I think YouTube has arrived. MTV, Channel V, and the rest should start worrying. Why?
I have Channel V and MTV on cable TV. I mostly use cable for the news channels, and music, but lately, these music channels are showing more and more “reality TV” shows, news features and other garbage. Yes, Punkd/Jackass is funny (as is the one where a bunch of guys go on dates, do stupid things for cash), but the whole purpose of a music channel is to show me music videos…
I notice that in the States, there’s VH1, which seems to be mostly music centric. VH1 is interesting as a channel… every music video they have, tacks on a little advert for Rhapsody. I’ve never had the privilege of trying Rhapsody, because they’re US only, but its a smart move.
Now why has YouTube arrived for me? Shitty consumer DSL link (1mbps/512kbps) is allowing me to stream music videos in realtime. If I tether a PC to the TV (MythTV maybe? Apple TV?) I’ve got an MTV replacement right there.
Playlist creation is something I think can be improved with YouTube. Maybe a mechanism to cache FLV files locally afterward (does Squid do this?), so that eventually I build up a music video library all thanks to YouTube.
All in all, ways to make cable TV more and more irrelevant (for example, I haven’t bothered with HBO after Sex & The City ended).
Can’t Smile Without You, go Barry Manilow (Live)
Look What You’ve Done – Jet
Good times ahead. Maybe I should just build that Myth box… Wonder how current Mikal+Stewart’s MythTV book still is… (and if there’s coverage on building your MTV killer).