Yesterday I played with Ustream a little. After Jeff and Chris live show I've decided to give it a try, and when Michael twitted me about his feed, I've joined the wagon.

After opening an account, I broadcasted myself within minutes.

Isn't it just like starting a blog?

Users can connect high end cameras to Ustream, as the Pulver gang did. So, they just need a room with proper lighting and audio, and they have a live show. Simple. Ah, of course, they need to do an interesting show, cause there are so many out there. But this is not different from any other media product, that has to grab the attention of its audience.

So, after blogging platforms democratized written Journalism, YouTube and Bittorrent democratized pre-recorded video distribution, Ustream (and probably the 1000 competitors gearing up as I write this post) democratized live broadcast TV.

BlogTV is an Israeli site owned by Tapuz, one of the biggest Israeli communities portal. It provides similar features and used to broadcast live videos from northern Israel in last summer conflict. In the past, I've played with it a bit, but didn't stay for long. The main reasons were:

1. Poor video and audio quality

2. Nothing interesting to see (for me)

3. Lack of context - as I saw shows in their site only, it was not connected to other types of media by the same creator (such as blogs, websites etc).

It seems that Ustream has better video quality, and allow users to add context to their show by embedding it in other sites. But just like in every other media platform, interesting stories are a must.

Uri Shenar, the guy behind Aniboom, and ex big media exec in the Israeli industry, gave a great presentation at VON about new media trends. He presented the concept that that internet would get TV to the right size and influence it supposed to have, just as Radio focused on talk shows and music instead of drama and sitcom, when television came to life.

In my opinion the fact that indie content creators can distribute content everywhere, on every device, in every business model gives this community a lot of power. Big media has to work slowly and carefully due to fear of cannibalization. The little guys don't have anything to cannibalize, so they can run faster. As this process continues, TV main strength will remain mainly in events - American Idol, Soccer finals etc.

An interesting twist is that Uri is planning a live internet event called Aniboom Eyedoll (you can understand the concept from the name). As he is the one who pushed event television in Israeli traditional media, this experiment is extremely interesting.

More to come...