Joost gets major advertisers on board

Joost, the P2P internet TV service launched by Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, has concluded a series of deals with major advertisers.

ClickZ reports that Joost has signed three-month contracts for pre-roll and overlay ads with firms including Coca-Cola, General Motors, Nike and Visa.

We reviewed Joost back in December, when it was known as the Venice Project. Since then, it has concluded content deals with Viacom and CBS, among others, and the programme line-up is now much improved, though not exactly primetime.

Joost is free to use, and supported by advertising. It has done a good job so far of not making the ads too intrusive - you normally get a 30 second advert between programmes, much less then normal TV.

The user interface is one of the best features. The screenshot below shows the control panel which comes up when you watch a show on Joost. The controls appear only when you move the mouse, making them as unobtrusive as possible.

As we have mentioned before, though the UI and the quality of the streaming footage is impressive, the success of Joost may well depend on whether it can attract more compelling content in the future.

In addition, while it has made the viewing experience as near to TV as possible, many may prefer IPTV services like BT Vision which can be viewed on your TV screen via a set top box, from the couch.

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