Television 2.0: Coming to a (Computer) Screen Near You

Another TV disruptor, kyte, offers its members the creation of interactive television on their site, blog, social network, or even their mobile phone. It's most interactive feature of all, is the ability to collaborate with friends. Friends can add their own video responses, vote, or chat live with other viewers. "I can do a video and share it with my friends and those I care about. They get it straight on Facebook, on their MySpace profiles, wherever they are," says Daniel Graf, Kyte's co-founder and CEO. The result is your own interactive TV network that gives public access television a run for its money.

While user-generated video, like the content you find on sites like GUBA and kyte, is on the fast track following in the steps of YouTube, it's the Internet TV networks that are really giving the video-sharing giant a run for its money. These networks feature niche content that appeals to a dedicated fan base, and end up with major sponsors.

Geek Entertainment TV, founded by freelance writer Irina Slutsky and Eddie Codel, recently inked a deal with GoDaddy.com to sponsor newly created episodes of the show, as well the show's archives distributed through blip.tv. Though the sponsorship is significant in terms of building relationships with solid sponsors, Slutsky says that having at least five more would mean she could stop freelancing and do the show full time. The tech-centric program attracts as many as 10-20,000 viewers per show, and even up to 100,000 for its popular episodes.

Geek wasn't the first Web TV show to cozy up to major sponsors, PodTech's Robert Scoble, who hosts ScobleShow, another tech oriented video show in which he interviews technology and Web luminaries, recently received another round of sponsorship from Seagate. The sponsorship is reported to be a major figure. PodTech is a media platform and online network of original technology and digital entertainment programming.

Like Geek and ScobleShow, a variety of companies are getting in touch with talent, creating alternate TV, and sharing it with the world.

At the forefront of this new age of new television is Revision3. Started by the same duo behind social news site Digg.com, tech geek-come-TV host Kevin Rose and media exec Jay Adelson, produce a variety of tech shows and disperse them through a variety of distributors, such as iTunes. Abandoning the rigidity of network TV is necessary according to Revision3's founder and board chairman Jay Adelson. "The audience has become one that is used to more control, more specific direct involvement -- a conversation with the media," he says. Shows like XLR8R TV attract music nerds with quirky episodes, like a recent one featuring members of dance punk band Adult needlepointing. The flagship show, Diggnation, features Revision3's own founders going through the top diggs of the week.

Another group supplying its own brand of content that either rivals or tops TV's, is Next New Networks, which creates programs in an ever expanding list of topics. Primarily known for its Channel Frederator, created by the people behind The Fairly OddParents, Johnny Bravo, Dexter's Laboratory, The PowerPuff Girls, and other animated series. The channel features weekly 10-15 minute clips, that often feature cartoons submitted by users. Other popular channels are Bride-o-rama, with real stories from real brides, and Bleacher Bloggers, with hosts Dave Aizer and Brent Popolizio scouring the sports blogosphere for the best stories. Site visitors also submit video, comments, suggestions, and questions.

A company that evangelizes user-generated content to its fullest is blip.tv. It offers a revenue-sharing program and assists with securing sponsors and advertisers to attract its independent and amateur video creators. "Blip's role in this ecosystem is to provide all of those services to the shows -- to provide them with distribution, provide them with audience, provide them with revenue, provide them with PR and Marketing," explained blip's CEO Mike Hudack. With its strategy blip is modeling itself as TV network 2.0. It even offers distribution streams other than its own platform, such as Apple TV and other set top boxes.

This is the future of TV, a hodgepodge of business models and content all vying for YouTube's numbers and television's place as media entertainment titan in American culture. And while it might feel like the early days of television or cable, that's like comparing ping pong to Tennis. There are far less barriers to entry in the wide open Web, and far more collaboration. "The market isn't really firmly established. It is easier to identify competitors when you have a market and market share," Vuze's BianRosa says.