YouTube Rising
With the Writers' strike apparently set for Monday I have a few thoughts: if the strike continues to the point where networks begin to run out of scripts it will be the beginning of the end of American television. The various networks will start importing shows from other countries (Canada, UK most likely), but there is an obstacle--the people in those countries have already seen the shows and put them on the internet. Americans will begin getting more and more TV content from YouTube and the networks won't survive for long, especially since people can integrate their big plasma screens to their computers. Expect better picture quality on the internet. More DVD's will be sold or rented as well.
YouTube is already better than television anyways, because there is a greater degree of freedom. You can watch whatever you want to watch on YouTube, from children's cartoons from the '80's to porn and the advertising is mostly on the side of the screen. MLB.com already offers streaming video of baseball games in progress, so sports could easily make the jump to the information superhighway.
There just doesn't seem to be any stopping of it if the strike lasts through January.