Internet TV is about to look a whole lot more like traditional TV with Joost's signing of some major advertisers, reports The New York Times.

The online TV startup has signed United Airlines, Microsoft, Sony and Unilever among others as "launch partners" for the service's planned debut this coming Tuesday. Each advertiser has committed to a three-month trial period which will see various different formats tested out to see which works best. Ad prices were reported to be between $50,000 for U.S. only spots and $100,000 for international broadcast.

One format that will be tried is the "hand-raiser" option, where a small box appears within the video. Clicking that box gives the viewer a list of advertiser-specific content. Joost is counting on mining the demographic data provided by users to better target ads.