Last week Budweiser announced the coming launch of a website to be called BudTV. Initial thoughts, mostly questions:

• This is a distribution end run. Why pay TV networks to carry your ads when your audience isn’t watching?
• It will be interesting to see what kind of improved customer relationships Bud tries to create with its fans (if any). The real opportunity for Bud is to extend the relationship, become an arbiter of tastes and a collection point for interesting, things beyond just beer. Any chance of that?
• What happens when someone uploads a spoof on Bud’s very spoofable ads? For instance, Crud: King of Leer. Think women in bikinis missing teeth and men drooling into their Crud cups, for instance. Too easy.
• Really, how bad will BudTV suck? Sure they’re will be swish, glossy ads and maybe a video game where you can play football by moving the clydesdales around a screen, but a big-time brand putting it out there on the wild web just doesn’t seem a good fit. I imagine it’ll be like the Playboy website without nudity, or Maxim’s website without a Hometown Hottie pull.

And y’all? Update: Strategic Public Relations has a pretty good post on what Bud.TV should do before last call. Though they don’t mention euthanasia.