Well, Joost is a new project which used to be known as the Venice Project. The Venice Project was a codename for an online television system, now it’s called Joost

It’s co-founders, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis co-founded Skype, the internet telephony service that has taken the telecommunications world by storm. Joost is billed as “a new way to watch TV, free of the schedules and restrictions that come with traditional television. Combining the best of TV with the best of the internet.” However, it is not just another YouTube nor a rival for dozens of other ways to share short video clips. The ambition is provide a full-screen television service where users can do things like change channels - a streaming service, rather than a file download service. This needs a lot of bandwidth. Even with digital compression, it could easily consume a gigabyte per hour.

Content is, naturally, thin at the start of the beta service. The intention is that Joost will offer programmes from the leading TV networks, with deals yet to be announced, and with digital rights management (DRM) where required. There will also be paid adverts. Users will be able to create their own TV channels and upload their own programmes, as well as using the net to chat among themselves.

And Joost will cross national boundaries. The company operates from Luxembourg - the centre of the European TV industry - and already has offices in five countries. That should amuse the TV regulation bodies.