Sep 06
2
You Tube – Why is it great?
A lot of media companies must be looking at YouTube's ratings and wondering what is happening. What is happening to their ratings that is.
The fundamental thing that is happening right now is that YouTube (and some others) are providing all of us with the ability to get the edited highlights of TV without having to wade through the crap that is out there. And let's face it what is on TV is generally pretty dire. Boring and predictable for the most part.
YouTube is supposed to be all about user created content. What it is really about is user mediated content. Users find and edit the highlights of the network programs and give them life in rerun. Look at this segment from Stephen Colbert as he interviews Neil Young. Topical, comedic, ironic, political – all these elements rolled into one!
But lets think about where this is taking us….
Next step has got to be the edited highlights packages where users actually start editing out the boring bits from CSI and other programs that have interminable filler in them. When will consumers edit the shows and turn them into versions that are more consumable on your commute? So you can then pick the 15 minute version of last week's program or the 20 minute version to match your commute time.
I can foresee a time when TV/film entertainment undergoes the same transition that music has had to go through. That is where the DJ as the mediator of the content becomes as important as the artist and the song. Think about it: One of the most successful music franchises of the last 5 or 6 years has been the Buddha Bar series of discs. These CD's, presented in double disc packs, are highly mediated versions of content by artists that are largely unknown anywhere outside of very small fan bases. Buddha Bar has changed their status and their visibility.
This is what YouTube is doing too now. Albeit in a very unstructured way.
I am looking forward to the TV version of this…. Where the context is the critical ingredient for discovering great new talent – acting, direction, writing….