UStream – Can it be the tipping point for consumer TV?

I’ll admit to not being really interested in YouTube.  Yes, I found some fun old videos, watched the Mento’s & Diet Coke vids, and so on.  But I really wasn’t interested in it too much.

What YouTube does do well, is provide a consistent platform for publishing user-created videos.  It does this very well, indeed.  But what if you wanted to broadcast live video?  Doesn’t do that does it?  One of the few sites that can is UStream.tv.

Providing a Flash-powered, interestingly easy to use interface, UStream.tv makes it really easy to capture video from a local USB cam, and stream it in realtime over the Internet via a page on their site.  You can find my “show” here!  I must use the term “show” loosely when applied to me, but the limit is up to your imagination.  There are many user-created shows that have interesting dialog, content, and many times interviews or tours of interesting places.

Two of the shows I have been following are Chris Pirillo, and Jeremiah Owyang.  It’s an interesting service, especially if you are interested in Internet video and new media.  I happened to find it via the ever omni-present Robert Scoble, when he was testing the service before the Web 2.0 conference.

For those wondering, there are user-based controls and tools to report inappropriate uses, and there is a voting/rating system that works quite well.  It seems to me that UStream.tv is targeting a wide range of users, from business, to enthusiast, to… anyone.  Very neat site with huge potential.