Wossy and BobbyLlew in Tesla

I have a post coming very soon with the title ‘the rise and rise of online video’ that looks at sites like ChannelFlip and Rev3 and how they’re fast becoming the ‘Digital TV’ of the 21st Century.

To understand what I mean by that you need to take a step back in time to around the early to mid-nineties when Digital TV (in the form of Sky) was taking off in the UK – becoming mainstream.

At that time it would be really cool if you saw someone you knew (in the fame sense of knew) on one of the digital channels (i.e. not BBC, ITV or Channel 4) – even though the shows were relatively low budget and often a bit crap.

Well Online is fast taking on that role – as Digital Television has become the norm, as it is taking over from ‘traditional’ television in terms of new shows, big commissions etc – online is taking the role of ‘known people’ doing their own things, creating their own shows and doing the whole ‘ooo cool lets get cult’.

It isn’t television but Phil and Phills Perfect Ten, Stephen Fry’s Podgrams and Colling and Herrins Podcast make for great unique, original straight to the audience radio.

And in television you’ve got people like Robert Llewellyn (Red Dwarf, Scrapheap Challenge, Top Trumps) creating their own shows and even networks.

The latest from Robert is LlewTube – which has one main show in the form of Car Pool – that’s just had its second episode (first official). It basically sees Robert driving around London in a car (either Tesla or Prius) with someone famous or interesting or both.

The first episode was with Red Dwarf (and other things) director Ed By and the second with Jonathan Ross. You can watch that now – but please do check out www.llewtube.com.

Did you enjoy it? OK so the quality isn’t perfect yet, the camera work needs a bit of tweeking and the audio needs a bit of a sledghammering – but the concept is brilliant, the content is brilliant and there are another 16 already recorded – being released weekly.

But this isn’t the only online video Robert is doing – he also presents MoWer (or Machine of the Week) for ChannelFlip – the network launched by Wil Harris and Justin Gayner.

ChannelFlip, despite a slightly slow start that saw several months go by without an update – has rapidly increased both its output, its profile and its user numbers.

As well as having Robert Llewellyn – Wil Harris recently announced via his Twitter stream that comedian David Mitchell (Peep Show, Mitchell and Web) will be presenting a show for the network.

That will be added to the already impressive line-up of shows from lesser known presenters – including Wil and Justin themselves.

You can watch an episode of Robert Lewellyn’s MoWer which has just broken the iTunes top 30:

Back? Right so lets move on – it isn’t just the big high profile sites providing great content – there are also smaller players – just go through YouTube Channels or look at Blip.tv for some of the brilliant independent video content online – but ignore my channel.

As video production gets increasingly more simple, as costs of bandwidth and ease of putting online (set up a blip.tv network, upload video, tick podcast box and go) improves – and as advertising revenues for podcasts increase – I can imagine an increasing number of mid-level celebs launching their own shows.

How long before Andi Peters launches a weekly cooking show – actually Wil Harris – how about giving Andi a call or sending him a Tweet – xxandip?

But there is a more serious side to this online video lark – with sites like ChannelFlip trailblaising their way through and millions using the iPlayer on a regular basis (an average of 700 thousand a week for Top Gear alone while it was on) – could we see a new online PVT service funded from the £130 million BBC digital switchover fund?

Should that money go towards creating a new PVT online broadcaster that carried documentaries on difficult subjects, carried entertainment shows that aren’t commercial enough or wide audience enough to work on television but still interesting enough to follow up?

Could an online PVT service include live streamed (or even just reported) coverage of all the local councils in the country or more specific local news – that there is NO WAY local newspapers will effectively deliver across the country.

Who knows.

Speaking of cookery shows – I got my wife to film me making pasta salad as a sort of test piece to see whether I should continue with my ‘Reluctant Geeks Diet Diary’ idea – the camera work was brilliant – lets leave it there.

So back to the drawing board for my own video ideas – I need an idea for a project that isn’t just me talking into the camera – answers on a postcard – or ideally in the comments bellow.

Related articles by Zemanta

• TV viewing ‘reaches record high’ (news.bbc.co.uk)
• BBC to cut salaries of stars including Jonathan Ross and Jeremy Clarkson (guardian.co.uk)
• Channel 4′s future in spotlight (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Trinny and Susannah dropped by ITV after makeover shows fall out of fashion (telegraph.co.uk)
• Tug of war over BBC’s £130m digital surplus (guardian.co.uk)
• BBC To Keep All Of Licence Fee (news.sky.com)
• Channel 4 should be part of new public service organisation Ofcom says (telegraph.co.uk)
• Jumping Into Social Media (mediabullseye.com)
• BBC To Keep All Of Licence Fee (news.sky.com)
• Every home should have broadband internet by 2012 Lord Carter’s report to say (telegraph.co.uk)
• Channel 4 should be part of new public service organisation Ofcom says (telegraph.co.uk)
• USA Adopting Europe’s Welfare System? (outsidethebeltway.com)
• Women more likely to spy on partners than men (computeractive.co.uk)