PBS’ Off Book YouTube series latest video hits close to home and features what I consider the pionners in digital entertainment, how they use YouTube and engage directly with their audience to learn and grow. The big broadters are definitely watching this and most still don’t understand that YouTube is not like TV, it allow a two way conversation going that they don’t seem to get or comprehend.

Over the past 8 years, YouTube has given birth to an increasingly sophisticated entertainment culture that operates outside of the traditional television and film ecosystem. With humble roots in charismatic and creative people simply sharing their lives, thoughts, and humor to their webcams, YouTube entertainment has diversified and grown into tens of thousands of unique channels with millions of loyal fans and subscribers. With a new generation of viewers increasingly turning to YouTube instead of broadcast TV, a new industry is being built around personalities who have dissolved the barriers between on-screen talent and the audience, and who employ visual aesthetics that make the viewer feel as if they are a part of the creator’s life. Truly, we are in a new era of entertainment, one being led by millions of young people who are equally happy to watch video on their laptop as they are on their TV.