Viacom was making the news a couple of weeks ago when it demanded that YouTube remove over 100,000 clips from the video sharing site that violated it's copyrights.  Shortly after, we talked about destination and niche video sites.  At the time, no one knew for sure what Viacom's plan for online video included.  A Viacom-owned and operated video site?  A branded niche site that included video?

The wait is over (I know you were holding your breath… don't lie):  Viacom has signed on with video startup Joost.

The service isn't live yet, but the Joost homepage has this to say about the project:

Born out of the same minds that brought us Skype, Joost is different from YouTube in a number of ways.  First and foremost, it's not a user-generated content destination.  You won't be watching videos of your friends singing and dancing at Joost (unless your friends are Sarah McLachlan or Delerium).  TechCrunch is reporting that Joost has signed several other, smaller deals but that Viacom deal is the company's largest to date.  And according to the Wall Street Journal, Viacom says the deal is proof that the company is willing to work with other companies concerning it's video content… if those companies are willing to protect that content from illegal use.

Joost combines television watching and social networking into a single interface.  Based on these screenshots, it's easy to see that chat and user ratings have been incorporated into the video playback:

Combined with previous content already available from Warner Bros, the Viacom deal could give Joost an extra boost that the company could use to secure future deals.  An FAQ on the site says it will include advertisements.  No specifics are given, but based on the wording of the FAQ ("We're in the process of making it as TV-like as we can"), one can assume that the advertisements will be television style as well.  But we'll have to wait to see for sure.

Marshall Kirkpatrick of TechCrunch sees the separation of user-generated video and commercial video as a bad thing.  I can see his point.  But at the same time, I think that separation is inevitable for now.  Traditional content publishers are not embracing the digitization of their content as fast as consumers are demanding it.  And until places like YouTube and MySpace better police their users, the content publishers will remain wary of them.  It's part business as usual and part human nature.

When you give people an all-access pass to upload whatever they want, some will steal things.  Sad, but true.  Companies who make their money on the stuff getting stolen aren't going to jump onto the bandwagon unless they're being compensated and unless their work is being protected.  YouTube apparently isn't doing that.  So I won't be surprised to see more media companies swing toward services like Joost once they become popular.

And once that happens, places like YouTube will start getting fewer and fewer distribution deals.  Remember:  it's business.  Viacom doesn't care how bad you want to watch Beavis and Butthead at the same destination that you watch Chad Vader.  Honestly.  They don't care.  They care about getting paid when you watch Beavis and Butthead… and little else.  Whoever can guarantee compensation will get the deal.

And I bet Viacom is just the start.