Almon B. Strowger was an undertaker in Kansas City, USA. The story goes that there was a competing undertaker locally whose wife was an operator at the local (manual) telephone exchange. Whenever a caller asked to be put through to Strowger, calls were deliberately put through to his competitor. This obviously frustrated Strowger greatly and he set about devising a system for doing away with the human part of the equation! He invented the dial telephone so people could reach him directly, bypassing the gatekeeper who had a vested interest in directing the customer elsewhere.
It seems to me that Youtube, Google Video (and all the other video delivery providers) have devised a system that enables TV viewers to bypass TV stations, cable TV, video stores and satellite TV providers. Granted today, only a very small number of people have connected their TV to the internet, but it is inevitable that most TV viewers will have their TV connected to the internet in the not-to-distant future.
