Google creating YouTube 'channels', spending $100 million on original content?

You can do quite a lot with a sufficiently large catalog of semi-popular footage, but original content is king, and today the Wall Street Journal is reporting that YouTube will sink $100 million into original programming. The idea, according to the usual anonymous sources, is that Google will reshape the home of Keyboard Cat into a television network of sorts -- with channels for different topics -- and a good number of them featuring "several hours of professionally produced original programming a week." That sounds like a drop in the bucket compared to the raft of footage that YouTube's amateurs put out, of course, and it wouldn't be the first time we've seen Google invest in original work, but we'd be lying if we said we wouldn't enjoy kicking back with even a smidgen of the pulse-pounding possibilities that some 4096-pixel-wide footage could offer. YouTube is reportedly attracting talent right now, say the WSJ's spooks, and intends to ease users into the idea of channel surfing starting later this year.