• by P.J. Bednarski , Staff Writer @pjbtweet, August 28, 2013

There’s a new report that says YouTube and DreamWorks Animation are teaming up to produce a new, daily Web series called “YouTube Nation.” If true, the report, from VideoInk.com would represent the kind of project that has “tipping point” written all over it.    

Then again..

Sources told VideoInk that “YouTube Nation” would cover everything from “trending videos to pop culture stories, current events, and political issues, as well as online personalities who are on the rise.” My goodness! Get me the next Mary Hart!    

YouTube isn’t talking about this deal , says VideoInk, but according to its sources, “YouTube Nation” will air five days a week and is “being billed by some as a 'Daily Show' for the web video generation with a heavy focus on curation.”  

But hold on. That still doesn’t sound all that revolutionary, but you learn in this life, everything is pretty much like something else, and if not,  it’s often a failure immediately out of the box.

With DreamWorks and YouTube together, “YouTube Nation” has the kind of parents that can make something out of nothing, or in this case, something that seems to have been done to death already.  

There are either no new ideas, or just six ideas total—I never get that straight—but either way, “YouTube Nation” could be a pretty amazing pop culture entry, because its producers already create or give a platform for so much of the pop culture.

I do get a little suspicuous when an entity confers nationhood status on itself like YouTube is doing here. You know, it’s like Bob Dole speaking in third person about Bob Dole.   

Back to the business: Up to now, YouTube has helped channels, but not had their own skin the game. This project changes that, and could show just how popular a singular YouTube brand could be with a lot of marketing, slavish focusing,  sharp use of YouTube’s audience data and all that stuff, much of which other YouTube channel providers have been asking for lately. “YouTube Nation” just could get them mad about the inequities in the system-- but it is a system that brings a lot of those YouTube content providers many millions of viewers, marketing or not.   

VideoInk says this is the pet project of YouTube content chief Robert Kyncl and DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, last seen together (by us, anyway) at YouTube NewFront event in the spring when DreamWorks acquired YouTube’s AwesomenessTV, and announced it from YouTube’s stage. Reportedly, AwesomenessTV has nothing to do with this deal, though, again, there really is no deal being announced at this point. So we’re deep into Conjectureland here.

As to This Could Be the Start of Something Big, online video still needs a kind of kickstarter (not the brand, the idea) that makes everybody—consumer, advertiser, Jay Leno—realize that for sure, that the media landscape has not only shifted, but is burying the media in the yard next door.  Let’s watch.

pj@mediapost.com