PunchMuch, a digital TV channel driven off of interactive elements like viewers texting the station to vote for videos, is teaming up with Toronto's MyThum Interactive to create North Aerica's first mobile picture messaging service for broadcast TV. Viewers will now be able to send their pictures to air, along with traditional texting.
Though CTV (owners of PunchMuch) refer to these steps as "leading the way in viewer controlled, lean-foward interactive television", one has ton wonder why a teen wouldn't just go to Youtube or other video services and not bother with a clumsy interface mashing two fairly incompatible technologies together. Television isn't very well suited to interactivity in the first place, and music videos are increasingly becoming an irrelevant marketing tool in a world where OK GO gets millions of hits online from a clever, low-budget music video they created themselves.
