There's been plenty made of the emergence of YouTube in the past few months. And the fact is - it's absolutely worth paying attention to. But the fawning of various network execs over Chad Hurley has served to obscure an important and related fact. Network TV is dying. The Associated Press wondered if "TV Viewers have gone to the beach" As the second week in July was reported as the least-watched week in recorded in history for the major networks. Of course history is all relative.

CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox averaged 20.8 million viewers during the average prime-time minute last week, according to Nielsen Media Research. That dropped under the previous record of 21.5 million, set during the last week of July in 2005.

But audiences don't go to the beach... the explore other media. And that's just what TV viewers are doing. Because just as Network viewers are reporting thier lowest week ever, YouTube is reporting 100 million videos a day. Hmmm???

There is a sizemic shift from Network TV to the web... and that shift is currently bestowing an avelanch of audience on YouTube. But YouTube would be the first to admit that their not replacing mass media with a new form of mass media. Just a quick visit to YouTube tells a very differnt story. It is an agragation of extreme niches... and its just the beginging.

The evolution of Me-Casting... video made by me, for me and a few friends... is clearly taking hold.

experiencecurve.com lays out the stats: "YouTube said viewers are now watching more than 100 million videos per day on its site. YouTube has 29 percent of the U.S. multimedia entertainment market, according to Hitwise; MySpace has a 19 percent share; Yahoo, MSN, Google and AOL each have 3 percent to 5 percent of the online video market. In June, 2.5 billion videos were watched on YouTube and more than 65,000 videos are now uploaded daily, up from around 50,000 in May, the company said.

If you don't believe that the fundamental shape of media is shifting...

Look at: http://warzone-video.magnify.net/ for coverage of the Israel/Lebanon conflict.

A diverse mix of perspectives, points of view, voices, and videos. It's been up less than a day and has 414 videos posted already.

The YouTube trend is the beginning of a shift, but it's not the end. Before things settle down, you'll see the shape of media makers and consumers change to the point were television as we knew it will no longer exist.