Internet television service Joost today announced that five parties have collectively invested approximately $45 million in the company. This funding will enable Joost to accelerate development,of its ad-supported Internet video offerings.

The investments highlight growing interest in Internet video business opportunities, along with an interest by content creators to see an alternative to YouTube.

CBS Corporation and Viacom are content partners, providing channels and programming on Joost. CBS has provided more than 2000 hours of entertainment, sports and news programming. Viacom is providing content from all of its properties, including MTV, Comedy Central and VH1.

“This funding represents a tremendous vote of confidence in Joost’s platform,” said Janus Friis, co-founder of Joost. “We’ve carefully selected these investors from a variety of interested parties, as they are best-in-class in their respective arenas and bring unique assets to Joost that will enable us to significantly accelerate growth and development of the Company.”

‚ÄúWe are excited to be working with Niklas and Janus once again as we see the same ground-breaking potential in Joost that we saw in Skype,” said Danny Rimer, general partner of Index Ventures. “By leveraging proven P2P architecture and assembling a world class management team, they have made a powerful idea simple and brought new services to market in record time.”

Roelof Botha, general partner, Sequoia Capital, added, “Joost allows content owners to reach audiences of any size at any time where the viewer can ‘lean back’ to enjoy an immersive yet interactive video experience. At the same time, Joost enables brand marketers to efficiently deliver precisely targeted and measurable advertisements. This ability poises the company to expand the video distribution business and capture an enormous market opportunity.”