Joost - yes it's the content
So I got back to Amsterdam and found that Joost would work for me. I tried to run it in KL but got an error message about upgrading and didn't have the time to download a newer version of the software.
After I had upgraded I found that I would actually watch content. Not great content, admittedly, but there were moving pictures on the screen and sound coming out of the speakers. I managed to watch my 'toons. Yes, Joost will happily show me poorly animated, 30 year old cartoons.
And once I'd watched nearly 40 seconds of that I tried looking for something... interesting, recent and local. I found material from BoomChicago, who are based in Amsterdam like me. It seems that their vlogs from the 2006 world cup are available through Joost. And here's the problem - topical comedy doesn't age well. Rocky & Bullwinkle might be watchable after 30 years but topical comedy is rarely good after a month. However good the content was at the time (and BoomChicago are often very funny) it was wasn't topical any more.
The other problem is that while the content was local, albeit outdated, the advertising was not. Despite only watching a couple of show and for a couple of minutes I was advertised at three times. The advertising was inserted into the programming at what seemed like random monets, rather than at natural breaks and the advertising was irrelevant to me as the products advertised are not available in this country.
