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TV on the Net: Joost, Cable Boxes and the Amazon Unbox Service

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By: Rustycat | in: General, TV, Technology |

Seems like all the new startup companies are trying to haggle over the untapped market of online TV. We’re almost there, the dream of watching live and video on demand television for free on our PCs, and better yet, TV sets is just around the corner.

Joost

While Joost remains the leader in this market it’s still too early to call it a success. I think for most consumers it’s fun to watch TV for a few minutes at work, but when it really comes down to a few hours of couch potatoing no one wants to stare into a 17 inch screen and wait for the rocky Internet connection to deliver another segment. What Joost is trying to do now is embed their player into your television set. They are in talks of getting their program pre installed on the cable box you buy. This marks a new milestone in the Internet and television love story.

The online TV market is divided in to several basic consumer needs:

  1. I want to watch live television channels 24 hours a day on my computer. (It’s coming soon, wait for it another few months and you’ll see tons of TV channels online)
  2. Video on demand live on the internet. (Also in the works, but it’ll take a few more months to gather substantial content though.)
  3. Internet TV on my 42 inch plasma TV which I just purchased. (The ultimate dream)
  4. I want to download LEGAL movies and TV shows for money and watch them on my computer or TV set.

Amzon Unbox

Amazon is trying to answer the 4th need. They’ve done a great job with their new service, “Unbox Video Downloads”. Amazon managed to get the best movies and TV shows available for a quick and easy download. The service, only available in the US at the moment, offers users a chance to buy the latest movies and TV shows to play on their PC or TiVO DVR. The prices vary from 99 cents a movie to complete TV series for 38$. Your rental video can be stored on your PC or TiVo DVR for 30 days. Once you press play, you have 24 hours to watch the video before it expires.

As for online TV, I’m not a big Joost fan. I think they could have done much better. I would like to see more interactive TV applications; this is what the internet is all about. Rather than just clicking play to watch Paris Hilton do something stupid, I’d like to watch it with all my friends and other users and laugh at her – LIVE.

Stay tuned as I’ve made it a mission of mine to find interesting TV online services and companies. I will be posting more about this in the near future.


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Posted on June 20, 2007

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