User generated content is, quite simply, content produced by the end user. In short, all the original content on sites such as YouTube is, in industry speak, User Generated Content (UGC).

Looking back over 2006 UGC is appears to be the most talked about revelation of the internet. News stories began to break in the third and forth quartewrs of 2006 highlighting the so-called stars of YouTube, Lonelygirl15, Rennetto, NK5000 and Brookers to name but a few.

So what’s the deal with this UGC? Well, those mainstream media folks are all in a panic ‘cos the users are watching the other users and not the producers. In that I mean, more and more people are logging on to YouTube and not tuning into broadcast television.

If you’re a media guru, that’s worrying because if you lack the views; you lack the advertising revenue and we all know what force drives the media, money!

But let’s not get carried away with the UGC thing. After all it’s not having THAT big an impact on the broadcast media. One thing stands between a lonely bored YouTube contributor and an OSCAR® nomination, a blockbuster budget.

Broadcast media as a luxury of a budget whereas your average YouTuber has a plastic web-camera or low quality DV camera and energy as their currency. The productions quality and values are just not the same. How often do you here a YouTuber talking about how he or she is hiring a Techno Crane for their next video.

So long as the broadcast media churn out good quality products they will be watched.

On deeper analysis UGC is not the bad guy here. It is the distribution method!

YouTube and UGC is On Demand, no schedules, no season primers and no hype. The content that is good floats to the top and what’s left sinks to the bottom. Viewers are in complete control of what they watch and when. The broadcast media needs to react to this.

That’s just my two cents of course.

©2008 The Blog of Ross C Brown. All Rights Reserved.

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I fully disclose that I am a 24 fan boy. I love every detail including the iconic ringtones of the CTU IP telephones. Now, having installed these tones on my cellphone, I wait for those few seconds every now and then when someone calls me for I get to pretend to be Jack!  (more…)