Joost Blog
« My new favorite channel | Main | DIY for the Startup Employee »
For the Record … "Are You Kidding Me?"
Most people have sayings that they use too much. In my case, one of my overused expressions is “are you kidding me” – usually uttered with exclamation points (as in: are you kidding me!!!) rather than question marks. I tend to use this phrase when something is so far fetched (or so stupid) that I can’t begin to believe it, or in very rare, wonderful instances — like when my fiancé proposed — which is a story for another time.
Recent occasions for my overuse of this phrase include:
- Britney’s mom writing a parenting book
- Societe-General trader Jérôme Kerviel “single-handedly” losing $7 billion
- Hillary claiming to “misspeak”
- Rumors that Joost will focus only on the U.S.
Now I’m as jingoist as the next American … much less as an American living outside of the United States … but even I said, “Are you kidding me!!”
As the head of communications for Joost, people inside and outside of the company assume that I know what’s going on. And they’re right. I do know what is going on.
For example, I know that:
- More than 50% of our viewers are outside of the U.S.
- We have than 200+ content partners (with more than 4,000 hours of video) that use Joost to distribute their programming to viewers outside of the U.S.
- We just signed a 10-year lease in our new office space in London … England
- And lastly, I dragged myself and all of my earthly possessions to London so that I could do my job as “GLOBAL communications director” more effectively
As usual, I can’t tell you the best news yet. But, I can tell you it’s totally worth the wait … wherever you live, anywhere around the world.
xoxox kate
(Another of my overused expressions)
Posted by Kate Larkin on Apr 8, 08 | Permalink | Comments (3)
Comments (3)
Matt Hendry:
The only only ones that don't know whats going on are certain Jornalists and Bloggers that claim Joost is scaling back its Global Focus to only focus on the US market.
Posted by: Matt Hendry | Apr 9, 08
QH:
Hi Kate,
thanks for reassuring us. Signing a 10 year lease in a city like London sends indeed an important signal.
You said that you can't tell us the best news yet, but perhaps you can tell us one thing, just one: "Will Joost offer live retransmission of regular TV programs such as BBC or SKY shown on regular TV sets?" (I mean programs that are ON AIR, not just what is typically offered via streaming on the web sites of TV stations).
That is what would get me glued to my PC. BTW, that is also what would free Joost from the need to permanently replenish the content library, just to keep consumers happy.
Posted by: QH | Apr 9, 08
Kate Larkin:
Matt and QH-
Thanks for the feedback.
QH to answer your question:
We certainly plan to offer more live programming. The live test that we did with March Madness was a tremendous success as far as the learnings that it provided for us. (And not to sound like an engineering groupie…but it was just plain cool.) It was the first live P2P streaming effort that we attempted—and we are now in a much better position to offer our viewers a high quality live viewing experience.
As far as offering live programming from BBC and Sky… we’d love to. It’s important to note though that live programming on Joost will have to be licensed by the content owner/ copyright holder for each geography in which we make the content available – the same way as all of our programming. With that said, we’ll keep you posted as more content and more live content becomes available.
Best, Kate
Posted by: Kate Larkin | Apr 10, 08