• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, June 28, 2007

At first glance, a Web TV upfront seems like another example of new media types following the dead-end path of their old media piers. A second glance, too.

What’s remarkable, though, is the shier volume of quality video content being produced for super-niche audiences. As Troy Young, VideoEgg’s CMO, said earlier in the day: â€oeAs the model changes, relevancy is far more important than scale.â€

What’s clear moving forward is that four big broadcast networks--or five-hundred cable channels--don’t have the breadth or the resources to please every U.S. consumer. It’s going to take thousands--of not hundreds of thousands--of niche producers with their fingers on the pulses of highly-demanding, highly-specialized groups to satisfy demand.

At that level, advertisers will be able to serve highly-relevant advertising--so relevant, in fact, that viewers won’t be able to distinguish between advertising and other forms of content.