Justin.tv, a pioneer of live Internet video, available through a variety of interfaces including a very popular private Roku channel, is no more. Justin.tv launched in 2007 as way for users to broadcast live video. In 2011, the co-founders created Twitch, dedicated to live game play videos that are uploaded by gamers and streamed on Microsoft Xbox and PlayStation 4 game consoles. Justin.tv renamed itself Twitch Interactive Inc. in February of 2014. An announcement on the Justin.tv website states that "Twitch is now the focus of the company's resources. Unfortunately that means we need to shut down Justin.tv."
Why shut down an extremely popular service to focus on a different aspect of the business? The reasoning behind this closure appears to be the potential acquisition of Twitch by Google's YouTube for an estimated one billion dollars. Justin.TV had many channels of "unlicensed" content and was the subject of a well-publicized lawsuit by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Although Justin.tv was found not guilty in that lawsuit, a billion-dollar acquisition by Google is a good reason to jettison a service that could be tainted by piracy accusations.
For those of you not familiar with Justin TV, you missed out on one of the best channels ever. For those of you that did have it, you now have a big empty void in your Roku library. The channel had everything you could imagine: Current movies, live sporting events (baseball, soccer, hockey), reruns from some of your favorite shows (Simpsons, South Park, King of Queens, Workaholics) just to name a few. Aside from streaming great television there were many other platforms, including gaming, video sharing, personal cams, and live chat.
The farewell speech by the Justin.tv founders can be viewed below.
