For much of the day yesterday, three of the four revolving spots on the top of the front page belonged to Viacom-owned CBS promotions for major entertainments, whether new movies The Holiday (a CBS interview with Jude Law) and We Are Marshall (a promo of the film put together by CBS's sports network CSTV) or a clip from Viacom/Showtime's series "Sleeper Cell."

With the real estate on YouTube's front page increasingly going to corporate behemoths, the work of amateur vloggers and undiscovered filmmakers – the bread-and-butter of YouTube's community – are getting buried.

It's no surprise that Google would start trying to monetize their billion-dollar investment, going the way of other major online video players. (For example, just about all of Viacom-owned iFilm's main page is devoted to corporate-made content; Sony-owned Grouper isn't as bad, but gives plenty of space to Sony Pictures.) But what does this mean for YouTube, once a democratic haven and free-for-all meritocracy where space couldn't be bought. As one YouTube poster named teammember comments on the "Sparrow Falling" clip, "Youtube is really gay now. If I wanted to see Pirates 2 I would go to the dollar theater."

Still, YouTube's filmmaking community may yet have a piece of the Google/YouTube pie. The Daily Reel has learned that YouTube may have formed a partnership with Coca Cola to pay some of the site's most renowned talents to create their own videos. It'll be the first time that YouTube gives back to its videomakers directly, with budgets and cash.

The tradeoff, however, is that the movies will be connected to Coca Cola, possibly shown on a clearly Coca-Cola-created website or skin (not unlike those annoying Coke-sponsored pre-movie-trailers made by film students.) YouTube's filmmakers may see some of the trickle-down effects of the company's recent bounty, but will they be able to retain their independence in the process?