Joost gets some Viacom Love
Joost, the P2P TV venture from European hit makers, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis has signed on Viacom as a content partner, a move that will bring content from various Viacom properties – MTV, Comedy Central and Showtime – to the P2P service, reports the Wall Street Journal.
The deal, of course was helped by the fact that a trio of former MTV executives are in pretty senior positions at Joost aka The Venice Project. David Clark (EVP, Global Advertising and GM North America), Yvette Alberdingkthijm (EVP, Content Strategy & Acquisition) and Henrik Werdelin (Chief Creative Officer) form the trio that are charged with bringing content partners to the Joost platform. Of course they started with the company they know best – Viacom.
The terms of the deal are not revealed but WSJ speculates that Viacom typically gets two-thirds of the advertising revenues that come as a result of their videos. For Joost this is a big coup, and will result in big media companies taking them more seriously.
One has to temper the excitement around this development by pointing out that for Joost, signing up content partners is going to be a long drawn out process. Sort of like putting pants, one leg at a time. Joost needs these kind of deals more desperately than content owners and might have to sacrifice a larger share of revenues in order to sign up big media.
The deal is also a sign that if Viacom treads carefully, it could become one of the biggest beneficiaries of the online video boom. As Robert Young argues in his column today, “Opening up their vaults to the masses, for the first time in their history, is a watershed event that should not be underestimated.” You can say the same about other large media companies, but then we have seen in the past – most incumbents move too slowly and only have to blame themselves for missed opportunities.
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Maverick Idea’s…
With earnings season dying down the debate over copyright issues and YouTube can go back to the front burner…it is all very entertaining. But that is their business after all… Amanda Congdon, the former host of Web TV show……
underthecounter on February 20th, 2007 at 10:10 am - Permalink
[...] Can Joost Replace YouTube As The Leading Online Video Site? I read two posts today one after the other that made me realise I haven’t been paying enough attention to Joost. Even though Joost is still only in beta thousands of people a day are trying to join (Sign-up is here). They also managed to sign a deal with Viacom to display its content, which YouTube failed to do. [...]
Can Joost Replace YouTube As The Leading Online Video Site? | Connected Internet on February 21st, 2007 at 4:01 pm - Permalink
[...] veel content over auto’s, wat muziek en veel van national geographic (king of the wild, etc.). De recente deal met Viacom, waar bijna de complete Joost-top vandaan komt, moet daarin stevige verandering gaan brengen. [...]
BAQMaR » Blog Archive » Joost: TV-revolutie in de dop on March 5th, 2007 at 1:39 pm - Permalink
[...] Another NewTeeVee article may shed extra light on the situation, since Viacom has signed on to be a content partner with Joost. An amount of your value to a particular site as a content creator or producer is that people HAVE to go to that site to see your content. If people are ripping your videos to YouTube, your effectiveness is diluted, AND your_group doesn’t get any credit for the hits or popularity of your own content. It all goes to the pirate, along with whomever subscribes to that channel in the hopes of finding even more of your content. [...]
Viacom Sues YouTube | BillCammack.com on February 25th, 2008 at 4:46 am - Permalink