Netflix is Coming for YouTube. And Vice Versa (Sorry, Hollywood)
I reveal the coming creator war between the #1 and #2 streamers, what Netflix is looking to buy NOW, and how Amazon, Peacock and Hulu are joining the action
I write about the business of creators. I interviewed Bachelor alum Nick Viall about building his $30M podcast empire and reported on creators’ revenue streams now and jobs available in digital content for Hollywood talent. Email me tips and ideas at natalie@theankler.com
Hello from New York, where last night I attended YouTube’s annual advertiser showcase. This year’s Brandcast event was YouTube at its YouTube-iest, celebrating the platform’s 20th anniversary with appearances by MrBeast (who handed out $30,000 to the winner of a tug-of-war contest that featured former NFLers Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski), IShowSpeed and Hot Ones host Sean Evans. Brittany Broski hosted the affair, which ended with a five-song set from Lady Gaga.
Outside of the star turns, Brandcast is always a good measure of how Google-owned YouTube is putting its thumb on the scale to shape the viewing experience for its two billion-plus global users. I’ve covered a lot of Brandcasts over the years, including the one where YouTube apologized to advertisers for rampant violent, racist and inappropriate content on its platform. And the one where it touted a deep investment into originals from top creators. I think we’ll remember this year’s 90-minute Lincoln Center presentation as the one where the “YouTube is TV” message finally hit home.
“In just two decades, YouTube has fundamentally reshaped how we watch and create entertainment,” CEO Neal Mohan told the crowd inside David Geffen Hall. He later doubled down with, “This isn’t about YouTube becoming more like traditional TV. This is about TV becoming YouTube.”
Related:
YouTube now drives more watch time than any other TV network or streaming service, according to Nielsen, and most of that viewing is happening on TV sets. Its content is looking more TV-like too. YouTube will live stream its first-ever NFL game this fall, for example. And Speed (real name Darren Watkins Jr.) announced that he’s working on a new show for his channel, called Speed Goes Pro, that will pit him in head-to-head competitions against some of the biggest names in sports. It’s being produced by OBB Media, the shingle behind Sabrina Carpenter’s Netflix Christmas special and Hulu documentary Child Star.
The one area where YouTube has lagged in its quest to siphon off TV ad dollars is its app design. Even that’s changing now. The company is overhauling its connected TV homepage to create what executives are calling a “cinematic” experience (aka it looks a lot more like Netflix, Hulu and other streamers). It will soon allow creators making episodic programming (like Rhett & Link and Michelle Khare) to organize their videos by seasons and episodes.
A couple other highlights from the night:
YouTube has introduced a new advertising package that will allow brands to run spots next to top cultural moments, like awards season or the PGA Championship.
It will start matching ads with contextually relevant “peak moments” with the help of Google’s Gemini AI tool.👇🏼
The only time the night’s messaging notably fell flat was when MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) took the stage to talk about the role of YouTube in his career. “With the success I’ve had, people always ask me if I’m going to Hollywood, like it’s the next step,” he said, standing side by side with Mohan. “But why? Because with YouTube, my team and I get full creative control to do whatever we want and post videos that our fans want.” It was a nice shoutout, except that just two days earlier, MrBeast had appeared via pre-recorded video before the audience at Amazon’s upfront to tout the two new seasons of his Prime Video reality show, Beast Games.
Beast has, in fact, very much gone Hollywood. And he’s not the only one. Online creators are now in high demand after years of being treated like C-listers in the entertainment industry. “We’re at or near a tipping point where the biases are shedding away, and the value of these creators to engage audiences is being recognized,” says Chris Williams, CEO of digital studio pocket.watch, which works with kids channels like Ryan’s World and Love, Diana.
Today is my deep dive on the living room meld between traditional talent and creators, who’s buying what and what it means for the entertainment business as the war for TV time heats up.
🔍 In This Week’s Dispatch:
🎯 Netflix’s First Big Swings: What the streamer really wants from creators — and who’s already cashing the checks
🚀 Who’s Breaking Through: The types of creators Hollywood is finally taking seriously (and why it took this long)
💥 What Didn’t Work — and Why It Matters Now: Hard lessons from failed creator-TV experiments that are reshaping the playbook
👩🏽🍳 The Secret Sauce: The built-in creator superpower that legacy media still can’t replicate
📺 Netflix x Ms. Rachel: How a licensing experiment turned into a platform-defining win — and what it signals next
📈 The YouTube Halo Effect: How Ms. Rachel’s Netflix run actually boosted her on YouTube
🤝 Where the Deals Are Happening: Every major platform’s latest moves to woo creators — Prime Video to Peacock