Sunday 18 March 2007

Current TV - the raisin d'etre...?

I'm sitting in my hotel room in Stockholm (the Hotel Central - you should try it if you're ever over for a visit - it's very high tech), and on my plasma TV screen is an interview with former US Vice President Al Gore, who is talking about his brainchild - Current TV which he established back in August 2005. Now this is interesting, because Current TV is a departure for terrestrial or cable/satellite television.

Current TV is a channel dedicated (well, 30 percent of it anyway) to viewer created content. The debate about whether this will catch on is just starting. One argument is that user created content such as that found on YouTube is fine to watch for a few minutes, because the clips are quirky and edgy, and are therefore ideally suited to be aired on the 'web'. They are also generally played out in low resolution, and the camera work and editing can be amateurish. No-one, goes the argument, as seen in the mail on Sunday today, will tolerate a whole hour of this quality... Well, enter Current TV. So who is right? We shall see - as we watch.

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