And unlike original content, creator series come to streamers with their own followings already attached, meaning that both the financial risk and viewership risk are significantly reduced. Indeed, for many streamers the real question is not whether or not they should experiment with creator content, but why it has taken them so long to do so.
Of course, this trend is still in its infancy, and many streamers are treating the Netflix experiment as a case study, watching to see how its podcast offerings perform before fully committing themselves to copying its strategy. Netflix is expected to bring to market a new series of podcast deals in April, which will no doubt be scrutinized for any differences compared to its initial round of deals, according to Hurwitz.
But complicating that particular tactic is the fact that Netflix is the only streamer that has required its new podcast partners to remove their channels from YouTube, a sign of exactly who Netflix is hoping to curb with its efforts.
For most streamers, such exclusivity runs counter to their strategy, which would prefer that the shows reach the broadest audience possible, according to Angie More, the director of creator advertising partnerships at Amazon.
In fact, Amazon specifically restructured its podcasting business last year to account for the increasingly multiplatform nature of creator content. In August, the company dissolved Wondery, dividing its roster of shows into scripted content, which now lives under Audible, and creator content, which lives under Amazon Creator Services.
For its creator content, which includes shows like the Kelce brothers’ New Heights podcast, living across multiple platforms is part of the point, according to More. This expanded footprint is an enticement to advertisers and a point of appeal to the creators themselves, many of whom are unlikely to want to artificially curtail their reach.
Naturally, the only party in this emergent content supply chain that might be unhappy about the situation is YouTube itself.
Several executives openly speculated about how the video platform might respond to the ongoing poaching of its homegrown programming, a problem that YouTube, like Substack, shares as an incubator of talent. Most agree that YouTube is unlikely to get into the business of paying to retain its creators, as doing so would create an expensive precedent.
But the question of how YouTube responds, as well as how podcast monetization platforms like Substack and Patreon fit into the equation, reflect the strategic stakes at hand. In a world where streaming services are increasingly looking to emulate YouTube, how long before YouTube begins to do the same to them?
Talking Heds
Union Activity (SCOOP): In recent days, the unions at CBS, The New York Times, and ProPublica have been busy. Last week, I scooped that the union representing CBS News 24/7 had successfully renegotiated its contract with management, which was ratified on Monday. According to sources, some of the major planks of the new agreement include protections related to artificial intelligence—one specifically mandates that CBS pay a 20% higher severance package to staffers whose job is replaced by the technology, a protection that could become precedent elsewhere. At The Times, for instance, AI protections remain a key point of friction amid the ongoing negotiations between the 1,500-person Times Guild and management, Breaker reported Tuesday. And on Wednesday, unionized staff at ProPublica walked off the job in a one-day strike, setting up picket lines at company offices in New York, Chicago, and Washington D.C. Once again, restrictions on replacing jobs with AI was a key point of friction.
