Joost is now public

Joost has announced that its peer-to-peer Internet TV service is now available for public consumption, according to an official post on the company’s blog.

However, the company was quick to highlight that, despite Joost reaching ‘1.0’ status, it doesn’t mean the software is no longer in beta. “There’s a lot more work to be done before we’re satisfied, and yes, you may find a bug or two.”

Joost is a completely free service that allows users to stream on-demand television shows to their PC. It is supported almost entirely by advertising and was originally developed by Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström, the founders of Skype and KaZaA.

With over 15,000 TV shows across more than 250 channels, the company has managed to sign deals with many big content providers including CBS, MTV, the NHL, Sony, Viacom and the Warner Music Group.

The beta is available for download from Joost’s homepage and supports Windows XP, Windows Vista and Mac OS X operating systems. There’s currently no direct support for the Linux community, but the program can be run using WINE.

We had a look at Joost’s progress back in May and it’ll be interesting to see how far development has come since then. Have you been on the Joost beta? If so, share your experiences with the service in the forums. Also, if you're going to install Joost, it might be worth checking out Frag - you might notice a familiar face or two...