YouTube: next-gen flea market

YouTube's unauthorized clip of "The Colbert Report" started my addiction.
Screenshot courtesy YouTube.com

For years I've declined watching virtually all TV; but, I did give in and allow myself to see a few clips (via YouTube) of shows I'd been reading about.

But seeing clips of programs like "The Colbert Report" or HBO's "Deadwood" on YouTube was just a tease. Tiny, grainy, 4-minute video clips on my laptop weren't enough. I had to have my Colbert fix with new episodes each night. But it would cost me.

I would have to pay more than $40 each month for the privilege of cable TV. YouTube had broken my self-imposed anti-TV fast and drawn me into television for the first time since afternoon Scooby-Doo reruns 20 years ago.

In the end, I paid the money. Sigh.

See, this is why copyrighted video should not be banned from YouTube and why the site won't replace broadcast and cable TV. Until YouTube somehow starts creating content of the same quality as other media, I (and lots of others) will definitely go to the content creators after getting a taste online.

YouTube is the way the Internet should be. It's a flea market: I know I can find a fake Rolex there, but if I can afford a real one, then I'll get that instead. Plus, YouTube gives more word-of-mouth advertising than a full-page ad in the New York Times ever could. Vote for your favorite Super Bowl commercial after the game — which means thousands of more views for the ads— all via YouTube.

YouTube will remain the home of grainy, badly recorded clips of TV programs I'd rather see on my nice LCD television. And will a cell phone video shot by a bystander replace the professionally reported and edited content that news organizations give us?

I doubt it. Let YouTube remain a black market where we can poke through pieces of every news story and TV clip we want. Eventually, we'll go to the real thing.