This past Monday Daniel Graf and Erik Abair launched Kyte.tv, one of the newest ideas in the realm of what Graf and Abair call “TV out of the box.” As advertisers and content creators look for ways to integrate TV into the Web 2.0 experience intriguing hybrids are cropping up–and Kyte.tv is one. The technology behind Kyte combines some of the hottest features of Web 2.0–user-generated content, viral video, social networking and blogging–with the metaphor of TV to bring it all together into a cohesive, interactive medium.

Kyte begins with users creating their own “television channel” which they can do either on the Internet or on their cell phone. Each channel consists of the photos, video, music, opinion polls and text that users upload. In order to entice viewers, you can embed channels in a blog, Web page or MySpace page. Viewers then log on to watch and interact with your channel by answering polls you have created and using Kyte’s live chat feature to talk to other users.
If successful, Kyte.tv will mobilize and destabilize our definition of TV. On the site’s glossary the question, “What is TV?” is answered:

A TV is an embeddable Flash player that is tuned to a particular channel which enables you and your friends to watch shows. You may also place a TV on your blog, website or social networking profile page and interact with your audience, no matter where they watch.

Kyte’s creators don’t just want us to think “outside the box”–they want us to become our own producers, critics and distributors. Oh, and if you still think of TV as that box in your living room, they would certainly challenge you on that notion as well.