YouTube is responsible for making Internet video what it is today. It gave everyday people the change to publicly post videos to the world, whether it was their student film, home videos, comedy sketches or even their cats doing silly things. Well, YouTube is stepping up to the plate and attempting to hit another homerun, this time by helping to show that there is a potential future for WebTV to overthrow the real thing. This press release was posted on their blog earlier today:

Wonderful things happen when cool technology meets great entertainment. Cable television expanded our viewing possibilities from just a handful of channels to hundreds, and brought us some of the most defining media experiences of the last few decades– think MTV, ESPN and CNN. Today, the web is bringing us entertainment from an even wider range of talented producers, and many of the defining channels of the next generation are being born, and watched, on YouTube.

Today we’re announcing that even more talented creators and original entertainment will soon join YouTube’s existing channel lineup, including channels created by well-known personalities and content producers from the TV, film, music, news, and sports fields, as well as some of the most innovative up-and-coming media companies in the world and some of YouTube’s own existing partners. These channels will have something for everyone, whether you’re a mom, a comedy fan, a sports nut, a music lover or a pop-culture maven.

Our goal with this channels expansion, along with the grants and educational programs we’ve launched in the past year, is to bring an even broader range of entertainment to YouTube, giving you more reasons to keep coming back again and again. And for advertisers, these channels will represent a new way to engage and reach their global consumers.

The first of these new original channels will appear on YouTube starting next month and will continue over the next year. They’ll be available to you on any internet-connected device, anywhere in the world, with all the interactivity and social features of YouTube built right in.

You can check out a preview of their new channels by heading over here. Some stand outs in the bunch include Stan Lee’s World of Heroes, which will feature original stories about “unique characters and extraordinary individuals”, MyMusic, an interactive sitcom about a music company, and Geek & Sundry from Felicia Day.