YouTube creators stand a real chance of winning Emmy awards

While movie and TV award shows are increasingly willing to recognize internet video, they still tend to focus on conventional productions with reasonably big budgets. However, they're about to broaden their horizons: the Television Academy has expanded the Emmys to not only include more internet-friendly short form categories (such as outstanding actor/actress and outstanding variety series), but widen its definitions to make room for more internet-only video shows. While you probably won't see your favorite "let's play" star take home a statuette, this gives YouTubers with artistic ambitions (such as PewDiePie and Lilly Singh) a much better shot at winning a major, peer-voted award.

Internet video already has its own awards, like the Webbys, but they tend to live in the shadow of their decades-older counterparts. The Emmys move gives these online clips some added legitimacy in the public eye -- they're real artistic endeavors, not just homebrew projects recorded by people with webcams. That acknowledgment, in turn, could encourage online video producers to step up their quality in hopes of winning an award and making it big.