Digital Home Thoughts: Joost Post Mortem

"There’s something the Joost folks, savvy as they were, failed to take into account. It’s a little something called choice. Joost failed for the same reason that broadcast, cable and satellite providers are losing viewers and subscribers. The “choice” offered by channel surfing revolves around searching for the least-boring junk content that is currently playing. It is choice, but not a very good one."

Hulu, Netflix, and YouTube need to take note. TV is a passive medium, the internet is an interactive medium. If someone is sitting on the couch vegging out watching TV, your main competition is them switching channels to another passive program. If they are online, there are a huge number of other choices of things to do besides watch your content. So, lesson is to make sure you have the content I want to see and don't make me jump through hoops to see it.