Local TV and user generated video

Cory at Lost Remote asks the tough question:

"It seems to me that local TV sites that have been experimenting with user-generated video are not seeing a tremendous response of submitted clips. Anyone disagree with this comment?

YouTube and similar sites have won the first round, but how many rounds are left before it’s too late to catch up? I’m beginning to believe that the only reason people would submit video to a TV site would be to see it on TV."

From the comments:

"Our station tried it last fall and it was like pulling teeth! The viewers mostly misunderstood the idea and submitted story ideas, not videos. The effort was canceled after about 3 months…"

"couldn’t agree more Dave, ugv on the local tv level must be differentiated . the purpose of doing it shouldn’t be to compete with utube, because it will surely fail. local tv stations need to generate local buzz - contests - high school sports - what parent do you know of that wouldn’t want to submit video of their child to a tv station? the contests side of it, funniest videos - community videos - wedding contest videos, etc. it’s developing a ugv local product, not a national portal."