If you ever watched a TV show and thought you could do it better, here's your chance and you don't even need to own a broadcast license, transmitter or TV station to do it. All you need to reach a worldwide audience is a camcorder and a computer – thanks to new technology that could end up toppling the media giants.

Seattle's Travis Petershagen is on the front line of a media revolution and he's doing it in his slippers.

Evening Magazine

Seattle's Travis Petershagen is on the front line of a media revolution.

What he does is called video podcasting and it could change the way you watch TV.

"Folks like me can sit in their rooms and talk about whatever they want and get a message out, and there's no more barriers to entry. I don't have to have my own television station in order to have a program that people can watch," he said.

Like their audio podcast predecessors, video podcasts or vodcasts are mostly home-grown programs you can choose to download over the Internet.

"Whenever they make a new show, it shows up on my desktop," he explained.

Popular podclips range from the "Tiki Room" – a combination of drink recipes and madcap improve – to "Watch Me Paint" – an avant garde creation where even picking out a purse can be a program.

By signing up or subscribing to these shows, generally for free, you never miss an episode.

"You subscribe to what you wanna see, and it just starts to collect for you. And when you get that free time to consume media, what you want is there waiting for you," said Travis.

You can watch the programs right on your computer screen or carry them with you on portable players.

But to be fair, not all of it is worth watching. The programs are mostly low-budget and off-beat. Think Community Access Cable on a bad day.

But because it's so easy to make your own show, programs are springing up on almost every topic.

Travis' procast, which has just recently added video, sticks to his primary interests – movies, music, technology and beer.

As the leader of a Seattle podcasting club, he's also happy to recommend shows by other local amateurs.

The number of people making and watching video podcasts appears to be nearly doubling every month, but for most creators, it's still a fiercely independent labor of love.

TV-style podcasting is still largely commercial-free, ignored by major media. But as viewers grow more interested and podshows grow more interesting, television as we know it may be forced to take notice.

Who knows, sooner or later, everyone could end up with their very own slice of a worldwide audience.