Joost denies it's shrinking its sights to just the US

Is Web video distributor Joost, facing new competition from Hulu, shrinking its geographic coverage as a result? According to at least one recently published report, Joost has now decided to focus on the US only.

But last month, Nimbus Sport International unveiled deals with Joost spanning multiple continents, and a Joost spokesperson told BetaNews today that new but still unannounced agreements are also in the works for Europe and Asia.

On Sunday, the Sunday Times of London reported that, as part of a wider retrenchment move, Joost is now relinquishing its originally global intentions in favor of a US focus. But later that same day, blogger Om Malik quoted Joost CEO Mike Volpi as telling him in an interview that Joost's current focus is broader than that, also encompassing "Western Europe, China, and a few other countries."

On March 17, Nimbus put out a press release rolling out plans to distribute Internet clips of Premiere League soccer games on the Indian subcontinent, following that up later that month with two subsequent releases, expanding the agreement on March 19 to cover Hong Kong and Japan and then on March 24 to encompass places like "the Middle East, North Africa, Brazil, Belgium, Greece, Portugal, New Zealand and Oceania."

So what areas of the world is Joost actually covering these days, anyway? "We are focusing on the US, Europe, and Asia. But our global position is unchanged," a Joost spokesperson told BetaNews today.

When asked for further clarification, the Joost spokesperson said that, as a start-up, the content delivery network (CDN) has decided to put most of its efforts into certain regions.

"But all of our content [distribution] depends on the rights the content owner holds in specific countries," she pointed out.

Joost has also nailed down a still unannounced deal for video distribution in Sweden, according to the spokesperson. "As a result, we have a number of Swedish-language channels available already," she told BetaNews.

Over the next few weeks, Joost also expects to announce an agreement for content distribution in Asia, she said. She declined further comment on this, except to say that the upcoming deal wasn't one and the same as the already publicized Nimbus pact.

"We haven't had any job layoffs," BetaNews was told. But the spokesperson did acknowledge a "staff realignment in support of [business] priorities." As a consequence, some former Joost contractors are no longer working for the company, according to the spokesperson, adding she doesn't know whether any full-time staff members have been individually let go as part of the realignment.