After Time Warner Cable apparently passed up an offer to buy struggling Internet TV player Joost, it has instead hired the startup’s CTO, Jason Gaedtke, Cable Digital News reports.
It’s the fourth gig for Gaedtke in less than three years. Previously he was CableLabs’s “chief scientist” — delving into next-generation Internet technologies and other projects — before joining Joost in early 2008 (see CableLabs Researcher Joins Joost As CTO). Prior to CableLabs, he was chief architect and fellow with Comcast Interactive Media.
The move comes as TWC prepares to kick off technical trials of TV Everywhere, in a race with Comcast, Verizon and AT&T (as well as DirecTV and probably others) to find the right way to offer pay-TV subscribers an online video service that’s simple to use, cool, and accessible from, well, “everywhere.”
Joost, meanwhile, earlier this summer said it would phase out its consumer-facing video portal and instead look to white-label its platform to media companies (see Joost Shifts Its Online TV Strategy). No developments on that front yet… if ever.
Incidentally, Joost is being run by another ex-cable guy, Matt Zelesko, who was previously vice president of engineering for Comcast Interactive Media. He took over for exiting CEO Matt Volpi.
