YouTube is quite clearly the way forward for TV.

The promise of programming when you want it is delivered far better than with Tivo. Plus, its growing audience is much more used to downloading their entertainment on their computers than getting it OnDemand. Its ratings system could also be far more exact than what Nielsen currently offers.

As for viewing figures, the top rated ‘shows’ already attract bigger audiences than virtually all the cable networks put together.

But by far its greatest asset is YouTube is not Time Warner. (Just like Kodak’s greatest obstacle is that it is not Flickr.)

Currently, the only thing holding YouTube back is that it seems to play only one show: America’s Funniest Home Videos and even ABC has spotted that’s no longer ready for prime time. When YouTube starts commissioning its own shows with greater narrative content (or receiving them for free from it’s own system of mini-production companies) we will all be able to switch off our TV sets permanently.