Why Use a TV Network?

Interesting move by a local TV station called KZSW in Temecula, California (yeah, I've never heard of it either - look it up on uploading its video to YouTube. And why not? If it's good enough for NBC and clips like "My in a Box" from Saturday Night Live, then why not the local traffic report or cat-in-a-tree report from downtown Temecula? Marshall links to a story from the local newspaper that Okay, it's no Lonelygirl15 or Numa Numa dance, but hey - what does KZSW care? They get more viewership for their video virtually free of charge. It's a no-brainer. As a couple of people have mentioned, both on the Buzzmachine, it's difficult to see how this helps any advertisers the station might have, or brings in any extra money for KZSW. But so what? Maybe it will drive viewers to the station - and if it doesn't, no harm no foul. As Edward Fink, chairman of Cal State Fullerton's Radio-TV-Film department, told the local paper: "YouTube is there and it's free. If you're trying to find an audience, why not use it?" Meanwhile, Tom Evslin says broadcast content will move to the web, and we'll use broadcast towers Comments Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit | Furl Bookmark murdok: Mathew Ingram is a technology writer and blogger for the Globe and Mail, a national newspaper based in Toronto, and also writes about the Web and media at www.mathewingram.com/media