My Front Row Seat to the Pacquiao Victory, thanks to UStream

I didn't need television to watch the Pacquiao-dela Hoya match. I had my laptop, my internet connection, and a comfortable chair to sit in.

All I had to do was Google sites where live streaming was available. After a couple of tries, I found a site that was streaming via UStream. Based on what I could hear, I wager a group of Pinoys focused their webcam on their tv screens and streamed the broadcast. I could hear them cheering and speaking Filipino in the background.

The whole match was televised without any commercial breaks, and I knew the outcome of the fight nearly two hours before the rest of the country did, if they were depending on the GMA telecast. The networks should start learning to coexist with the developing internet ecology. By this I don't mean putting up websites or creating content so audiences will come to them. They have to learn to coexist with the fact that their audiences can find alternatives to their outdated gate keeping paradigms and circumvent their ad-laden broadcasts. Right now I am watching the delayed telecast of the fight. I wonder how many actually bothered to tune in. I'm sure those with cell phones have already sent word about the outcome of the match to those who don't have pay per view or internet access. News is more immediate that way.

Again the ordinary viewer has one up over the media giants. I for one am viewing the fight just so I can linger on the details -- I have that luxury now because I am not anxious about the outcome anymore. I could think of a number of ways for the mainstream media to capture the web audience. Go the way of iTunes. Learn from YouTube. Connect with the social networks.

The bottomline is simple: open up and accept a new paradigm of communication is emerging. They can no longer afford to be top-heavy and expect the connected masses to depend on them to bring them the information. These connected individuals will find a faster, more reliable means of getting what they want, when they want it.

As people become more web-literate, Google becomes more powerful, and internet tools become more accessible, conversations among users will reverberate louder than the networks' telecasts. I should know. I sat through an hour viewing web video and updating friends through chat and microblogging. We were all doing the same thing apparently.

And the "exclusive telecast" of GMA? It's just ambient noise now.

photo from http://azraelsmerryland.blogspot.com