Justin.tv: Hundreds of Channels, Nothing On

According to the Justin.tv website:

“Founded in October 2006, Justin.tv is the largest online community for people to broadcast, watch and interact around live video. With more than 41 million unique visitors per month and 428,000 channels broadcasting live video, Justin.tv is the leading live video site on the Web, enabling users to create real-time connections with others around the world.”

Justin.tv co-founder Justin Kan at Gnomedex 2007 Attribution-ShareAlike License by hyku

Hundreds of channels, but nothing’s on

The site began as a social experiment in something co-founder (and namesake) Justin Kan referred to as Lifecasting or broadcasting his life live on the web, 24/7. That experiment lasted a few months and the site has come a long way from this. After adding hundreds of lifecast channels, the site was opened up to the public in late 2007, moved on from experimentation, and entered the gestation phase. The volume of content grew quickly, but with a wide variety of content channels of dubious quality. Now their “live channels” might include an endless loop of kung fu movies, baby ferrets, or even a live feed of Scarboro Vacuum, Inc. While traffic has boomed, quality growth has stagnated, and a site that should be gaining traction from major web players is having trouble moving into adoption.

New Media Life Cycle Analysis: Justin.tv

Justin.tv on the cusp of Adoption phase

Despite their impressive growth and numbers, Justin.tv can only claim to be in the gestation phase of its life cycle. Instead of focusing on quality content, Justin.tv has been introducing new features and making it easier for new subjects and channels to be added, with little moderation or control. Another downside to this wild west content pool is one of the web’s great double-edged swords: adult content. It can be found on Justin.tv, and it brings the traffic. However, this will be a major obstacle for Justin.tv if it expects to gain major media adoption. Quality users won’t adopt the channel and put the time and effort into quality production until they know their reputation won’t be tarnished or equated with illegal behavior – from copyright infringement to the suicide of Abraham K. Biggs (FYI, this is a link to the Wikipedia entry, not the actual suicide) broadcast live on the site.

To begin developing a quality base of users that will, in turn, produce quality, engaging content and move the platform into the next phase of its life cycle – adoption – Justin.tv will need to:

• Highlight the most popular and broadly accessible content above the fold. It seems like a no-brainer, but their homepage offers little in the way of easily browsed highlights or direction for first-time users;
• Clean up the content. Videos of scantily clad girls and people getting drunk and high bring in the young people, but not the sort looking to engage with the content they’re viewing, the sort we call valuable users;
• Limit the ads. Focus on content. Google text ads as well as in-stream messages populate the site. At the volumes Justin.tv’s pulling in, they can’t be faulted for trying to get some money out of it. However, just as with YouTube, high-volume, low-quality content doesn’t necessarily equal big profits.
• Attract a big brand or mass media broadcaster. A little credibility is going to go a long way for Justin.tv.

The shift from lifecasting to live broadcasting

It’s not surprising to me that Justin Kan’s experiment in lifecasting didn’t last. Unless the lifecasting subject is James Bond, I believe that real life in real time is going to get boring pretty fast. (And even James Bond slept sometimes. It’s true. Read the books.) It doesn’t take long watching someone else’s life before you realize you have your own lifecast to watch. The voyeuristic appeal is huge, but in my research I discovered far too many lifecasters sitting in front of their computers, webcam running, looking bored, Halo guns blaring in the background.

Instead of the 24/7 drudgery that most lifecasts eventually become, engaging talents should make it an event-driven platform. Consider it less as a lifecast and more of a live-vlog. How exciting would it be to watch CES from Robert Scoble’s point of view? Now the lifecast increases the urgency of the moment, a need to stop what you are doing to see life from someone else’s point of view. No What Now? moment. A user will be more likely to engage with the content if the subject matter is engaging and they know what to expect.

I envision major TV networks adopting live broadcasting sites like Justin.tv, running endless loops of old programming and getting the writers/producers to participate in live chats alongside the show as a way to boost awareness and generate DVD sales. Think of the chat as a live DVD commentary, where users at home can ask the questions they always want answered. Who wouldn’t like Matthew Fox’s take on what the Lost island is, exactly? This channel is perfect for broadcasting niche special events by major media outlets.  It’s an extremely low overhead marketing channel. The audience is there right now, but it won’t stay around for long if the quality continues to stagnate.

The Takeaway

Live broadcasting is an exciting new platform with great possibilities, and Justin.tv is indeed leading the way in promoting it. Their traffic numbers are difficult to ignore, and the platform itself is affordable and highly accessible. However, it is only doing an OK job with a messy site and no focus. Its growth is stunted. Some moderation and promotion of its best producers will go a long way to moving the channel into the adoption phase it is already overdue for.

The Question

How can Justin.tv rein in their producers and challenge them to improve the quality? Please share your thoughts.

About the author

Andrew Davis -

In 2002, Andrew founded Tippingpoint Labs with journalist James Cosco. Since then, he's spent countless hours exploring the online universe and building a methodological approach to developing digital strategies that drive revenue or reduce costs.

Andrew's always asking big questions and analyzing data to understand markets, online forces and even business models. Andrew's research has resulted in the creation of innovative online metrics including Online Brand Value and Category Brand Value, eye-opening graphical representations of website evolution through the New Media Life Cycle and even using online data to predict offline revenue.

When he's not surfing the web, Andrew's traveling the globe speaking to a wide-variety of audiences about everything from social media to the future of print. Andrew is a frequent contributor to the Tippingpoint Labs website and has been creating valuable content since the early 1990s for The Jim Henson Company, CNN, The Today Show and MTV.

He's contributed to a book of short stories, called The Way Things Were and produced and co-wrote Roadside Ambition a documentary film about one small town with two huge balls.

"In a world where content is consumed as rapidly as it's created, companies need to develop a sound strategy to creating valuable online experiences that can, and should, be leveraged enterprise-wide. There is a content solution to every business challenge."