However, the company is restructuring, abandoning its hopes to be a successful ad-supported web TV provider. Instead it will sell its video-serving technology to other media companies, reports the IDG News Service.

Joost was building what I hope to see at some point in the iTunes/Apple TV world: true video on demand. Created by the folks who came up with Skype, the Joost peer-to-peer streaming technology was designed to provide a new way of watching TV on the Internet, which uses new and established technologies. Joost channels are like playlists of videos. You can flip between channels, or use the program guide to choose a channel or a video to watch.

The channels start when you play them and not at any particular day or time. If you let them continue they'ill loop round to the beginning again. If you change channels and then switch back again, you’ll start at the beginning of the program again. Joosters have different kinds of channels, including ones that behave more like ordinary TV channels (including the occasional ad).

So Joost and Apple? What if the Apple TV purchase model worked hand-in-hand with the advertising based model of traditional TV -- well, maybe updated a little. More like the original model where you got to know who was sponsoring the show and didn't get constant interruptions of commercial breaks.

Admittedly, the company's plans to be an ad-supported web TV provider didn't work out. According to IDG, Skype blamed an economy that has made it “increasingly challenging to operate as an independent, ad-supported online video platform." In a company blog CEO Mike Volpi said that "in order to position ourselves well for the future, we began investigating additional lines of revenue for Joost."

That investigation has led the company to shift its operations to providing white-label video platforms for companies interested in publishing web video, including cable and satellite companies. According to IDG, Joost thinks it can help companies build video portals cheaper, as it is an expensive and difficult proposition.

Joost’s withdrawal narrows the field of major players in online video. The top dogs now are Google’s YouTube and Hulu.com. IDG notes that in May Joost had 643,365 unique visitors, a nearly 23 percent gain over April, according to Compete, a web analytics firm that offers a free comparison tool on its Web site. But Joost lagged far behind its competitors. YouTube.com had 76.4 million unique visitors and Hulu.com had 8.2 million.

Still, imagine some sort of integration of the Joost technology/network with the Apple TV. And I'm sure it could be tied into iTunes as well.

A bit of extra juice like this and some
serious gaming features for the Apple TV and the device might finally move beyond the "hobby" stage.

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