Local Lectures vs. First Class Lectures

This is a topic that I've been wondering about for a while and Donald Clark hits on it in his post:

Professor Lewin - “It sounds arrogant, I know, but it’s better to see a first class lecture on video than a mediocre one in the flesh."

Use the FREE stuff because it’s better. This is a simple solution to a massive problem. Students are already voting with their fingers and dumping their third-rate, real, local lectures for first-rate, online, global lectures. The same can apply to most standard teaching and training lectures.

Why would a student attend lectures by a professor that aren't great just because they are local? In large universities where there is little to no interaction and the interaction is done with Teaching Assistants, why not have the lecture come from the absolute best teacher (hopefully one that is known in the field as well so you can drop names). You can still have a professor or teaching assistant handle the interaction.

There is also then the question of where your degree is really from at that point. How does branding work anymore? Professor Lewin is from MIT. Do you get some kind of MIT credit? It gets thorny really quick, but there's no questioning:

It’s better to see a first class lecture on video than a mediocre one in the flesh.