LiveMatrix will crawl websites that the company has identified as likely to host live events online, and parses information to create listings and extract URLs. It will also provide a publisher portal, where content providers can add their own listings. This can be done by entering event details manually, using LiveMatrix's application programming interface (API), or by giving LiveMatrix a data dump and trusting its technology to parse the information. LiveMatrix will sort events into channels of similar events and will supply widgets so that users can embed event information on their own sites.

Spivack hopes that the approach will lead to a new online advertising model that focuses on time slots. He argues that advertising space must be more valuable during major events--for example, slots on popular technology news sites during the iPad launch, when huge numbers of people were searching for information on Apple's new product. LiveMatrix is building an advertising platform to reflect this concept.

Michael Dale, cofounder of metavid, an archive of political video, says LiveMatrix will have its work cut out dealing with the chaotic metadata currently available for most streaming video events. There are few standards for tracking time-sensitive events, he says, and Spivack's company will need to customize its system for different video formats on different sites.

But Carla Thompson, a senior analyst with market intelligence firm Guidewire Group, says LiveMatrix's concept of advertising time slots online "will be a relatively easy sell to major media organizations." This is because the TV Guide format is familiar, and advertisers will likely understand its potential, she says.