A TV net for UGC

User-created video has left its comfortable online home to debut on Sumo TV, a new channel in the UK. Launched at the end of November on the Sky Channel 146, it's the latest forum for online video.

Thirty to forty percent of the content aired will originate from the Sumo TV website, which features user-created video content. Although the rest of the airtime will go to cult movie classics, Sumo TV lays claim to being the first channel that features content from common folk. The sumo.tv website is like YouTube, but pays the owner of the video clip when it is broadcast on the channel, downloaded and viewed online. The channel's parent company, Cellcast, hasn't offered specific dollar amounts, but estimates it may be a 20% share of the total advertising revenue. (Sumo TV also offers content on mobile phones, either in a searchable format or streaming video.)

The most viewed video clips make it on air, during a three-hour long afternoon blitz of popular content. User-created content ranges from mini-movies to funny bloopers and dancing girls. Some of the most popular titles so far: 'Crazy Dancing Penguin' and 'Run By Farting.'