joost Archive

NY-based CollegeHumor, part of IAC (Nasdaq: IACI) has picked up a major distribution deal with Joost beginning today.  CollegeHumor currently claims 6 million unique readers a month and more than 200 million monthly page views. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

CollegeHumor’s CHTV original videos will be made available on Joost through the newly launched "CHTV: CollegeHumor Original Videos" Joost channel.

This is a good move for CollegeHumor to potentially get a new stream of viewers and site visitors. Could we see CollegeHumor on VirginAmerica soon following Revision3?

The site pulls in videos from around the Web and also publishes their own original videos. Here is one of the safe-for-work videos:

The NBA (National Basketball Association) has signed a deal with Joost to operate a channel on the Joost network which will showcase some of the "instant classic" games — these are games from the last few years that are supposedly spectacular. Some of the example games on the new channel include: Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant’s 81-point game and Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James’ sensational performance in Game 5 of the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals.

Why did they decide to show instant classics instead of real classics? Because today’s youngster wants to watch LeBron jam vs Bill Walton hit from the outside. It’s all about marketing kids, marketing.

This channel will be available worldwide so other countries can view these spectacular games and the stars associated with the NBA. Oh and then they will buy more jerseys and hats and stuff.  It’s all about marketing kids, marketing.

Check out our previous Joost coverage including their partnership with Meebo for inline chat.

In the beginning, meebo was "just" a chat aggregator. Over time they have grown to add Rooms, a Platform and they are announcing a partnership tonight with Joost. Meebo will provide their Rooms technology for the 250 channels on the Joost network. Nielsen/NetRatings reports that Meebo is the fastest growing IM destination (they don’t include eBuddy in the report).

Joost presented at the NY Video Meetup last week. I noticed a much improved user experience over the initial version I tested earlier this year. If you haven’t tried Joost recently, I would try it again. Does the combo of Joost and Meebo leapfrog Hulu? If the integration is seamless, it could be pretty sweet. The part I am unclear about is whether the Meebo Rooms for the channels will be embedded into the Joost interface or a link to the Meebo room will be provided.

"Participation in community activities has emerged as one of the most significant trends in consumer behavior," said Mike Volpi, CEO of Joost. "By offering our viewers a robust channel chat option, they can chat with people interested in the same shows and subjects - and ultimately customize and enrich their entertainment experiences."

"Even in an on-demand environment like Joost, people can experience live community around popular channels and shows," said Seth Sternberg, CEO and co-founder, meebo. "According to a recent internal survey at meebo, 25% of meebo users IM while watching TV - there’s a lot more we can be doing to connect people who share a common passion around a specific show or genre."

Check out our interview with Meebo CEO Seth Sternberg.

Earlier this week was the NY Video Meetup. Somewhere around 250 NY’ers attended and viewed a variety of demos and a healthy video discussion. One thing rang true throughout – online video is HOT here in the city. So many companies, so many ideas and a amazing level of excitement/passion around online video.

Here are just a few of the companies in the online video space in the NYC area. I certainly forgot a bunch, so please leave them in the comments.

• Magnify.net - providing video upload,  encoding,  storage,  delivery, and rev share mainly for video clips (CN Coverage)
• Blip.tv - a leader in episodic content (CN Coverage)
• 5min - moving offices to NYC next month - knowledge sharing (CN Coverage)
• Rocketboom - daily video show about anything with host Joanne Colan (CN Coverage)
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