The image of YouTube as the go-to place to watch home brew video clips of cute kittens and smiling babies is fading fast, especially as the company continues to ramp up its efforts to compete with broadcasters for audiences by funding the development of original, high quality content for its web channels.

Nothing reflects this more than YouTube Spaces, which are rapidly cropping up across the globe to provide studio space, expertise, workshops, events, screenings, creative collaboration, and state-of-the-art production and post-production resources for creators, which is YouTube’s name for people who are involved in its Partners Program.

The good news for creators is that the use of the various resources at YouTube Spaces is not only free, but creators also get to retain ownership of the content they produce, which they can then license to YouTube for display on its channels. Some revenue sharing is involved as well. The bad news is that, although not impossible, it does take some web production chops to become an official YouTube creator.

With the debut of House of Cards, a new political drama directed by David Fincher and starring Kevin Spacey, Netflix has made life a whole lot easier for all those marathon TV viewers out there.

No need to wait for a couple of episodes to air, or an entire series for that matter, before getting your friends together for a binge viewing party. 

Last year Google’s YouTube reportedly shelled out more than $100 million in advances to producers in the U.S. for the creation of original, online-native content.

This year, YouTube has turned to European producers as well, with plans to move on to Brazil, India, Japan and dozens of others sometime very soon.

All three are part of the new wave of TV and film industry pros experimenting with the creation of original TV series made exclusively for the web and, in the case of Hanks, mobile app brand extensions, as well.

WIGS, one of the new original channels on YouTube,

is set to debut on May 14th with “JAN.”

The annual TV Upfronts have a new sibling:

the Digital Content Newfronts,

a collaborative undertaking by AOL, Google/YouTube, Hulu, Microsoft, and Yahoo.

Hulu has announced the upcoming launch of an original, scripted series, “Battleground,” for streaming online, joining other online players like Google’s YouTube, Yahoo, and Netflix in the direct-to-web, original programming game.

“Battlefield,” a timely series about a fictional political campaign, debuts on Hulu on February 14th. Although first developed, then dropped, by Fox, “Battlefield” will bypass airing on traditional TV altogether.  Hulu is picking up two original unscripted series for online streaming, as well,”A Day in the Life” and “Up to Speed.”

According to Andy Forssell, Sr. VP of Content at Hulu …

It’s true.

Even Hollywood insiders are quietly dabbling with the development of webisodes, short TV episodes created for independent distribution on the web …