Officials at a widely known online television service are denying reports that they’ve had to scale back their aims of globalization for lack of attracting users and shows.

 

Launched last year by the founders of Internet telephony firm Skype, Joost (News - Alert) allows users to watch TV while interacting through tools such as instant messaging and channel chat. Recently, a British business columnist reported that Joost officials failed to convince media companies it wanted sell it global rights to broadcast programs.

 

The claim is “baseless,” according to a Joost spokesperson who said she preferred not to have her name published.

 

“Our global position is unchanged,” the Joost spokesperson said. “We are focused on the United States, Europe and Asia, but we remain a company that has a global vision.”

 

On her company blog, Joost Global Communications Director Kate Larkin said that more than half of Joost’s viewers live outside the United States.

 

“We have more than 200 content partners, with more than 4,000 hours of video, that use Joost to distribute their programming to viewers outside of the U.S.,” wrote Larkin, who is based in the company’s London office.

 

Joost also has offices in New York City and the Netherlands. According to the company’s Web site, the free service currently offers more than 20,000 shows.

 

It’s one of a growing number of Internet services that are transforming the way people watch television, and the recent reports about Joost – though inaccurate, according to the company – have raised questions how the Web ultimately will function as a video distribution hub.

 

Though individual networks regularly post shows on their own Web sites, companies such as Joost, Hulu and YouTube (News - Alert) are popular destinations because they use clean, fast technology that broadcasts a wider range of programming. They’re also free.

 

Hulu, which was launched two months ago, is a joint venture of News Corp (News - Alert). and NBC Universal, and it offers video from NBC, FOX, MGM, Sony Pictures Television and Warner Bros.

 

YouTube regularly attracts more than 80 million viewers per month in the United States alone.

 

The sites are becoming increasingly popular and more widely used as they serve as another mode of communications for Internet users on social networking sites such as Facebook (News - Alert), or video communications sites such as TokBox.

 

For some, the damning column, by Sunday Times blogger James Ashton, was a testament to how competitive the online television market has become. In his piece, Ashton claims that Joost has been overshadowed by the British Broadcasting Company’s own iPlayer. He then goes on to hail Hulu (News - Alert) as a popular choice in the United States – and quietly notes that Hulu is jointly owned by NBC and News Corp., owner of the Sunday Times.