Devoted to online marketing, viral marketing, and web marketing

It's funny how the more things change, the more they stay the same. I'm thinking of a story from businessweek.com that talks about TV embracing the YouTube (GOOG) model. But for those who know television history, or are old enough, this is nothing new whatsoever.

The article talks about some of the older shows like "Candid Camera" and "America's Funniest Home Videos," but I'm thinking more along the lines of Dick Clark's "American Bandstand."

Everything you see today was pretty much done back then. The difference today is that anybody can be holding a camera and the shoot could be from anywhere in the world, while American Bandstand was shot in Philadelphia with mostly local young people.

But what was fascinating was that regular kids would have fan clubs form around them that sent them mail and asked them questions like who they were dating, etc. There would be dance contests where people would vote who the winner would be and the ups and downs of life as some people moved from the area and wouldn't be on the show anymore. All of it was centered around regular, everyday people, and what was going on in their lives.

So next time YouTube is talked about as a "new" model, think again, it's nothing new at all, it's a continuation of something that's been around for decades.

The one strength that television does continue to have is editorial decisions that can go through many videos and cull out the bad ones and present the good ones. Something I think some Web sites will eventually have to do to go to the next level.

One thing that is probably different this time around is that this isn't a fad, it's a trend; I don't think this is ever going to go away again. People love the variety that is offered.

While television will be impacted by this, as the Internet already has, I seriously doubt that they will become its caretakers. They will have an increasing role in parts that will help them along, but they will never be the custodians of entertainment again.

Traditional companies are trying to position themselves as the purveyors of professional content, and they are, the question is whether that matters anymore. To a lot of people it doesn't, that's the problem that will be faced in the decades ahead by the industry.