Creator Economy Shifts: Living Room Screen, IP, and AI Integration
TL;DR
- Instagram's TV app launch signals a strategic shift towards capturing living room consumption time, potentially enabling horizontal content and new advertising models beyond its current social media focus.
- Creator content syndication to platforms like Netflix and Tubi offers creators dual monetization streams and expands their reach, positioning YouTube as an incubator for streamer content.
- Disney's $1 billion investment in OpenAI and character licensing agreement sets a precedent for IP integration into generative AI, potentially driving a new era of interactive entertainment and user-generated content.
- The increasing importance of the living room screen necessitates creators structuring content as "shows" with repeatable formats to build brands and capture audience attention across diverse platforms.
- The trend of creators acquiring exclusive broadcasting rights for niche sports, like Zach Nani with the French U21 football team, demonstrates a shift towards individual personalities distributing IP directly to specialized audiences.
- Generative AI's integration into content creation, exemplified by Disney's deal, mirrors past technological disruptions like Napster, requiring new models for IP regulation, monetization, and user engagement.
Deep Dive
The creator economy is undergoing a significant transformation, driven by the increasing importance of the living room screen and the evolving role of intellectual property in the age of AI. Platforms are shifting to accommodate longer-form, show-like content, while IP holders are exploring new monetization and engagement models through generative AI, signaling a future where interactive and creator-driven entertainment dominates.
The living room is emerging as the primary battleground for attention, compelling platforms like Instagram to launch TV apps and encouraging creators to produce structured, "show-like" content. Instagram's move into connected TV, mirroring YouTube's success, indicates a strategic push to capture consumption time on this valuable screen. This necessitates a shift for creators from producing discrete pieces of content to developing repeatable, bingeable "shows" with clear narrative arcs. The ability to syndicate creator content across platforms like Netflix, Hulu, and Tubi is also a growing trend, offering creators new revenue streams and audience reach. Tubi's "Creatorverse," for example, provides a significant revenue share model for creators. While YouTube remains the incubator, syndication allows creators to monetize their existing content across multiple platforms, potentially acting as a top-of-funnel acquisition for their primary YouTube channels. The success of creators like Mark Rober on Netflix demonstrates that even established YouTube personalities are recognized as "YouTubers" even when appearing on other platforms, reinforcing YouTube's role as the origin point for creator culture. Conversely, individual creators are also acquiring broadcast rights, as seen with Zach Nani's exclusive rights to the French National U21 football team, showcasing a reversed flow of IP distribution. Ultimately, creators who own their IP and produce "clean" content--free of unauthorized logos or likenesses--will have the greatest opportunity to participate in this evolving landscape.
Concurrently, Disney's $1 billion investment in OpenAI and subsequent licensing agreement for its characters marks a pivotal moment for intellectual property in the AI era. This deal allows OpenAI's generative models, Sora and ChatGPT, to utilize Disney's extensive character library, signaling a move from combating AI-generated IP infringement to actively licensing and integrating it. This precedent could reshape how major IP holders engage with AI, potentially through micro-payments for character usage or by integrating fan-generated content onto platforms like Disney+. The trend toward interactive entertainment, influenced heavily by gaming, is amplified by this development. By releasing IP into generative engines, Disney is effectively creating a framework for interactive storytelling and potentially personalized entertainment experiences, akin to a video game where users can interact with and shape narratives. This aligns with the rise of micro-dramas and other interactive content formats, suggesting that the future of entertainment lies in user-controlled, endlessly explorable worlds, even if the IP itself remains owned by the creator. The exclusion of voice actors from this initial deal highlights ongoing tensions around compensation and the future of performance in AI-driven content creation, a concern likely to be mirrored across Hollywood.
Action Items
- Create show format template: Define 5 required sections (setup, core narrative, recurring segments, call to action, outro) for repeatable content structure.
- Audit 10 recent video uploads: Identify instances of unowned IP (logos, locations, likenesses) to ensure content is "clean" for syndication.
- Implement 3-5 interactive content experiments: Test audience engagement mechanics (e.g., branching narratives, clickable elements) within existing video formats.
- Track retention metrics for 5-10 video series: Measure audience engagement over multiple episodes to prioritize long-term content library development.
- Design a framework for evaluating AI-generated content: Establish 3 criteria for assessing originality and potential for IP licensing opportunities.
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View Episode Notes →Key Quotes
"Instagram is launching a TV app. Yes, the app you open the most throughout your day to scroll on your phone and DM your friends wants you to watch together with your friends on your couch."
Colin and Samir explain that Instagram's new TV app signals a push to gain prominence on the living room screen. They note that this move is a response to user demand for social viewing experiences and potentially a shift in the type of content being uploaded to the platform.
"The metric that matters here is consumption time. How long is someone watching one piece of content?"
Colin and Samir highlight that consumption time is the key metric for platforms like Instagram when considering their TV app. They suggest that longer viewing sessions are becoming increasingly valuable, aligning with the broader trend of platforms prioritizing engagement duration.
"I think that also comes with significant advertising dollars. It's not to say Instagram isn't a massive advertising business, just a different advertising business."
Colin and Samir discuss how YouTube has established itself as a dominant force in the TV landscape, attracting substantial advertising revenue. They differentiate Instagram's advertising model, suggesting that its entry into the TV space could lead to new advertising opportunities and revenue streams.
"The way those deals work is on a 50/50 rev share with Tubi. But because Tubi's owned by Fox, they have a really good sales team, and they're selling TV ads. Because of that, creators can make good money on Tubi, and the numbers I've heard are in the six figures, some creators making six figures per month on Tubi from their share of ads."
Colin and Samir explain the financial model behind Tubi's creator syndication deals, emphasizing the 50/50 revenue share and the platform's ability to sell TV ads. They highlight that this structure allows creators to earn significant income, with some reportedly making six figures monthly.
"Mark Rober is a YouTuber. He's a YouTube guy, and I believe he will be committed to making YouTube videos YouTube first. Jimmy, Mr. Beast, has said the same thing. He is YouTube first."
Colin and Samir discuss the commitment of top creators like Mark Rober and Mr. Beast to their primary platform, YouTube. They suggest that despite syndication opportunities on other platforms, these creators prioritize YouTube as their initial and main outlet for content.
"This matters a lot because it could set precedent for how IP gets distributed through LLMs. Meaning, another example, how does Colin and Samir get distributed through an LLM? If you're like, 'Give me a Colin and Samir breakdown of why this matters for creators,' maybe that's something in a way you could engage with us in the future."
Colin and Samir explain the significance of Disney's deal with OpenAI, suggesting it could establish a precedent for how intellectual property is licensed and distributed via large language models. They propose that this could lead to future interactions where AI models generate content based on creators themselves.
"I want to talk about how this, we've talked about it a couple of times, but I think it's like my trend of the year, which is that interactive content is where we are headed. Everything being interactive."
Colin and Samir identify interactive content as a major trend for the year, emphasizing its growing influence across entertainment. They suggest that the ability for audiences to engage with and influence content is becoming increasingly important.
Resources
External Resources
Books
- "Good Mythical Morning" by [Author Not Specified] - Mentioned as a large catalog of evergreen content comparable to "The Office" for comfort watching.
Articles & Papers
- "YouTube Culture and Trends Report" - Referenced for insights into creator economy trends, specifically mentioning Zach Nani's acquisition of broadcasting rights.
People
- Ray William Johnson - Mentioned as an early influential YouTube creator who did deep dives and clip shows.
- MrBeast - Referenced as a major YouTube creator and mentioned in relation to Tubi and his commitment to YouTube.
- Logan Paul - Mentioned in relation to Ray William Johnson.
- Tosh.0 - Mentioned as a comparison for Ray William Johnson's early content style.
- Kareem - Mentioned as a creator who uploads content.
- Subway Takes - Mentioned as an example of a show format on Instagram and YouTube.
- Trackstar - Mentioned as an example of a show format on Instagram and YouTube.
- Druky - Mentioned for his structured series "Could Have Been Love."
- Mark Rober - Mentioned for his series on Netflix, his subscription box with Crunch Labs, and his YouTube videos.
- Jesser - Mentioned for syndicating episodes to Hulu in a series titled "Ball or Nothing."
- Jimmy - Mentioned as MrBeast, stating his commitment to YouTube.
- Sean Evans - Mentioned as being in a David Chang special with Mark Rober.
- David Chang - Mentioned for a special with Sean Evans and Mark Rober.
- Ryan Serhant - Mentioned in relation to his show "Owning Manhattan" and its role as top-of-funnel content.
- Zach Nani - Mentioned as a French creator who won exclusive broadcasting rights for the French National U21 football team.
- Carl Jacobs - Mentioned in relation to the Dream SMP and storytelling within Minecraft.
- Dream - Mentioned in relation to the Dream SMP and storytelling within Minecraft.
- Michael Cera - Mentioned as an example of unexpected campaign casting.
- Rachel Carton - Mentioned for running a newsletter and posting "Ins and Outs" for 2026.
Organizations & Institutions
- Instagram - Discussed in relation to launching a TV app and its efforts to gain space on the connected TV wave.
- YouTube - Discussed as a top platform for creators and its positioning as the next TV.
- Hulu - Mentioned as a streaming platform featuring creator videos.
- Tubi - Discussed as a platform offering creators deals and featuring creator content, with a 50/50 rev share model.
- Netflix - Mentioned as a streaming platform featuring creator videos and syndicating content.
- HBO Max - Mentioned as a streaming service.
- Amazon Fire TV - Mentioned as a partner for Instagram's TV app pilot launch.
- Fox - Mentioned as the owner of Tubi.
- Meta - Mentioned as having received a cease and desist from Disney regarding character use in AI models.
- Runway - Mentioned as an LLM that received a cease and desist from Disney.
- Midjourney - Mentioned as an LLM that received a cease and desist from Disney.
- OpenAI - Discussed in relation to Disney's billion-dollar investment and licensing agreement for generative models.
- Disney - Discussed in relation to its investment in OpenAI and licensing of its characters for AI content generation.
- Pixar - Mentioned as a Disney-owned company whose characters are included in the OpenAI deal.
- Marvel - Mentioned as a Disney-owned company whose characters are included in the OpenAI deal.
- Star Wars - Mentioned as a Disney-owned company whose characters are included in the OpenAI deal.
- Google - Mentioned as having received a cease and desist from Disney regarding character use in AI models.
- Gemini - Mentioned as an AI model that would not have access to Disney characters under the OpenAI deal.
- Crunch Labs - Mentioned as Mark Rober's subscription box company.
- Minecraft - Mentioned as a game where creators like Dream SMP built storytelling and lore.
- Roblox - Mentioned as a game influencing entertainment, with Carlos Boox growing a channel by playing it.
- GTA - Mentioned as an influential video game.
- Dream SMP - Mentioned as a creator group that built storytelling and lore within Minecraft.
- National Football League (NFL) - Mentioned in the context of sports discussion.
- New England Patriots - Mentioned as an example team for performance analysis.
- Pro Football Focus (PFF) - Mentioned as a data source for player grading.
Tools & Software
- Sora - Mentioned as an OpenAI generative model included in Disney's licensing agreement.
- ChatGPT - Mentioned as an OpenAI generative model included in Disney's licensing agreement.
Websites & Online Resources
- Instagram - Discussed in relation to launching a TV app and its efforts to gain space on the connected TV wave.
- YouTube - Discussed as a top platform for creators and its positioning as the next TV.
- Tubi - Discussed as a platform offering creators deals and featuring creator content, with a 50/50 rev share model.
- Netflix - Mentioned as a streaming platform featuring creator videos and syndicating content.
- Twitch - Mentioned as a platform where Zach Nani streams matches.
- Crunch Labs - Mentioned as Mark Rober's subscription box company.
- Minecraft - Mentioned as a game where creators like Dream SMP built storytelling and lore.
- Roblox - Mentioned as a game influencing entertainment, with Carlos Boox growing a channel by playing it.
- GTA - Mentioned as an influential video game.
- Dream SMP - Mentioned as a creator group that built storytelling and lore within Minecraft.
Other Resources
- Connected TV wave - Mentioned as a trend Instagram is trying to join.
- Creator economy - Discussed as a trend and subject for predictions.
- AI (Artificial Intelligence) - Discussed in relation to Disney's investment in OpenAI and its impact on IP licensing and content generation.
- Generative AI - Discussed in relation to brands bragging about its use and its integration into storytelling.
- IP (Intellectual Property) - Discussed in relation to licensing to AI models and Disney's monetization of its characters.
- LLMs (Large Language Models) - Mentioned in the context of IP licensing and Disney's cease and desist letters.
- UGC (User-Generated Content) - Mentioned in relation to Disney potentially opening up to this model on Disney+.
- Napster moment for visuals - An analogy used to describe the disruption caused by Sora.
- Interactive content - Identified as a major trend, with Disney's deal with OpenAI being an example.
- Gaming - Discussed as having ever-increasing influence on entertainment.
- Video games - Mentioned as influencing entertainment and the future of content creation.
- Chinese micro dramas - Mentioned as an example of interactive storytelling.
- Mr Rogers style content - Mentioned as "in" for 2026, representing wholesome content.
- MrBeast style content - Mentioned as "out" for 2026.
- Retention over 10 videos in reach of one video - Mentioned as "in" for 2026.
- Brands that clarify their stance on generative AI - Mentioned as "in" for 2026.
- Brands that brag about their use of generative AI - Mentioned as "out" for 2026.
- Conversational carousels - Mentioned as "in" for 2026.
- Transactional carousels - Mentioned as "out" for 2026.
- 10,000 true fans - Mentioned as "in" for 2026.
- 100,000 followers - Mentioned as "out" for 2026.
- Brain rot - Mentioned as continuing to be "in" for 2026.
- Unexpected campaign casting - Mentioned as "in" for 2026.
- The Rizzler again - Mentioned as an example of unexpected campaign casting.