Live-Streaming Fad Recast as Live-Remixing

We wouldn’t go so far as to say “great minds think alike,” but the similarity in conception and timing between two startups we recently met is disarming. Both Operator11 and Mogulus promise to take the next step forward for the fad of the moment, less-than-gripping live-streaming web video shows, by adding editing and remixing. And both will launch in the next couple weeks.

Both companies’ founders survived a generation of “netcasting” predating Justin.tv’s recent rocket to (relative) fame. Operator11 is essentially the second coming of Pseudo.com, the icon of dot-com excess (see old coverage); it is funded and founded by eccentric Pseudo founder Josh Harris. New York City-based Mogulus is a project of Max Haot, a veteran of video syndication platform Interactive Content Factory (ICF), acquired by MCI and still peddled by Verizon.

Though the sites differ in intent, they both are centered on web-based editing interfaces, where producers can coordinate multiple feeds of live streams. And they look to be a step up from Stickam’s chat rooms and UStream’s 24/7 unedited fuzzy footage. Of course, they’re not officially released yet (more on getting access to them below).

“Home theater was 10 years ago; now it’s home studio,” Operator11’s Harris said in the hallway of paidContent’s EconSM conference in Beverly Hills last Thursday. He wants to build a massive network of home studios that produce webcam stars (a.k.a. “operators”), who get elevated to a real studio in Hollywood if they earn enough viewers.

A cast of Operator11 studio operators wandered the halls of the conference last week conducting live shows and wearing bright red full-body outfits that resembled a spacesuit crossed with an oompa loompa costume. We’re not going to pretend to understand the high concept. (Example embedded below — volume kicks in after the beginning.)

Haot, on the other hand, wants to offer the tools for anyone to create “MyNN,” or personal newscasts a la CNN, with spliced-in clips, live feeds, graphics, and headlines. He’s raised $1.2 million in angel funding and hired 20 people to build out a very pretty looking Flex and Flash-based interface (see screenshot below).

Haot predicted in a phone call last week the current online emphasis on on-demand content would soon change to include much more live content.

Operator11 is set to launch May 5, though it is publicly accessible now. Mogulus will open a private beta May 10. Fifty NewTeeVee readers can get invites by being the first to email beta@mogulus.com.

Both companies hope to monetize using advertising, Operator11 through spots that operators earn points for including in their shows, and Mogulus for ads inserted into streams every 8 minutes (alternatively, customers could pay for an ad-free version).