Joost Allowing Unlimited Beta Invites
Internet television service Joost moved into public beta on Tuesday, as the company announced that it is allowing its existing beta testers to invite an unlimited number of friends and family to sign up for the service.
Current users can invite anyone by clicking on the "My Joost" area, then selecting the "Invite Friends" widget.
In addition to the announcement of the commercial launch of the service, Joost also said that advertising campaigns from its 32 companies will begin running across the service this month. Some will begin running immediately, while others will be added throughout the month.
"Today marks the beginning of an exciting phase for Joost - we are officially open for business," global advertising chief David Clark said in a statement.
Joost is the brainchild of Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrtzm, the founders of Skype and Kazaa. Boasting itself as a "secure, efficient, piracy-proof Internet platform," Joost hopes to lure television networks and content providers to distribute their videos online, which uses peer-to-peer streaming.
It will feature more than 150 channels across a variety of genres, which would vary by region based on its deals with content providers. Most of the programming is available in the US, although Joost indicated it was working to add content for users outside of the country.