In an effort to increase its programming offerings, Joost has enlisted the help of Hollywood talent scouts Creative Artists Agency (CAA) to draw the big media companies to their service.
"CAA will provide Joost greater access to programming through our relationships with networks, studios, record labels, artists and independently-controlled content libraries," Michael Yanover, head of business development at CAA, said in a statement.
They've already landed Viacom (VIA-B) and CBS (CBS-A) in the fold, but they are looking to quickly increase the 150 high-quality channels they currently offer on the test site.
The founders of Joost, Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, have a powerful track record as they also successfully started Kazaa and Skype. It shows in that they received approximately $45 million in funding from some of the more important 
financers of Internet products.
Joost has also made deals with 31 international brand advertisers to get monetization going right from the start.
The company is building a professional content Web site versus the user-generated content offered on sites like YouTube. Viacom is putting up content from Paramount, BET and MTV, while CBS is offering CBS Evening News, "Survivor" and the "CSI" crime series franchise.
One of the reasons Joost is trying to move so quickly is that the professional content copycats are already putting up sites to compete with them. If the company can create a huge competitive gap in the beginning, the other companies will have a hard time competing with them.
Another factor is the sites being created by other major media companies that will definitely cut down on content possibilities if they can't cut some deals with them too. The CAA should definitely help them navigate the waters faster.
It of course also eliminates a potential big problem from the Agency, which represents so many in the media field, from becoming a potential enemy rather than an ally.
Obviously some type of agreement has been made to ease the minds of Agency leaders concerning compensation.
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