Let me see that fantasy

The Brit Awards will be broadcast tonight in New Zealand several hours after the event was held in London. If you wanted to watch the program live this morning you could, but not by flicking through the channels on your TV.

For the first time The Brits were streamed live in HD on YouTube. While it was geo-blocked in the United Kingdom it was available in the rest of the world.

Here was another example of how content owners can distribute across geographies without relying on traditional broadcast. This allows the Brit content to play in markets that may not have attracted audiences that traditional ratings demand. It also shows an understanding by the owners of where the younger audiences now go to access content that is important to them. For many YouTube is their Jukebox… their source of music… a radio with pictures that allows discussion and content sharing. They feel no need to download or store music.

Therefore to this audience it is entirely logical that YouTube should the platform to find the Brit Awards.