When T.V. meets the Net
by Shang Zuo
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Consumers have three ways to get television (TV) signals: cable, dish, and antenna. I used to have cable. I
watched a handful of channels for about one hour per day. But I realized it didn't make sense to pay so much
money for so many channels I would never watch. So I bought an antenna. Now I have fewer channels, spend
less time watching TV, and live a happier life.
I like TV, but I don't desperately need it. More and more people have switched from TV to the Web for
entertainment. There will soon be a fourth option for us -- watching TV on our computers. Joost is a very
attractive candidate.
Joost is a project led by legends Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, who sold Skype to eBay for $2.6 billion.
Very few could build a billion dollar company. If Friis and Zennstrom can build two great companies in such a
short time, they will define the phrase "entrepreneurial spirit."
Joost is still under development, but you could go to joost.com to ask for a preview. Eventually you will get
an invitation e-mail to download a beta version. I did. /My major concern was whether my bandwidth was
capable to offer good quality. My Internet connection was 3 MB. That turned out to not be a problem at all. The
video quality of Joost was as good as on TV, and it ran smoothly.
Joost is based on P2P (peer to peer) technology. Computers using P2P software don't only receive data
from the server or other computers, but also send data to others. That means, the more users on line, the
better quality everyone has.
Currently, channels on Joost are categorized under Cartoons & Animation, Comedy, Documentary,
Entertainment, Lifestyle, Music, Music Entertainment, and Sports & Games. Not like what I thought, Joost
doesn't broadcast channels. Instead, it has TV programs for you to choose. The plan is to offer programs
from thousands of channels in a few years, and ultimately, 50,000 channels from all over the world.
Does it mean Joost could work like the dish perching on your roof receiving Asian channels? It's still too
early to say. It may take Joost a long time to start offering other language channels. But P2P is a very simple
technique. Professor Edward Felten of Princeton University wrote a program called TinyP2P in merely 15
lines of code. Asia is not lacking in P2P services.
After a brief research, I found 17 P2PTV software, and four of them are from China. Among them, TV Ants,
developed by Zhejiang University, is the most successful. On TV Ants, there is anywhere from several
thousand to over 10 thousand audience members using it simultaneously. The video quality is okay, but not
as good as Joost.
The future of a P2P software is based heavily on how it deals with copyrights. On TV Ants' official website,
there is a statement saying, "The web site is established for academic research purpose. It doesn't serve any
commercial interest. If you're concerned about your intellectual property, please contact us immediately."
Like many P2P software owners, the team is responsible for the software itself, but disclaims responsibility
for the content of the software and how people use it.
Bringing TV to the Web has a bright future and a huge potential market. What developing countries in Asia
lack is not technology and ideas, but business insight, execution strength, partnership, and invest.