News Home > Online Advertising
Ad-supported internet TV service announced
The founders of Skype are preparing to launch a new free online television service called Joost, which should be ready by the summer.Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis have signed companies including Big Brother producer Endemol and Warner Music Group to supply content for the service, which will also feature a search function – potentially opening new revenue streams for online advertisers.
Advertising will support the service, but ads will be shorter and less frequent than those on regular TV. The developers are considering one minute's worth of ads per hour, generally using only one advertiser per piece of content.
Users will need to download free software that will allow them to browse the internet for channels.
Chief executive Fredrik de Wahl was at pains to point out that Joost will work together with content providers to prevent piracy and guarantee high quality programming.
Friis and Zennstrom sold Skype to eBay last year for around $2.5 billion. They were also behind the controversial file-sharing program KaZaA.
Online Advertising news posted on 17 January 2007
