Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
My son walked in yesterday and asked me what the fuss was all about with this Joost thing. I told him that it’s a new product from the people who invented Skype that would allow him to watch TV on the Internet. His eyes lit up and he said that could mean the end of TV as we know it. If Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis get their way, he could be right.
The peer-to-peer nature of Joost, where the
processing load is shared by the PCs of members, will enable the
provision of high quality free global TV broadcasts in the same way
that Skype has provided free global Internet telephony.
There is of course the issue of content but already many pundits are
saying that content providers will find the prospect of potentially
reaching a vast global audience of hundreds of millions irresistible.
What's more, with products coming on the market that enable streaming
of PC-based video to TV sets, it appears that Joost may be an idea
whose time has come
Joost has already signed a content deal with US-based Warner Music
Group which, as demonstrated by its YouTube alliance, has shown a
willingness to embrace Internet content delivery of entertainment.
Other content deals are already under way.
Speaking of YouTube, some commentators are postulating that Joost is a
threat to popular online video site now owned by Google. This is not
necessarily the case, although it depends on what type of social
networking features Joost provides.
The appeal of YouTube in the main is the ability of users to post and
access predominantly short videos. Although many users watch pirated
copies of TV shows on the site, the picture quality is generally
substandard and not a threat to real TV.
Joost on the other hand reportedly has the capability to provide
broadcast quality video and intends from the outset to fund its
operation by advertising, using the free to air commercial TV model.
However, in order to get content providers to jump on board, Joost
would have to provide guarantees against the piracy and copyright
infringement which has dogged YouTube. The noises coming from the Joost
camp seems to indicate that this would the case.
Right now, there is a mad scramble from enthusiastic net users all over
the world to become beta testers for the new Joost service. The world
is watching whether the pair of Internet billionaires who brought us
Kazaa and then Skype can emulate or even top their previous successes
with Joost.
David Frost
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