Well, I’m calling it - user-generated content is officially dead. Hulu is here, ABC is raking in the views with their player, the studios are still adapting but beginning to develop business models, and semi-professional content creators now have the tools to compete with mainstream content.

The line is clear, people want to watch professional content, it holds value. Anything else has no value, economically at least.

So there. Now that professional content has reasserted its supreme value over everything else we can sit back and watch as the rest is weeded off of video sharing sites in an effort to cut down on costs.

Brightcove and VideoEgg already ditched their UGC businesses, Revver was done in by paying for it, and the studios are picking their fights with the rest of them - most of the remaining players can’t survive on their own - there is a major shakeout coming.

The market for UGC will be controlled by companies that build communities for people and charge them for service - YouTube can’t subsidize everyone’s cats on pianos forever, well maybe they could but they won’t, or they’ll sell better quality and relegate the rest to a landfill of grainy 300k - the next generation’s black and white.

That said, there is a lot more that can be considered professional these days. The content universe is larger than ever before, and while UGC is worthless there’s plenty of time for those with passion to become successful professional producers. It doesn’t cost all that much to create professional content these days. All that’s needed is creativity, talent, and the persistence required to build an audience from the ground up.