User-Generated Television or UGTV refers to TV footage that was originally created by a member of the public and then uploaded to the internet. Often the process of selecting such footage for broadcast includes the input of web users. UGTV can refer to TV show content or to advertisements.

UGTV firsts

The first TV show containing UGTV was an experimental show

ZeD Zed is the pronunciation of the letter ''Z'' in Commonwealth English ("zee" in American English). Zed or ZED may also refer to: Entertainment Characters *Zed (comics), a character from the ''Hellblazer'' comic series *Zed (Kiba), the main chara ...

, broadcast by CBC, Canada’s national publicly funded broadcasting company. The show ran from 2002-2006. The first TV show that runs completely on UGTV is Outloud.TV. The show started in August 2003 as a student project on Amsterdam local TV and is currently still running as project by the Outloud.TV Foundation in Amsterdam. Outloud.TV is also the first show that locates the broadcast timeslots automatically and 100% democratic based upon the Outloud.TV user communities votes. The first

TV network A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay television providers. Until the mid-1 ...

based around UGTV is

Current TV Current TV was an American television channel which broadcast from August 1, 2005, to August 20, 2013. Prior INdTV founders Al Gore and Joel Hyatt, with Ronald Burkle, each held a sizable stake in Current TV. Comcast and DirecTV each held a smalle ...

, which was set up by

Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic Part ...

and businessman

Joel Hyatt Joel Z. Hyatt (born Joel Hyatt Zylberberg; May 6, 1950) is an American entrepreneur and former politician. He founded Hyatt Legal Services, in which capacity he became a household name for many years, as he was featured in his firm's nationwide ...

in 2004. Current relies on UGTV for about one third of its content. The first UGTV advert broadcast on American national TV was a spot for

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

created by Tyson Ibele, an 18-year-old from Minneapolis. It was first broadcast in May 2006.

Other UGTV examples

Trouble Trouble may refer to: Film and television * ''Trouble'' (1922 film), an American silent comedy-drama film directed by Albert Austin * ''Trouble'' (1933 film), a British comedy film * ''Trouble'' (1977 film), a Soviet drama film * ''Trouble'' ...

, a UK satellite and cable channel has been, since April 2006, regularly broadcasting clips that have been uploaded to its Trouble Homegrown website.

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

and

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

announced an alliance in June 2006 part of which will see NBC broadcasting select YouTube clips.

Sumo TV Sumo TV was a free-to-air television channel owned by Cellcast Group. On 1 July 2006, You TV was relabelled as Sumo TV. Sumo TV was officially launched on 28 November 2006, claiming to be the world's first user-content TV channel. Through thei ...

launched a fully integrated TV & web platform in July 2006, allowing users to upload video clips for broadcast onto the UK SKY satellite network. The channel also employs user-generated broadcasting by allowing users to build their own shows which are broadcast within the channels live virtual studio.

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

launched a new, viewer-controlled channel called

MTV Flux MTV Flux was a television channel in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The version in the UK and Ireland launched on 6 September 2006. The brand started as a website on 1 August. It used bandwidth that was originally used to broadcast VH2. There is ...

on August 1, 2006. On the channel, UGTV was shown in addition to professional content selected by web users. However it was soon closed and MTV is relaunching a different service simply called "Flux", based on their Italian office's website.{{Citation needed, date=April 2008 Predating these initiatives was UGTV’s becoming common on

TV news News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or televis ...

Tom Glocer Tom Glocer (born October 8, 1959) is an American business executive and the former CEO of Thomson Reuters and Reuters. Biography He is a co-founder and executive chairman of BlueVoyant and Capitolis, cyber defense and fintech start-ups, respe ...

, CEO of

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

, talking about the catastrophic tsunami caused by the

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake An earthquake and a tsunami, known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, occurred at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+7) on 26 December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Suma ...

from a news-gathering perspective said, "For the first 24 hours the best and the only photos and video came from tourists armed with 1.3-megapixel portable telephones, digital cameras and camcorders. And if you didn't have those pictures, you weren't on the story." "UGTV" as a term was first publicised through an inaugural UGTV conference, UGTV ’06, held in London in July 2006.
dorf - user generated TV
a noncommercial and community based digital terrestrial channel was launched in June 2010 in Austria. dorf TV is broadcast via DVB-T reaching about 440.000 households. dorf TV allows users to upload video clips via website, FTP and E-Mail directly from smartphones.

UGTV firsts

Other UGTV examples

See also