Justin.TV Network Launches: More Shows to Come
The site is so successful, in fact, that many people have said they want to start their own real-life television shows. Startup Ustream launched just in time to take advantage of this – they give users the tools to easily duplicate the Justin.tv experience.
Today, Justin.tv is launching its own network to allow users to create and publish their own shows.
Each Monday for the following weeks, Justin.tv will be opening their network to a new live video casters, serving as examples for the different ways fans will be able to use live video. Some may be like Justin Kan, with a now more affordable mobile hat came based on off the shelf hardware. Others will stream from their computers or static cams set in the public. They’ve got a list of the upcoming casters but are keeping the names secret for now.
Each caster will get their own fully skinable page on Justin.tv, complete with vanity URL (http://justin.tv/name). They’ll also get the all the new features released on Justin’s page: a more stable chat room, calendar, new player, and clip voting system. To handle the relatively high volume of simultaneous chatters Justin gets (150 – 600), Justin.tv switched the chat room over to an IRC back end. To keep viewers updated, Casters will be able to post their show schedule on their own calendar module (Kiko?) and feature their most recent Twitters.
Their new player lets viewers get the live feed and navigate archive clips in a simple calendar interface in the same player. Every clip can be called by a permalink and embedded. It also features a somewhat unique take on user generated advertising. The little film reel in the lower left corner of the screen links to somewhat quirky and at times irreverent custom made advertisements by Justin Kan.
Realizing not everything they tape is pure entertainment gold, Justin.tv has implemented a Reddit-like real-time voting system called “Tips.” Tips allows any user logged into their chat account to submit the current streaming video to a leader board, where other logged in users can vote up the clips they like. The power of your vote will be impacted by your user karma, which varies based on how successful the videos you “Tip” are and how long you watch the shows.
Although the network isn’t completely open, it’s plain to see that Justin.tv is testing the waters before opening the site to everyone.