(Continued From Cover) (Continued on Page 22) 20 there were very few TV shows that were being greenlit, so there was very little for us to pick up. Because of that, we had to get creative with what we were acquiring. So we started looking at creator content. The production value of creator content during that time skyrocketed. Their production teams were smaller, more nimble, and not union-based. They were faster and just more efficient at acquiring content that we knew had an embedded audience. We knew with various analytical tools, such as View Stats and Tubular Labs, that there was a strong demographic of viewers of all ages, but especially under 18, that weren’t being serviced in other aspects of traditional legacy media. So that’s when we figured it would be a great time to try out creator content syndication. We were able to get a couple of creators off the ground that ended up, in the span of a year, performing very well. VA: Companies now have divisions that deal with branding for content creators and influencers, usually through talent agents who are also actively recruiting bloggers and influencers. Do you prefer dealing with such agents or going directly to talent? BS: It’s two-fold. It depends on the talent. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. Depending on their “vertical” [i.e. creator content genre], on how large and nimble their teams are, and also on what they want to accomplish. Not every creator wants to be on YouTube forever. Some of them want to transition into film and television, want to get into merch lines, want to pivot to something entirely different. So I can’t say which one I prefer, but having an agent can help the process and move along getting the deal done, which can be overwhelming for certain creators [since] they’re not people who have a background in film or television. On the flip side, [agents] can create a bottleneck where you’re not talking directly to the creator. That being said, I don’t know if the languages that people in traditional and legacy media speak are really the same as a creator, so having an interpreter with the agent can be beneficial long-term. VA: Can you explain the difference between a content creator who deals with long-form content, for example, YouTube, Facebook, etc., and influencers who work with short-form content on platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter, now X. BS: I don’t know if there is such a big difference between creator and influencer. Those two terms have really become one, which is just creator of content. The medium doesn’t necessarily make one a creator or one an influencer, especially with younger generations watching TikTok and looking at Instagram the way older generations would traditional television. A creator is a creator, and just because you have a fan base on YouTube doesn’t necessarily mean that it translates to TikTok or vice versa. So I would just refer to them as creators. VA: Do you know how much an influencer could make per year, or per month, what kind of money? BS: It depends. It’s kind of like saying how much does an actor make a year? You can have someone who makes multiple millions of dollars a year, and you can have someone who makes a couple thousand dollars and has other jobs on the side, where being a creator isn’t their full-time gig yet. We are seeing an oversaturation of people trying to get into the creator market, which is to be expected. There’s just such an abundance of talent and of content being made and of various mediums between the Social Media platforms, that there are just a lot of people trying to get into this space. Not all of them can be successful, and that is true for acting and singing and any other talent-based business. Right now, digital media, especially outlets such as AVoD and FAST, are basically driving the production of low-cost programs, and that’s what is benefiting the influencers, because basically, there are thousands of FAST channels to refurbish their programming, their schedule. They survive on very little money, basically they do percentage of advertising for revenue-sharing. So everyone is now going into it. I was recently at MIPCOM where I’ve met people, television programmers, [people from] television stations over there, that are moving to influence Social Media, talent, pushing them to their own channels. VA: Did you foresee this development early on? BS: FAST is really just a refurbished version of broadcast TV. It just happens to be on OTT rather than on linear television. But because FAST really needs a younger demographic of viewers to survive, it really sees a lot of its audience come from Gen X and Boomers. They need to find a way to enter that younger audience base. And creators are an excellent way for them to do that. But not every creator FAST channel is going to work. That’s true for any kind of television show or film or FAST channel, vertical or general. But I think that it’s an excellent place for them to start garnering a little bit of attention from those younger demographics that don’t really consider FAST an option or as a viewing experience at all. So instead of pushing FAST on younger audiences, getting creators excited about FAST makes more sense to me. But one of the problems that I’ve been hearing from FAST producers and content distributors is that there will not be enough libraries to feed those FAST channels. It’s inevitable that they may go to Social Media talent to put more programming to the television schedule for their FAST channels. There’s no alternative. For the most part, right now, it’s still cheaper and more nimble to acquire creator content instead of going through the litany of acquiring a traditional library. Creators aren’t being serviced in the FAST space as much as any other library, any traditional library. It’s a great opportunity for them to test it out. And that’s very appealing. Because it’s new content, it brings a new demographic. They’re running out of content so it just makes sense. That being said, it’s not a one size fits all approach. If you are popular on a horizontally shot platform like TikTok or Instagram, I don’t really see currently — I mean, maybe in the next five to 10 years — I don’t see how you’re going to succeed on FAST. But if you are a high-production-valued YouTube channel, shot horizontally, you have a really good opportunity with FAST to get your content seen elsewhere outside of the regular mediums you’ve been using. VA: How can a FAST channel operator produce shows with the business model where basically it’s just revenue-sharing with minimum guarantees (MGs)? How can you produce shows with a kind of business model where the revenue is very low? BS: Well, you’re just syndicating what’s currently on YouTube. So it’s more like a second window opportunity rather than a new original series. Now, something that you could do, which I haven’t seen, but you’re going to see FAST channels indicating YouTube content that’s very popular and very topical and has a great audience base. And then once that FAST channel gains some momentum, we’re going to see original series be greenlit into that channel. VA: But where is the financing coming from? I mean, I think once you start seeing the revenue come in from the FAST side, which just stems from the library, right? Bianca Serafini, OTT Licensing specialist VIDEOAGE February 2025 Social Media & OTT
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