Online Video Site, Joost, Cuts Back by Eugene Hernandez (June 30, 2009)
Launched more than two years ago as “the world’s first broadcast-quality Internet television service,” Joost today announced a significant change in its business. Company CEO Mike Volpi is stepping down from the post at the online video start up to serve as chairman of the board. He said today that the company will shift to provide “while label” services for online video. The company’s Joost.com portal will serve primarily as a showcase of the company’s technology. “We will continue to offer ad-supported programming on Joost.com,” Volpi said in his letter, “But while we are making our white label offering ready for commercial use, we’ll have fewer resources available for content operations, including content updates and refreshes.” A copy of the letter is provided on page two. Matt Zelesko, currently SVP of Engineering at Joost, has been named CEO with Stacey Seltzer, currently SVP of international business development and content acquisition at Joost, now running business operations. Danny Passman and John Schultz, who joined Joost more than a year ago from DailyMotion as global head of programming strategy and director of programming strategy, respectively, are among those leaving the company. Reporting on the move today, All Things Digital’s Peter Kafka wrote that Joost is laying off most of its employees. “This isn’t a shock,” Kafka wrote, “Joost’s fate has been the subject of whisper and rumors for the last year or more. The service made an initial splash in 2007 by raising $45 million from the founders of Skype and an array of high-profile investors and media companies, including Sequoia Capital and Viacom (VIA), and was initially supposed to deliver copyrighted content via a peer-to-peer distribution system and a player that users downloaded to their desktops. But YouTube, and later Hulu, conditioned users to watch video via their browsers, and Joost’s software never caught on.” —a letter from outgoing Joost CEO Mike Volpi is available on page two—
|
AFI Fest
AFI Fest '09
Chipotle Mexican Grill to Award a Filmmaker $2000, April 4, 2010 during the ECOtainment Awards at the Writers Guild Theater in Beverly Hills.
THAT FILMMAKER COULD BE YOU! GOING GREEN FILM FESTIVAL'S motto: REthink. REplenish. REcommit. This is the only festival of its kind to focus exclusively on green filmmaking, from production to content! ALL GENRES ARE WELCOME! Prizes include: $2000 from Chipotle, Hybrid Bikes, Tree Planted in Your Name, Fuji Film, Movie Magic Suite Software, Showbiz Software, Super 8 Production Facilities and much more! Hurry and beat the NOVEMBER 30th deadline! www.GoingGreenFilmFestival.com |
||||||
finally. unfortunately, not too surprised, they were a bit backwards from the very start. during their launch, an interviewer had asked the founders how they would fulfill their marketing pitch of distributing HD quality videos since consumer upload was so limited. they responded, via “big pipes” from servers in Europe. doesn’t quite sound like the P2P dream they marketed, just eDonkey repackaged for video.
and the switch to Flash? nail in their technology coffin.