User-generated video under siege

Big media companies video wares have been gaining more notice both on YouTube and elsewhere on the web -- these aren't the user-generated clips on which the three-year-old site built its primacy. Of course, there is still a staggering volume and variety of Diet-Coke-and-Mentos-grade home video being uploaded to YouTube - some 13 hours of it each minute. And putting full-length Hollywood material on the web's top video site is a logical next step. In some respects, YouTube is playing catch-up to compete with the flood of shows available on the web from all the major TV networks, both on their own sites and others like Yahoo and Hulu. What's obviously happening here is the beginning of a monumental battle for online video viewers' attention.