Current.tv: The first 24-hour network based around viewer-created content.

Like YouTube, Current.tv features videos created by users and uploaded to their distribution platform on the Web. They call them “viewer-created content” but that difference is only semantic, especially considering that of the short programs called “pods” that make up the bulk of programming, an estimated 30% are created by viewers and users.

Unlike YouTube, Current.tv organizes the content into a single channel, with short to medium-length programming includes spots from of Google. Current.tv isn’t just on the Web, either; the channel went live in 2005 on most major domestic U.S. cable networks, including Comcast, Time Warner, AT&T, DirectTV and Dish Network.

The cable television network is run by Current TV, an independent media company led by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and businessman Joel Hyatt. A second network was launched in the spring of 2007 in the United Kingdom and Ireland for Sky and Virgin Media subscribers. There’s an official Current blog that about noteworthy content that’s worth a look as well.