Justin.tv to launch pay-per-view service

No, not that kind of pay-per-view -- well, OK, a little of the kind of thing you've come to expect from Justin.tv broadcasters. No, this is actually news: Justin.tv is going to offer the option of pay-per-view for its massive army of broadcasters.

It might sound like fairly trivial news, but it's actually huge: Justin.tv has some 800,000 users, with 40,000 of those being active broadcasters. At any one time, 1,800 of those are transmitting. That's a lot of potential, monetizable [shoot me] content. With Justin.tv's cut at 30%, and a minimum fee of $1 per show, you can see why this might be a very lucrative deal indeed -- both for the site and its users.

Beet.tv is reporting that this is the first live-streaming site to launch a pay-per-view service and I am sure more many will follow.
This is the next stage of reality TV.

This is the evolution of Jackass. It begs the question though: what if this encourages the youngsters to be even more frivolous with their already-weak scruples? 'Accidentally' watching a cute teenager flash me takes on a whole new level of menace when I'm paying for it.

Tags: broadcast, justin.tv, lifecasting, live, pay-per-view, streaming, video