Sony unveiled online video site Crackle today yesterday. It’s the company’s revised bid–after purchasing Grouper last summer–to become a go-to place for great homegrown online videos. To differentiate themselves from, say, YouTube (GOOG), Sony is trying to turn Crackle into a talent pipeline for aspiring creative types who want to hit the big time. From Investor’s Business Daily:

To entice top talent to submit quality video, Crackle will award $15,000 to the creators of top-rated videos — as judged by Crackle’s viewers — every three months. Creators of top-rated clips will also get to meet with TV and movie studio executives at Sony or its Columbia Pictures affiliate to pitch their ideas, says Felser. And Crackle will award top-rated comedians a stand-up gig at Hollywood’s Improv Comedy Lab.

“It’s time to deliver a much more compelling product,” said Sean Carey, vice president of Sony Pictures Television. “When we acquired Grouper, user-generated content was a phenomenon. But (viewers) desire higher quality.”

As Salon’s tech blog Machinist points out, other sites have tried something along these lines before. Revver, for instance, shares ad revenues with the people who submit online videos to the site. The distinction is that maybe Sony can lend some of its big media company cache to lure even better talent.

The Browser wonders: What percentage of videos on YouTube are put up by people who are hoping to be discovered by Hollywood? In other words, maybe YouTube isn’t an amateur show after all, but is already functioning like Crackle as part of the Hollywood machine already, only without the $15K prize. Two examples of hit YouTube videos that came from pros: Obama girl was the brainchild of an ad executive. And Lonelygirl15 came from two aspiring filmmakers.

YouTube became a way for anyone to reach a world audience, without having to get a green light first from a media conglomerate. Now Crackle is inviting the middle man back.