I'm juiced for Joost

Pardon the lame title pun that every other blogger has probably used, but it really is how I feel. Joost is a service that will put TV on the internet. This has huge potential.

While YouTube allows users to put random clips about their random stupid lives onto the net, Joost is setting it up so that actual channels and programming will be on the net. It cannot be denied that TV is dying. Everyone is predicting it and they think YouTube is leading that charge. I believe TV is dying because people aren't in the TV loop anymore. One of the best ways to promote new TV shows is showing commercials for new shows on the TV. People these days spend so much time on the computer that even if there was a show they wanted to watch, they miss it.

Recording utilities like Tivo and other DVRs allow people to record content conveniently, but from what I see, the totally population that owns one of these scheduled recording devices is still small.

With Joost, people will be able to run a TV stream in the background, much like the way people have their TV on while they do other things. This will allow the exposure of TV to perpetuate itself. Users will see promos for new TV shows. I also assume since Joost is an application, the ability to run specific shows or feeds instead of just channels. In other words, you shouldn't have to be a slave to a timeblock (8 p.m. for example), you could turn on Joost at anytime after an episode "aired" and be able to find a stream for that specific show. If you wanted to watch a live feed, you could do that. Basically, built in DVR functionality.

Now, on top of that, Joost will also have the unique ability to turn a channel into a chat room, and also, perhaps add in voting. Reality shows like American Idol can benefit from this technology as people can vote directly from Joost (or link to a website where they can vote). This is not a luxury people who watch TV have. How many times have you seen a commercial for a website, but by the time the show ended, you already forgotten what the website was?

From a business perspective, advertisers do not have to figure out how to monetize in a new market. In theory, Joost should work the same way as TV. If an advertiser can target commercials properly on TV, they can target ads the same way with Joost. In other words, Joost doesn't need a new way of monetizing, it's just a different method of doing what already exists.

Joost has huge potential, all they need now is a user-base and support from media networks in order for it to work.

edit: I may have been mistaken in assuming that Joost will have DVR-like functionality. I am only making that assumption because I feel that it would be a useful feature that would not be too difficult to implement if it doesn't already exist. Perhaps someone who knows more about Joost or has used the beta version can comment.