iTechNote

According to a Wall Street Journal report on Tuesday, Viacom is expected to announce a licensing deal with Joost, a new Internet service that specializes in commercial video content. You can get some background information from my previous posts.

The collapse of talks between Viacom and YouTube/Google just few weeks ago had resulted in 100,000 video clips been removed from the popular video site. What are the tricks that Joost has put in place to win the trust from Viacom? The answer is simple - Joost is designed for commercial video content from day one.

Joost makes it possible to distribute streams of video to its users using P2P technology. There is no central server involved in the process. Each user plays a role in distributing real time video streams just like BitTorrent.

There is no Digital Rights Management (DRM) protection applied on the content. Each user only gets a fragment of the content and it is not saved on the disk to make up the whole video watchable offline.

Yes, it is that simple to solve both bandwidth and DRM issues that most media companies like Viacom are deeply concerned. Joost makes distribution of high quality video online possible. It is designed to give users the same experience as the normal TV.

As of today, Joost remains in beta and you can only join the service by invitation only. The users need to download and install an application in order to use Joost service. Watch to see Joost in action on the CBS report below.