Viacom goes with Joost, but can you afford to watch?

Stephen Withers
Friday, 23 February 2007 03:25

Business IT - Technology

In Australia, that probably means an extra $A20 on your monthly internet bill. Yes, that is cheaper than basic pay TV service, but you have to pay for the basic package before you can get the channels you really want. In any case, MTV is currently part of the basic package here.

The late-90s idea that bandwidth would become free hasn't happened. It might be cheaper, but mobile phone carriers are still happy to charge us $A0.20 to carry a 160-character SMS.

ISPs seem to have moved away from swinging "excess data" charges to plans that impose speed caps after a download limit has been reached, but how much fun do you think it would be watching Joost content when the speed of your connection drops below the bandwidth required?

What Joost really needs is good content that you can't get elsewhere. At some stage, it might have the financial clout to be able to buy global rights to original content.

This would be very attractive for people outside the US who want to be able to watch shows such as 24 or Lost without having to wait for their local broadcaster so they don't suffer from 'spoilers' published on US-based web sites.

So it's a chicken and the egg situation. Joost can't afford the content it needs to become a really big player until it gets big. Perhaps a deep pocketed investor will be prepared to make a leap of faith?