Is the NCAA Tournament the Last Hope for Joost?
I don’t 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 for those of you outside of the US).
I guess CBS is trying to get something out of its investment in Joost:
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.
I still think the whole idea of having to download a client is what killed Joost, as well as the fact that it doesn’t provide much added value over most other online video services anymore.
As NewTeeVee points out, “Joost has been quietly testing live streaming over the past few weeks.”
Problem is, anything Joost does is done quietly, because nobody is there to notice what they do. I have a feeling the same is going to happen with the NCAA tournament, especially, because this year, the NCAA is streaming all the games live for free anyway (I assume through a flash player in the browser).
Given this, what incentive does a user have to install Joost just to watch these games?
Most people who watch online are probably doing so at work anyway, where they most likely can’t (and shouldn’t) install a bandwidth-hogging desktop application anyway.
If anything, I think the likely failure of this project is going to be the last stake through the heart of Joost.
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