Written by Liz Gannes
Posted Tuesday, March 11, 2008 at 9:00 PM PT

Joost Gets Live With Free March Madness

UPDATE: For those searchers coming to this old story, you can find an updated list of where to watch the 2009 March Madness tournament here.

Joost will make live-streaming video available to all its users tomorrow; it has also scored a deal with its investor CBS to live stream March Madness. A new client should be ready for download by about noon ET on Wednesday, the company told NewTeeVee today.

The first public live broadcast is on Thursday at 2 p.m. ET; it will be a video chat with the Joost technical team to give the software a run-through. From next Thursday, when the first round of the NCAA basketball championships starts, every game in the series will be shown live and ~~commercial-free~~ update: Joost got back to us and said they were mistaken; the broadcast will actually have CBS’ in-stream ads, but no additional ads. And expats and fans from abroad should be pleased: There will be no geographic restrictions imposed on the content.

This is only a test, warns Joost, which has had reliability problems in the past. “If you’re a sports junkie with money on the game you may not want to depend on us for the last 2 minutes of the game,” said Joost VP of engineering Matt Zelesko, who replaced fired CTO Dirk-Willem van Gulik. “We expect it will probably break.”

The company can’t simulate how things will work until it has a lot of users pushing video through the peer-to-peer network, Zelesko explained. “To evaluate how it scales we need to open this up to more public audiences.” Joost has been downloaded some 5 million times; Zelesko said he’s hoping tens of thousands of users will show up to bang on the new live P2P infrastructure.

Joost has been quietly testing live streaming over the past few weeks. Zelesko said that in early tests, video is delayed by under a second, which is pretty awesome compared to what you’ll get from other live video services (I did an interview on Ustream yesterday, for example, that was delayed a full 30 seconds).

Although the cost of such a project is going to be significant, Zelesko said that this spring’s March Madness will not include any advertising that nets revenue for Joost. When we asked about the advantage of using Joost’s client approach vs. streaming through the web (something Joost hasn’t done yet but has said it may), Zelesko said, “I wouldn’t rule out other ways of watching Joost content in the future, but for now it’s the client.”

Live streaming is becoming a necessity for every online video offering — which is somewhat ironic, considering we’ve all just been through the TiVo revolution. But for sports especially, live just makes sense. YouTube has said it will be the next to jump in.

Sphere Tweet This

Topic: P2P, Startups

Comments (11)

A new client to download? No thanks!

rsslivetv — 5:47 AM on March 12, 2008 Reply
Liz the Joostteam link is

http://www.joostteam.com/2008/02/27/joost-starting-beta-testing-of-live-streaming/

And I will download a client if it can stream across my home network like to my TV ;)

Matt — 6:04 AM on March 12, 2008 Reply
Now all we need is Joost to live stream the Rugby and Cricket without any Geographical restrictions .

Om and Jackson would also love that .

Matt — 6:18 AM on March 12, 2008 Reply
Theres no way there was, is, or ever will be a 30 second delay on Ustream.

5 seconds MAX, and thats only when you manually set a buffer.

Matt Schlicht — 5:54 PM on March 12, 2008 Reply
Hey Matt, maybe there were some on-the-fly issues with Ustream on the SXSW floor, but we were definitely delayed 30 seconds. It made for an interesting interview since we were trying to answer questions from the chat room!

Liz Gannes, NewTeeVee — 12:21 AM on March 13, 2008 Reply
I heard from someone at Joost that they are in advanced talks with some of the other big US networks to carry them on Joost later this year. If that is true, we can expect to be able to watch at least some of the live TV content available on these networks. So 2008 could become the year that brings live TV to the PC. It seems that some of the big US networks have already been approached by Zattoo (another US company offering a live TV platform), but the networks were not too warm on the way Zattoo presented itself. Anyway, we are likely going to see other players trying to enter this emerging field.

Joost and the other big US networks — 2:58 AM on March 13, 2008 Reply
bonsai tv has followed this idea stream even though it’s only an italian web tv. the importance is to understand that web tv is the future provided it folows some definite guidelines

m. — 9:10 AM on April 16, 2008 Reply
Iam looking for free download of joost, where do I have to go?

efren — 3:05 PM on July 1, 2008 Reply
This seems to be an excellent idea but I am looking for a free download of joost

efren — 3:06 PM on July 1, 2008 Reply
I already wrote my comments

efren — 3:07 PM on July 1, 2008 Reply
This is the way things should be, get off what we are on now

Ray — 7:30 AM on April 3, 2009 Reply

Linkbacks (25)

[...] as of tomorrow live streaming coverage of March Madness, in a deal struck with Joost investor CBS, according to a report from NewTeeVee this evening. The client required to watch the live coverage should be available [...]

Joost to Stream March Madness — 11:32 PM on March 11, 2008
[...] think this is enough to get Joost into the mainstream (or any stream, for that matter), but NewTeeVee reports that Joost is going to provide streaming coverage of March Madness (that’s college basketball [...]

Is the NCAA Tournament the Last Hope for… — 12:14 AM on March 12, 2008
[...] will offer March Madness live and commercial-free on JOOST using a new live broadcast functionality that the Internet TV service is introducing today. Joost [...]

Hulu - YouTube - TiVo - Nielsen - March Madness… — 5:25 AM on March 12, 2008
[...] live stream March Madness. A new client should be ready for download by about noon ET on Wednesday, reports NewTeeVee. Share/Send Sphere Print Previous [...]

March Madness Live On Joost - GigaOM — 6:16 AM on March 12, 2008
[...] will offer March Madness live and commercial-free on JOOST using a new live broadcast functionality that Joost is introducing today. Joost says the live games [...]

Hulu - YouTube - TiVo - Nielsen - March Madness… — 6:42 AM on March 12, 2008
[...] | NewTeeVee. Enlace [...]

Joost dispondrá de canales en tiempo real — 8:05 AM on March 12, 2008
[...] as of tomorrow live streaming coverage of March Madness, in a deal struck with Joost investor CBS, according to a report from NewTeeVee this [...]

Closer to Cutting the Cable « MyMediaMusings — 8:13 AM on March 12, 2008
[...] | NewTeeVee. Enlace [...]

Tecnologia » Blog Archiv » Joost… — 8:21 AM on March 12, 2008
[...] to New Tee Vee Joost is going to start a public live streaming test today. A new client will be released for that [...]

Joost to test live streaming — 9:16 AM on March 12, 2008
[...] as of tomorrow live streaming coverage of March Madness, in a deal struck with Joost investor CBS, according to a report from NewTeeVee this evening. The client required to watch the live coverage should be available [...]

Joost to Stream March Madness | Social Media… — 9:41 AM on March 12, 2008
[...] to test live streaming According to New Tee Vee Joost is going to start a public live streaming test today. A new client will be released for that [...]

Joost to test live streaming - Computer Forums — 5:59 PM on March 12, 2008
[...] mer på Newteewee. (No Ratings Yet) Loading [...]

Joost livestreaming på riktigt (torsdag… — 12:40 AM on March 13, 2008
[...] “March Madness is just a week away, and this year you’ve got more ways than ever to catch the action no matter where you are. First, the freeware TV-over-the-internet app Joost (remember our full tour and review of Joost) has partnered with CBS to stream all of the games live to the Joost client. It’s Joost’s first major experiment for live video, so if bugginess is too much to bear, you can also head to the official March Madness on-demand web site, which will stream nearly every game online for free. Looks like online video is making life better every day for the sports fanatic.” Joost [via NewTeeVee] [...]

Catch March Madness Games Live from Any Computer… — 12:26 PM on March 13, 2008
[...] Joost | Vía: NewTeeVee ← Anterior | Inicio Comparte esta anotación [...]

Internet: Joost emitirá programación en… — 12:49 PM on March 13, 2008
[...] March Madness is just a week away, and this year you’ve got more ways than ever to catch the action no matter where you are. First, the freeware TV-over-the-internet app Joost (remember our full tour and review of Joost) has partnered with CBS to stream all of the games live to the Joost client. It’s Joost’s first major experiment for live video, so if bugginess is too much to bear, you can also head to the official March Madness on-demand web site, which will stream nearly every game online for free. Looks like online video is making life better every day for the sports fanatic. Joost [via NewTeeVee] [...]

Catch March Madness Games Live from Any Computer… — 12:57 PM on March 13, 2008
[...] case you hadn’t heard, this year Joost joins CBS in offering live access to March Madness. Though I gave up on Joost shortly after it was released from beta, frequent ZNF comment [...]

Joost Tests Live Streaming — 1:32 PM on March 13, 2008
[...] According to the folks at NewTeeVee, Joost has been testing its live-streaming technology for a few weeks now, and the results have been pretty impressive. That said, the service has had technical glitches in the past and even Joost executives say they can’t guarantee perfect reliability. [...]

gadget life blog » Joost/CBS to live stream… — 10:27 AM on March 14, 2008
[...] its infancy, but it’s definitely something to watch closely. The major player is Joost, which signed an agreement with CBS to broadcast all of the tournament games this year. While content providers like CBS hate YouTube [...]

8e6 Labs: IT Security Blog » Blog Archive… — 2:20 PM on March 19, 2008
[...] it, which I did multiple times. Joost’s VP of engineering already warned us that the company expects it to break (mission accomplished!). If you have it installed, you can check, but if you don’t, I’d [...]

Where to Watch March Madness « NewTeeVee — 1:31 PM on March 20, 2008
[...] NewTeeVee reports that a new, live video-ready Joost app is now available for download (versions for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux are available). However, Joost reps are warning users that service could still be spotty, so don’t be surprised if the video conks out before the final buzzer. [...]

Watching March Madness action on your PC… — 2:59 PM on March 20, 2008
[...] NewTeeVee reports that Joost has landed a deal with one of its investors, CBS, to stream live and relatively ad-free NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship games. The new Joost client — for the PC and Intel Macs only — was made available for download today and is needed to access live streaming. Joost began looking into adding “live television” back in October. [...]

Joost makes live-streaming video available… — 8:34 AM on March 24, 2008
[...] then, we have seen the introduction of live streaming video via a deal with CBS. On that score, Joost is one step ahead of YouTube, although they have [...]

A Web-Based Version Of Joost On The Way … — 12:37 PM on March 24, 2008
[...] the first one trying to leverage the power of P2P for live streaming. Recent efforts included Joost’s March Madness test, which got off to a rocky start. “It’s a technically challenging area,” admitted [...]

Velocix Introduces Live P2P Streaming «… — 12:01 AM on March 26, 2008
[...] to test live streaming Mar.12, 2008 in Music & Video According to New Tee Vee Joost is going to start a public live streaming test today. A new client will be released for that [...]

Joost to test live streaming - Ken’sTechnology… — 2:40 AM on July 2, 2008
[...] Joost Gets Live With Free March Madness Posted by root 14 minutes ago (http://newteevee.com) Internet joost emitir programaci n en directo bitelia on march 13th though i gave up on joost shortly after it was released from beta frequent znf comment joost began looking into adding live television back in october marketing consulting by acs idg tech Discuss | Bury | News | Joost Gets Live With Free March Madness [...]

Joost Gets Live With Free March Madness … — 2:47 PM on May 31, 2009