2/2 The Culture Show - YouTube : The Future of TV ?

it can there's a danger sometimes I

think in in you want to listen to your

audience without sort of being led by

them too much you've got to still make

what you want to make and YouTube offers

any of us that opportunity so it's the

most democratic of artistic platforms

because anyone can upload to YouTube but

equally you have that audience there to

sort of you know that they'll they'll

tell you when you've got things long how

did you get into it why did you decide

to first pose something quite a few of

my friends were doing the YouTube thing

and partly I was jealous I was jealous

of the fact that they could sort of go

off and spend a day so running around in

the park with a camera and having the

best time and then you know tens of

thousands of people would watch that and

that seems you know it just seemed

fantastic fun but also as live with my

journalists head on I was I was

fascinated by this group of people who

the mainstream media didn't seem to be

particularly aware of my parents

wouldn't be aware of and yet hundreds of

thousands of people would watch them on

a weekly basis I wanted to to sort of

document it from the outside and also be

a part of it and I've sort of managed to

do both I think just about

this dialogue between the youtubers and

their audiences I think what's

threatening TV the most the boundary

between the program maker and the viewer

is disappearing and it's the inherent

inflexibility of TV that could make it

redundant sorry am i should have should

i turn now symptoms from traditional

broadcaster turning to youtube because

they don't want to be left behind in the

green screen studio comedian David

Mitchell it's making a video for his

YouTube channel David Mitchell's soapbox

he's working with a production company

developing YouTube channels for

broadcast talent dear Americans as you

know everyone in Britain knows the Queen

and she's asked me to have a quick word

with you on her behalf about her English

Justine Gaynor is the creative director

of channel flip I start a channel fit as

a kind of response to the difficulty of

getting TV made I find it considerably

easier to make whatever I want to make

whenever I want it in the youtube

universe that any of us now can become

broadcasters do you think it's right

though that big-name stars are sort of

piling in now to YouTube which we sort

of think of as something for

up-and-coming talent sort of in a

bedroom you know I mean do you think

that's a good thing

YouTube has a billion viewers worldwide

which for my money is enough viewers for

anyone to go around I also think that

because a lot of the programming is

short form on YouTube it means that we

can consume more programs and enjoy more

talent than on traditional television

where you have to commit to an hour a

half hour so I don't I don't think that

the younger talents are going to be

threatened by the older talents and more

established talent if anything it's the

other way round because the younger kids

on YouTube have built huge audiences

that I think actually gonna be much much

more difficult for existing TV talent to

take away television is no longer just

the Box in the corner of your living

room everything TV was is changing

when broadcasting began it was about

educating informing and entertaining but

now program makers don't have to stick

to those rules and audiences don't

either

you can watch what you want when you

want but is what you want always good

fear

in the 90s Silicon Valley entrepreneur

Andrew keen founded online music company

audio cafe but far from evangelizing

about this new world he has become one

of the biggest critics of web 2.0 what's

interesting about your critique of

YouTube is that you are so damning of it

you see it as such a negative force

because it clearly is a very popular

thing a thing that people use it seems

very democratic and I wonder why you

have a problem with that one of the

great illusions of the so-called YouTube

or democratized culture industry is that

it's democratic it's really really hard

to break through of the millions tens of

millions of videos put up on YouTube a

tiny proportion break through none of

them are curated none of them are

developed none of them have investment

from cultural institutions when you do

away with the editor with the fact

checker which is the essential principle

of YouTube then you have a very very

problematic media particularly in

today's world where so many political

conflicts get fought out in terms of

Western public opinion Andrew used to be

a zealot and a missionary for the

Internet and now you've gone the other

way so why did that happen

when I founded audio cafe in 95 like so

many other people I made a fundamental

error I assumed that content

high-quality content could be financed

by advertising revenue on the internet I

was wrong

seriously wrong but the problem is is

that on the internet people don't click

on ads on the internet they're far too

many pages so the price of advertising

has been dramatically reduced and the

problem is that in the mid-90s we all

gave our content away for free so the

consumer has been spoiled the consumer

now assumes that everything should be

free and no one's willing to open their

wallet no one's willing to pay for that

content so do you think that the period

of free content was kind of the period

the gold rush period where the companies

jumped in but now we're entering a new

era

I like how you use gold rush because

it's exactly what happened in the middle

of the 19th century in San Francisco

thousands of people came to the Bay Area

to dig for gold but the only people who

made money with the levi-strauss is of

the world

sold the equipment to the people who

rush for the gold exactly the same has

happened in this edge all the money has

gone to YouTube all the money has gone

to Twitter all the money has gone to

Google the real economic winners are the

people who sold the equipment who sold

the that the digital means to creativity

but the creators themselves have not won

they've lost fewer and fewer people are

able to make a living creating videos

making records writing books the

Internet has been a very very bad thing

for the professional creative community

despite this bleak picture of where we

are there's no turning back now

in 2009 the UK became the first major

economy where advertisers spent more on

the internet than on television it was a

watershed moment and a trend that will

only continue Matlock was head of

multi-platform commissioning at channel

4 before he started his own company

teaching broadcasters how to tell

stories online it seems as though

creativity's at a real fork in the road

because you have one model of creativity

which is the artist and the idea of the

artist was you know you are the sole

creator and it doesn't matter what the

audience think you know that's one

notion of creativity yeah but this other

one the one of called a response of what

youtube is about is an entirely

different idea about creativity as now

there's also been a spectrum of artists

that do make work supposedly in

isolation so I mean Charles Dickens his

novels were originally wrote as serials

you know he published them chapter by

chapter and he was very aware of the

response to each chapter as he was

writing the next one so he wrote in a

kind of call and response way and I

think what broadcast has done in the

last 40 to 50 years has kind of got used

to quite audiences I've got used to

broadcasting stuff and they're not

really hearing any feedback from the

audience so if you are really big

comedian if you are really big film star

if you're a writer you can have a direct

relationship with your audience now not

all cultural talent want that but if you

can it's extremely powerful if you are

Caitlin Moran your publisher is is now

actually using your Twitter network as a

form of distribution and marketing so

you were valuable not just as a writer

but as a network so our son

that making a piece of culture is

something that you do by yourself and

then give to your audience it's really

just a product of the last kind of 50 or

60 years if you gaze into your crystal

ball and look 20 years ahead

how do you see this landscape there's

never been a better time to be making

video content because there's an

explosion of ways in which audiences are

finding and engaging with content the

only thing I would say my crystal ball

is you know it's not gonna get simple

again ever it's only gonna get more

complex and that's hugely exciting if

you are agile enough and kind of light

enough to innovate really quickly it's

really problematic if you're a bigger

dinosaur that's really going to struggle

to to adapt to the way that you work

hello my name is Jamar Edwards I'm right

now around 10 Downing Street about to

interview the Prime Minister one young

company that has definitely found its

way in this new world his online music

channel SB TV started by youtuber Jamal

Edwards is now reportedly worth eight

million pounds

Jamal how does it feel from bedroom in

accents who offices here on Hyde Park

Corner it's definitely overwhelming very

humbling by it shows that my work has

kind of being recognized people call it

from the bedroom to boardroom know

what's going on people as to why it was

SP TV acting W free comfort of Cyprus I

see Jamal started making videos of grime

artists on his estate gradually building

his YouTube channel into the UK's

leading online youth broadcaster courted

by top artists and record companies

alike so I understand have you applied

for a job as a runner of the BBC in the

BBC turned you down yeah yeah I don't

get I didn't get that one

how did you feel about now the BBC have

its way in your for yeah cause I

remember I got invited back to I did get

an apprenticeship at MTV and then like

copper years later invite me to talk to

her whole staff is kind of a it's mad I

don't want to kind of say look at me now

kind of thing but it's kind of like it's

crumbling mad cause I'm yeah I don't

want to say so the YouTube presence has

been a real launchpad for you as a kind

of entrepreneur yeah so at the moment

I've got the music tunnel but I'm slowly

trying to work on other areas as well so

that comedy and fashion and a couple of

areas because I think you can't just

rely on YouTube money you can rely on it

to sound agree but where I want to go is

kind of like you need other things to

plug into it as well do you think you're

gonna still be applying for a job with

the BBC now um I don't know I'd be

collaborating more with the BBC nowadays

I mean that I would say is that

one of the reasons Jamal's YouTube

channel has been so successful is that

it caters for a niche the mainstream

media don't and it's not just his

channel there are videos from all

corners of culture from mailing master

classes to Klaus Oldenburg discussions

but this content won't come to us in the

usual passive way we have to sit forward

and search for it

the Internet is making all media more

accessible it's just that the delivery

mechanism is changing and the boundaries

between traditional and new media are

blurring dance success on YouTube has

led him to become a DJ on radio one

tanya is writing for a national magazine

and charlie is working on his first film

but whatever happens they are working

only on their own terms

YouTube is a land of opportunity for

anyone who thinks they have something to

say or show the rest of the world it

might be someone in their bedroom but it

could also be a protestor at the Arab

Spring or a man who wants to jump from

the edge of space and it's about that

most basic human desire the need to

communicate and unlike traditional

broadcasting there's no one to tell you

you can't but most of all it serves a

huge and diverse viewing population

better than any TV station and TV knows

it as a video of a tour toys humping a

shoe find there how does this stuff even

exists YouTube dude everything's on

YouTube especially babies and cats so

really making YouTube videos is a lot

harder than it looks it takes a lot of

time and effort dedication creativity

there it is at or toy some figures show

you