing the same name. You will need the name and the password you have chosen when you have created the account in order to open the program.

In order to transmit the content, Joost uses P2P TV technology. It offers a better speed than classical transfer of information does because each user proceeds in the same time to download and upload of the programs they watch.