Vlogging Killed the Blogger Star?

It’s starting. Now that we’ve had full blog network saturation, it’s time to kick into gear with video log (vlog) networks. Brightcove announced Monday the launch of Brightcove Network, a free service for anyone looking to start their own commercial Internet video channel. In a nutshell, Brightcove is trying to capitalize on the phenomenon spawned by YouTube while making money off network ads.

The basics: Brightcove will host your video for free, but will take a 50% cut of any ad revenue and a 30% cut from any product sales. Several folks covered this Monday including Broadband Daily and TechCrunch.

What I find interesting is the debate about how far video networks will go. Like blogging, creating a regular video channel is a lot of work and a big time commitment. Will enough content creators get on board to sustain the video movement? Will enough people want to watch what they (we?) produce? (How many people have submitted content for TiVo’s video blog project?)

I love video, but I’m not convinced that video blogs are going to take off the way that blogs have. I see great niche uses: gadget reviews, celebrity sightings, and on-site reporting at news events. But a huge part of blogging revolves around commentary. Who wants to see another talking head?

Meantime, Brightcove is only part of the leading edge in ad-based video networks. Google has also begun sharing ad revenue with Internet video producers. Gotta love ads. We finally have DVRs to bypass them on TV, and Internet video manages an end-run around our favorite technology.