Entrepreneurs Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, the founders of Skype and music-sharing website Kazaa, have named their new social-networking meets TV-programming internet venture Joost.
Joost, previously codenamed the Venice project, has been labelled the new YouTube by some. It aims to do for TV viewing over the internet what Kazaa did for music file-sharing.
The company describes the service, currently in private testing, as combining the "best of TV and the best of the internet" by creating a "piracy-proof" online platform that will appeal to users and allay the copyright fears of media owners.
"People are looking for increased choice and flexibility in their TV experience, while the entertainment industry needs to retain control over their content," said Frederick de Wahl, chief executive of Joost. "We have married that consumer desire with the industry's interests."
Mr Zennstrom and Mr Friis sold Skype to eBay in 2005 for £1.4bn. In 2002 they sold Kazaa, at the time the world's most popular file-sharing website, to Sydney-based Sharman Networks.
Last year, Kazaa went legitimate by paying $115m (£61m) compensation to the entertainment industry for aiding millions of illegal downloads over the past five years.
The deal, funded by Sharman Networks, also included the installation of filters on new versions of Kazaa's software to prevent users from sharing copyrighted music and images.
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