Justin.tv Kills Archived Video and Premium Content

Just posted on the IAIB : http://www.ibroadcastnetwork.org/new...remium-content

"Over the last few months, our staff has been reviewing data surrounding our archive and VOD (Video on Demand) system. We found that more than half of our VODs are unwatched (with 0 or 1 total views), while the vast majority are rarely watched (with 10 or less views). This data was essential in better understanding how our service is being used. Even when adding the direct upload to YouTube functionality, we found this feature was seldom used. It’s quite clear: JTV is a home for live broadcasts. Viewers come to Justin.tv because they want to consume content and interact with their communities in real-time.

So, taking into consideration the above findings and countless discussions, we have concluded to remove all archiving after June 8, 2014. This means that live broadcasts will no longer be recorded.

We understand that archiving can be a very essential element for our broadcasters. We also understand that there are some community members who enjoy catching up on a past broadcast they missed. However, as a live video website, we want to put our focus on our live video delivery system, as this has received the most usage."

JTV as stated

This is a system-wide change that will affect all broadcasters. Premium and Partner broadcasters will not have archiving. We are also planning to discontinue our Premium service.

We do not know what this means for the future of JTV. Last week rumors hit the web that Google was close to buying TWITCH.TV (Part of JTV)

Well the end is near... This is as good as an official announcement that the youtube deal is done

Killing archives is a decision that would probably been made regardless of getting rid of Justin.tv altogether. I could see getting rid of their premium service as more telling of the future.

I currently use Justin.tv for broadcast. If that goes away, what is a good one to use? I was gearing towards Ustream.

If you're looking for free there's a dwindling number of options it seems.
Basically, from what I understand, free with advertising really hasn't become a viable business model for the CDNs.

Bambuser free doesn't allow you to use an encoder.
Make.TV free limits you to 100 viewer hours a month.
New Livestream free requires viewers to sign in so they can gather the email addresses.
Ustream is obviously still what it is.
There's YouTube and they're evolving with some great features and some serious limitation IMHO.

That Justin.TV dumped archiving is bailing water to stay alive. Some service would offer 30 day archive or a limited amount of storage. Dumping it entirely is a sign they're taking drastic steps.

the end seems to be near sadly. I have heard that many former content partners are complaning that many of their contacts from the company have left over the past month