At the UGtv Meet

Found myself at MintDigital's user generated TV event last night, and had a thought sparked by Advanced Media Ventures' Shelly Palmer about how government regulation is going to put money in some pockets.

As the ubiquitous Mr. Palmer pointed out, in 2009 the analog broadcast TV signal goes dead in favor of digital, which means 20 million homes lose TV. In the feeding frenzy, I bet (and this is only a guess – follow my thoughts or advice at your peril) we'll see people rushing to buy digital TVs, will see all kinds of local and national TV news stories about the lines at consumer electronics stores, we'll see stock outs, scams, and maybe, in a few smart places, some attention paid to how cable TV companies and the like are playing with rates and what not to take advantage and make money from their core competences. And folks who play it right will, by smart investing, make a better than market average return.

A couple of choice quotes from the event (and thoughts on the event below):

"Just because it's user generated, it's kind of 'who gives a crap.' But making it better television, that's interesting." – Joey Jodar of Heavy Worldwide, as in Heavy.com.

"The trick is to convert value to wealth." -- Palmer. By which he meant you can create value on the Web and prove it by getting lots of eyeballs. But what about turning that into $$$? "The way to do it," he said, is to do something the music and TV industries have been brilliant at: turning fame into wealth.

The current environment is true Darwinism. "It's not survival of the fittest. It's about adaptability to change." – Rob Norman of Group M, a WPP company.

And on the event:

I couldn't help but feeling the room was an indication of another crash coming. Or, more like a shakeout. It was a Union Square basement auditorium with free drinks and hors d'oeuvres and a lot of mingling and no neckties, and no venture capital I could see. A lot of people handing out business cards, and hoping for a job or work or just glad to be at the next social event. A joking lamented thanks to everyone for showing up and a thanks to Bill Sobel of NY:MIEG for sending a lot of folks (including me) over.

And someone talking about "sitting between" large media companies and social networks and using phrases like "cross-platform". And one person I saw in a room of maybe 200 raised their hand when Shelly asked who has an Apple TV. That was all very 1990s.

Did no one else notice the irony of a logo that, ugh, said UGtv?