The news is of course potentially groundbreaking, signaling a real change for the perception of digital distribution within the mainstream studio system.

Not only is this the second year in a row where a drama series from one of the major broadcast networks failed to be nominated, but House of Cards will be competing for best drama series alongside established players like Downton Abbey and Breaking Bad.

However, dig a little deeper, and there is much disappointment to be found in the nominations — specifically, in the categories that have always at least tangentially been open to independent web content.

While their names have a tendency to vary on a yearly basis, categories such as “Outstanding Special Class – Short-Format Live-Action Entertainment Programs” and “Outstanding Interactive Program” have given projects like Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog and Star Wars Uncut greater recognition.

Well, Dr. Horrible might not have really needed the greater recognition — but its nomination did help then-host Neil Patrick Harris and others make in-character cameos during the 2009 Emmys broadcast (and share some opinions about traditional versus digital programming that, four years later, prove interesting).

Looking at this year’s nominees, there were technically a few victories in the nominations for web-original content, such as Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee, the improvised interview series which brings Seinfeld’s famous friends to Sony’s Crackle, and Zach Galifianakis’s Between Two Ferns, the improvised interview series which brings Galifianakis’s famous friends to the Will Ferrell/Adam McKay-founded Funny or Die.

(There might be a pattern here.)

While Comedians in Cars is categorized as non-fiction, Between Two Ferns is competing in the Short-Format Live-Action Entertainment Programs category. One of its competitors is Burning Love, the Yahoo series produced by Ben Stiller’s Red Hour Productions and starring a huge cast of well-known talented comedians including Ken Marino, Paul Scheer, Michael Ian Black, Kumail Nanjiani, Natasha Leggero, Malin Ackerman, Nick Kroll and Michael Cera.

These shows also face off against the equally star-studded Childrens Hospital, which originated as a web series on TheWB.com before transferring to Adult Swim.

The unifying factor here? Big names and funny people brought to you by digital platforms established by major networks and studios.

The closest anything originating on YouTube got to breaking through the nominations? Machinima’s Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn received a nomination for Main Title Design, competing against American Horror Story and The Newsroom, among other shows.

Filling in all the gaps here are the same series that caused networks to coin the term “webisode” — supplementary content created for the web by shows like 30 Rock and Top Chef, as well as this year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show.

The clearest sign how far behind the times the Emmys might be: Almost every nominee for the Outstanding Interactive Program category was for a second-screen experience (the one exception being an interactive website for National Geographic’s Killing Lincoln). And as Janko says, the second-screen experience is old news.

It’s 2013, and the year prior included no shortage of innovative content that challenged the concept of entertainment in the digital age. The voting body behind the Emmys has the opportunity to support this evolution. They’ve done it before.

But this year, instead, they nominated the web series about Jay Leno’s cars. For the fifth time.

Image via Jay Leno’s Garage.

It’s too early to say what category The Occasional, Funny Or Die’s new experiment in iPad publishing, will fall. But having sampled the first two issues (March/April and May/June), I feel comfortable saying that there are no shortage of reasons for checking it out. There are, in fact, 10 reasons, as follows:

1. It’s pretty darn funny.

2. Well, not universally funny; some pieces are more entertaining than others. But if that over-long spam email farce in Issue 1 isn’t your cup of tea, it only takes a few flicks of the wrist before you’re listening to Marc Maron make animal noises.

3. Because, while technically limited in terms of available video content, each piece does include some unique multimedia component.

4. Which is a good thing. The Occasional‘s charm is in its use of interactive elements, from sound files to full-on games. Even the act of navigating through each issue’s content is enjoyable, encouraged as you are to swipe through and explore.

5. Probably the best example of this: The Occasional‘s take on the classic game of “F—, Marry, Kill.” (Though, to be fair, I am a sucker for Roman Polanski jokes.)

6. Do you like Parks and Recreation? So does The Occasional. The second issue features two of the show’s writers (Chelsea Peretti and Harris Wittels), as well as an interview with star Nick Offerman that combines audio and photos for surreal effect.

7. In general, if you’re a fan of the online alt-comedy scene, currently powered by podcasts and digital sketches, The Occasional delivers. While known stars like Zach Galifianakis and Thomas Lennon lend their names to the project, much of its funny comes from emerging or lesser known talents — Julie Klausner‘s interviews and Kumail Nanjiani‘s column on life lessons learned from movies are standouts so far.

8. Because The Occasional is for sale, it’s pretty much commercial-free. The only exception is that of a Charlie Sheen-starring advertisement for Fiat in Issue 1.

9. Instead, the letter to the editor in issue 2 contains a delightful Oregon Trail reference.

10. Price-wise, $3.99 for a single issue feels like a bit much — but a year’s subscription, at $9.99, is much more manageable.

Funny Or Die isn’t the only company experimenting with the publishing capabilities of the iPad, but it’s the only high-level brand having this much fun with it. And it has an advantage other publications like The Daily don’t — a clearly defined voice and a pre-established audience.

Two weeks after cable giant Discovery Networks paid about $30 million to acquire San Francisco-based Revision3, Turner Networks revealed a significant partnership with online comedy producer Funny or Die.

Under terms of the deal, Atlanta-based Turner paid an undisclosed sum to acquire about 10 percent of Funny or Die, which was formed in late-2006 by Gary Sanchez Productions, the production company jointly run by comedians Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. (The site’s latest hit, a send-up of Apple’s Siri ad starring Zooey Deschanel, is embedded below for your comedic enjoyment.)

Turner is sure to look for cross-platform uses for Funny or Die’s video content on channels including TBS, a cable outlet focused on traditional sitcoms, and Adult Swim, the young-male-targeted platform that Cartoon Network turns into after the kids go to bed. But it will also now be in charge of ad sales for Funny or Die.

With Funny or Die averaging around 16 million unique users per month, according to comScore, Turner’s cable platforms — which average millions of viewers at any given prime-time moment — will offer Funny or Die a means of broadening its audience.

It’s not Funny or Die’s first traditional TV platform.

Back in 2008, Turner’s Time Warner sibling, HBO, invested several million dollars into Funny or Die, and launched a series, Funny or Die Presents, that’s now in its third season. Of course, several hundred thousand viewers on a premium cable network with no advertiser support is one thing; the Turner deal is quite another.

This latest agreement will also make Funny or Die more accessible to major advertisers looking for larger packages spanning myriad platforms.

“We’ve done terrifically well, but we don’t have the reach to [be] able to sell incredibly, broad, big packages,” Funny or Die CEO Dick Glover told AdAge Wednesday. (Separately, Funny or Die announced a deal Wednesday with NCM Media Networks, which programs the stuff you see on the big screen in movie theaters in between engagements. NCM and Funny or Die will jointly sell and custom create branded comedy content for sponsors who buy in.)

For its part, Turner has also done quite well in terms of digital media, garnering an audience of nearly 75 million unique users in April, according to comScore, for a network of properties that includes assets like CNN.com and NBA.com.

For Turner, which typically pays well over $500,000 to make an hour of scripted video, Funny or Die represents a shop that knows how to inexpensively shoot (i.e. no Hollywood unions!) short-form video. This is useful as it seeks to not only program linear channels like Adult Swim, but also transition these brands more into digital platforms.

Certainly, if you’re an independent producer of online video with any semblance of profile and audience share right now, times aren’t bad. On one side, you have large technology companies like YouTube, which are eager to acquire premium content as they seek to infiltrate cable TV’s advertising market share.

And on the other side, you now have large traditional media companies who also want to invest and buy your content, as they look to ward off this challenge.

Enjoy the moment. More big deals like this are coming.

Hat Trick Productions, the TV show maker with which the UK site a partnership, told paidContent:UK: “Following an assessment of the last 18 months, during which time Funny Or Die UK has seen numerous visitors to its site who have in turn gone into the American site, the decision has been made to merge the UK site and content into the American Funny Or Die website.”

The main site, originally founded by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, launched a UK wing with Hat Trick in September 2008, counting Little Britain‘s Matt Lucas and David Walliams as sort of patrons.

BBC comedian James Serafinowicz headed a London team along with Brass Eye director Al Campbell and Skins writers Dawson Bros. Hat Trick was to act as a talent scout and its sole production partner, plus as Funny Or Die’s UK office space. Serafinowicz concedes the site is not a money-spinner…

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In December, Hat Trick had said the site would breakeven early this year and had unique users in the six-figure bracket. But someone has now decided to pull the plug.

Funny Or Die shareholder HBO had been distributing the Walliams and Lucas Little Britain USA series State-side at the time of the UK launch, so it served some purpose short-lived Transatlantic marketing tie-up.

C21 Media: “It is Hat Trick’s second unsuccessful foray into the comedy portal business, after an earlier JV with Virgin Media (NSDQ: VMED), Comedy Flannel, also bit the dust. Other UK players in the space, such as Warner Music Entertainment’s Comedybox and RDF Media-backed Comedy Demon, closed down last year.”

Even Endemol, which had been amongst the producers making original web video drama for sites like MSN and Bebo, disbanded its digital unit recently, saying the ad-funded original web video model is “severely compromised“.

This launch also comes with a clip selection from Little Britain USA, an American spinoff of the over-exposed series from David Walliams and Matt Lucas – HBO is airing that series from Sunday and is also a minority shareholder in FunnyOrDie. So the deal is as much about breaking them over there as breaking FunnyOrDie over here. Co-founder Chris Henchy is pictured here at our EconSM conference in LA in April.

The PR says BBC comedian James Serafinowicz will head a London team along with Brass Eye director Al Campbell and Skins writers Dawson Bros. But that UK office will actually be at the headquarters of Hat Trick, which will act as a talent scout and the site’s sole production partner. It will, no doubt, be keen to cream off the funniest discoveries for television proper.

FunnyOrDie, founded by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s production company Gary Sanchez Productions, works by wouldbe comedians uploading their videos, before viewers vote a clip is “funny” or should “die”. This launch also comes with a clip selection from Little Britain USA, an American spinoff of the over-exposed series from David Walliams and Matt Lucas. HBO is airing that series and is also a minority shareholder in FunnyOrDie. So the deal is as much about breaking them over there as breaking FunnyOrDie over here. Co-founder Chris Henchy is pictured here at our EconSM conference in LA in April.

FunnyOrDie took an unspecified investment (less than 10 percent) from HBO earlier this year, as well as a big $15 million round last year that reportedly valued the company at around $100 million.

HBO launched its own comedy JV site with AOL called ThisJustIn, but closed it in August last year after little traction. The cable co had already been working with Ferrell and Adam McKay’s Gary Sanchez Prods. on the upcoming series “East Bound and Down.” That led to exploring more options to work together, and led to this investment. Wouldn’t be surprised if HBO looked at buying the company outright…

Since launching couple of years ago, FunnyOrDie has weathered dire prognostications about its short life, but with enough funding and celeb power, has expanded beyond that and added more in sports, gaming and food, and expects to add more video verticals. It raised about $15 million in a round late last year from Sequoia and other unidentified institutional investors, and the Variety story says the round valued the company at about $100 million.

At our EconSM conference in late April, we did a spotlight interview with Dick Glover, the CEO of the company, and Chris Henchy, one of the co-founders of the site. The full video is embedded below, and a writeup of the interview is here.

Dick Glover, the CEO of Funny or Die, the comedy site known for its smash hit short film “The Landlord,” starring Will Ferrell, and Chris Henchy, head of West Coast coordination for Gary Sanchez Productions, a studio started by himself, Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, spoke at EconSM about how you can turn a few laughs into a serious business. The panel was moderated by Jordan Levin, CEO of Generate, a next-generation production studio, who said since the site launched about a year ago, it’s attracted 18 to 19 million page views, and monthly unique visitors stand at about 3.2 million. In addition, 200 million videos have been watched, while 30,000 have been uploaded.

What do you get when you add a VC, a comedian, and a geek?: “We are not what people would see at Harvard or Stanford business school,” said Glover, “It