Great content creators have become one of the most coveted assets in the entertainment industry. Its ability to gather loyal audiences, generate content quickly and establish commercial relationships with brands is awakening the interest of platforms such as Netflix, Disney+ or Tubi, which are seeking to incorporate into their catalogs some of the formats and personalities that have built their popularity on YouTube. But Google’s platform is not willing to give way easily.

According to research published by The Hollywood Reporter, YouTube is intensifying its efforts to keep its top creators linked to its ecosystem, combining new commercial opportunities with a more restrictive policy regarding certain benefits it offers to those who primarily operate on the platform.
The information, also collected by Warc, points to competition that is intensifying especially in the United States, but that reflects a broader transformation in the relationships between creators, platforms and advertisers.

And the competition shows a transformation in the audiovisual business. Streaming platforms, traditionally focused on movies, series and large productions, are incorporating content born on the internet to respond to the consumption habits of younger audiences. At the same time, YouTube seeks to protect one of its main competitive advantages: the direct relationship between creators, their communities and the brands that invest in advertising.

Netflix and Disney+ seek to attract YouTube creators

Netflix has been one of the most active companies in this strategy. Its first agreements focused on children’s and family content, incorporating proposals from creators and digital brands such as CoComelon, Ms. Rachel or Mark Rober into its catalog.
The results of this content led the platform to expand its collaborations and develop original productions. Subsequently, it has extended its interest to other categories, such as gastronomy, conversational entertainment and content aimed at teenagers, with names such as Nick DiGiovanni, Good Mythical Morning or Alan Chikin Chow.

This approach to digital creators is also reflected in Spain. Netflix has announced its connection with La Velada del Año, the event organized by Ibai Llanos that was born on Twitch and has established itself as one of the great shows of digital entertainment in Spanish. The initiative is especially significant due to the format’s ability to mobilize massive audiences and attract sponsors, combining sport, music and live entertainment. Its relationship with Netflix, planned for the next three editions of the event, illustrates how streaming platforms are expanding their interest towards events and intellectual properties that have built their notoriety outside of traditional audiovisual circuits.

Rich Greenfield, an analyst at LightShed Partners, estimates that Netflix could have committed more than $1 billion over the next three years to programming linked to creators and podcasts. Although this is a relatively small amount compared to its annual content budget, which is around $20 billion, it reflects the importance that this type of production is acquiring.

Disney is also strengthening its relationship with digital creators. In recent months it has established agreements with Dhar Mann, Dude Perfect and Like Nastya, among others, with the aim of incorporating proposals related to its positioning and especially attractive to family audiences.
In the case of Dude Perfect, the collaboration includes initiatives that go beyond audiovisual content and encompass entertainment, sports, consumer products and experiences.

For its part, Tubi, the free platform financed by advertising and owned by Fox, has closed agreements with dozens of creators to incorporate both original productions and existing content. The shared objective is to access communities that have developed their consumption habits around digital personalities, and that do not necessarily maintain the same relationship with traditional television and streaming formats.

Faster content with lower production costs

The attractiveness of creators does not lie solely in their ability to attract people. They also offer platforms a different production model, characterized by greater agility and potentially lower costs.
While a fiction series may require long periods of development and production between seasons, many digital creators maintain constant activity and have teams capable of producing content more frequently.

Nic Paul, President of Spotter – a company specialized in services for creators – explains to The Hollywood Reporter that platforms are trying to solve a common problem: how to generate enough content to maintain the interest of their audiences in an increasingly competitive market.
“Everyone is wondering how to create enough content, and do it quickly enough, to keep audiences interested. If you think about a show like Stranger Things, you have to wait more than a year between seasons, while creators are able to produce intellectual property very quickly”he points out.

One of the creators consulted by the media assures that he can produce an hour of programming for approximately 10% of the cost of a traditional comedy, drama or entertainment production, and even for less. This is a particular estimate, but it illustrates the differences between both models.

For creators, agreements with streaming platforms also represent an opportunity. In addition to providing financing for larger projects, they can facilitate your expansion into new categories, commercial products or in-person experiences.

YouTube reinforces its incentives to retain its top talents

The entry of Netflix and Disney+ into this market is prompting a stronger response from YouTube. According to the sources consulted by The Hollywood Reporter, The platform would be allocating more resources to facilitating commercial agreements between creators and advertisers, a financing channel that can be especially attractive for those who want to develop new projects without depending on the acquisition of content by a streaming service.

However, the company would also be warning of possible consequences for those creators who prioritize their agreements with competing platforms.
These would include the loss of opportunities to participate in Brandcast, its annual presentation aimed at advertisers, or the withdrawal of support for certain awards campaigns. Some sources also indicate that YouTube has proposed limiting the access of these creators to YouTube Select, its advertising program aimed at content and channels of special relevance.

This last point would have surprised some professionals in the sector, since YouTube Select had traditionally been understood as a program based on audience and reach criteria, and not on the exclusivity of the creators.

Adam Wescott, CEO of Home Game Studios, points out that this attitude represents a change with respect to the relationship that the platform had maintained with its talents. “That had never been their previous approach. It was always about supporting creators and reminding them why YouTube was their home”he explains to the media.

From YouTube, its CEO, Neal Mohan, has publicly addressed the growing interest of competing platforms in digital creators. In an interview with the podcast Big Techpointed out that the attention they are receiving demonstrates the cultural relevance they have achieved. He also recalled the case of MrBeast, which produces Beast Games for Prime Video, but maintains YouTube as its main distribution platform.

Although the competition between platforms is presented as a battle for content, advertising interests occupy a fundamental place. And the most popular creators have a disproportionate importance in the large commercial commitments that YouTube establishes annually with advertisers.
Thus, between 20 and 50 creators concentrate a particularly relevant part of the appeal that the platform offers to certain brands. Their presence on competing services could change advertisers’ perceptions of where it is most convenient to invest.

“If brands start seeing those creators on Netflix, might they start to wonder why they are paying YouTube for talent that they can find in another curated, brand-safe environment?”says analyst Rich Greenfield (LightShed Partners).

The issue becomes more relevant as streaming platforms expand their advertising businesses. Netflix and Disney+ are strengthening their modalities with ads, while Tubi operates directly under an advertising financing model. Consequently, the incorporation of popular creators not only allows us to attract viewers, but also develop new commercial opportunities for brands.

The creators themselves are used to working with advertisers. According to Adam Wescott (Home Game Studios), in certain segments of the industry, around 90% of revenue comes from sponsorships and commercial collaborations.
This circumstance explains why platforms are interested in incorporating both their production capacity and their relationships with brands.

For advertisers, the new scenario expands the possibilities of collaboration. Creators can develop sponsored content within their own channels, participate in original productions on streaming services or establish agreements that combine different platforms and formats.
The distribution of content thus ceases to be an exclusively audiovisual issue and acquires an increasingly relevant commercial dimension.

Creators gain negotiating power

Despite the competition between platforms, the sources consulted by The Hollywood Reporter They agree that it is unlikely that big creators will completely abandon YouTube. The platform continues to offer them advantages that are difficult to replicate, including a consolidated community, a direct relationship with their followers, known monetization mechanisms and a high degree of autonomy over their content.

“It will be difficult to find a successful YouTube creator who is willing to leave the platform, because it is what they know, where their audience is, where they have built their business and where they have more direct control”explains Adam Wescott.

This situation points towards a model in which creators will be able to combine their usual activity on YouTube with agreements to develop specific productions on Netflix, Disney+ or other services. The case of The Evening of the Year also allows us to observe how this dynamic can extend beyond the original series and programs, incorporating large live events that were born in the environment of social platforms.
It also marks a change in their role within the industry. Many have gone from producing videos independently to running companies with production teams, distribution agreements, business relationships and different income streams. In this context, decisions about where to publish content or what platform to develop a project with acquire strategic importance.

The dispute between YouTube and streaming services ultimately reflects a redistribution of value within the audiovisual industry. Traditional platforms need to get closer to the formats and communities that have driven the growth of digital video, while YouTube seeks to preserve the commercial appeal of the talents that have helped consolidate its position.