2008 has so far proved to be a very mixed year for Web TV service Joost, but 5 months in and the company is still going strong and showing no signs of dying an early death.
An early demise was indeed what was being predicted back in January in the wake of the firing company’s chief technology officer Dirk-Willem van Gulik who joined the BBC to work on the iPlayer.
In March however, Joost offered a speck of hope to all those who would use the service if only it didn’t require a software download which hogs your computer’s resources.
Web-based Browser
Hidden deep within a profile of the company, the new CEO Mike Volpi announced plans to launch a Web-based version of the service which would make it as user-friendly as YouTube or Hulu.
Then April brought with it news that Joost was about to undergo a massive restructuring. The Times newspaper reported that the company was going to take a few steps backwards.
This meant curtailing their long held global ambitions to focus solely on the US market, and clawing back on expenditure by cutting staff and moving other around within the company.
New Hires, More Content
So here we are in May and the company is still with us, although Joost isn’t really making the headlines very much, except for the occasional story from people still speculating as to it’s future.
Webware is however reporting that the company has recently made a few high profile hires, chief amongst these are former Dailymotion employees Danny Passman and John Schultz.
Joost is now also boasting that it has over 7,000 hours of programming available with 400 TV shows and 1,200 movies amongst it’s line-up. Which puts it far ahead of Hulu in terms of the pure amount of content.
I’m glad Joost is still with us, and hope it continues to refocus it’s business to become a much more streamlined service. Now all we need is that Web-based browser and we’ll be set.
