Creators
State of Play
Revised Nov 1, 2026The moment. Every platform with a TV screen wants long-form creator video. Tubi and TikTok launched the Creatorverse Incubator, with Tubi investing in 12 creators to develop 10 original series; Instagram is testing videos up to 90 minutes and landing on Apple TV, still with no ad-revenue share; Netflix hired Steve Wilson, a 15-year Apple veteran, to run podcast acquisition on top of more than 60 video podcasts; Banijay struck a partnership with Don’t Tell Comedy and its 14 million followers. Creators are meanwhile organizing like the companies buying from them: Ad Age has top creators restructuring under holding companies with their own CEOs, the SBA gave creator businesses an official classification code, and XR Extreme Reach, which handles over 80% of US commercial talent payments, launched XR Pay for Creators.
The tension. The distribution is being bid up and the business underneath is thinning. Simon Owens flags Business Insider’s report that Netflix may be cooling on video podcasts even as it hired someone to buy them. Digiday has nearly 60% of Americans getting news from social media while news creators call it the hardest category for brand deals. The Ankler’s Natalie Jarvey reports newsletter growth slowing industry-wide, with Taylor Lorenz saying she lost a third of her paid subscribers, and a recipe business with 130,000 email subscribers still lives on unpredictable Google and Facebook traffic. The Verge has Google’s AI Overviews dismantling the bargain where publishers fed the index in exchange for clicks, and Adweek has media buyers warning that Meta blocking links to TikTok cuts into creator campaigns that run across both.
Who’s moving. Tubi and TikTok, incubating 10 creator series. Instagram, at 90 minutes and on Apple TV. Netflix and Steve Wilson, on podcast acquisition. Banijay America, with Don’t Tell Comedy. The SBA, filing creators under NAICS code 5121. XR Extreme Reach, paying creators through Hollywood’s pipes. Beast Industries and Mastercard, on creator finance. Bill Owens, leaving 60 Minutes for Newpress. Meta, blocking links to TikTok. The Ankler’s Natalie Jarvey, on subscriber fatigue. The Daily Mail, running 12 to 15 generative engine optimization tests. Airwave, taking ad sales in-house.
What the desk is watching. Whether Instagram pays creators a share for the 90 minutes it is asking for, and whether Netflix’s podcast hire settles which way its podcast strategy is going.
The Telegraph turns podcasts into a franchise play across video and events
Digiday’s Sara Guaglione reports that The Telegraph is expanding its podcast strategy beyond audio into video, live events and paid memberships, following its acquisition by Axel Springer.
Viral ‘Oreogate’ mom saga was a paid Suno ad all along
Business Insider’s Katie Notopoulos reports that Ashleighjamz’s viral Instagram series about a lunchbox Oreo feud racked up over 10 million views before its #sunopartner tag surfaced.
SuperBloom’s Tom Dunlap on why physical media is creativity’s next flex
In an Explain It to a Teenager interview, SuperBloom House’s Tom Dunlap discusses the creative collective’s print magazine, physical media, and mentorship.
Creator marketing’s programmatic turn splits agencies and platforms
LTK launched an AI tool this week to structure campaigns and recommend creators, joining holdcos and platforms automating discovery, pricing and measurement across influencer marketing. Agency executives are split on whether standardizing creators as inventory helps or backfires.
Barret Zoph exits OpenAI after five months, lands VP role at Google
TechCrunch’s Lucas Ropek reports that Zoph co-founded Thinking Machines Lab with Mira Murati, was fired from the startup, and returned to OpenAI to lead enterprise sales.
Meta’s $17B teen safety deal has a hidden trigger for TikTok and YouTube
TVREV’s Alan Wolk reports that Meta agreed to pay roughly seventeen billion dollars to 47 states over addictive design for minors, but $5.3 billion of that is contingent on TikTok and YouTube adopting similar age and time restrictions and paying comparable sums.
YouTube adds Amazon affiliate shopping to creator videos and Shorts
eMarketer’s Grace Harmon reports that YouTube is integrating Amazon affiliate shopping links directly into creator videos and Shorts. The move lets creators tag Amazon products within their content, giving them a new built-in commerce path beyond existing YouTube Shopping tools.
YouTube’s MacTaggart pitch: don’t regulate us like the TV giants we’ve become
At the Edinburgh TV Festival’s MacTaggart Lecture, YouTube EMEA VP Pedro Pina opposed a proposed U.K. Media Bill that would force YouTube to boost recommendations for BBC and ITV content, arguing it would suppress independent creators.
Creator fee pricing is broken, and no one can agree on a fix
Digiday’s Alyssa Mercante reports that half of marketers misprice creator fees and 40% feel they overpaid, per a Billion Dollar Boy survey of 1,000 leaders. Tools like Fohr’s Price Check and BDB’s Companion aim to add transparency, but no industry-wide benchmark exists.
COL Group, Virtue Asia launch first upfront built for microdramas
Variety’s Naman Ramachandran reports that COL Group, Virtue Asia and V47 Entertainment will hold Inside Microdramas in Singapore on Oct. 27, billed as the first upfront for vertical entertainment. The event pairs brands with 10 unfinanced 2027 slate projects for direct co-development talks.
YouTube and Amazon let creators sell products directly in videos
Tubefilter’s James Hale reports that YouTube and Amazon now let U.S. creators in both partner programs tag and sell a curated Amazon catalog inside videos, with standard affiliate commissions paid out through YouTube’s AdSense checks rather than Amazon directly.
Puck in advanced talks for RedBird investment at $250 million valuation
TheWrap’s A.J. Katz reports that Puck confirmed advanced talks for a RedBird Capital investment that would make the firm its leading investor, valuing the media company at around $250 million — up sharply from the $70 million valuation it fetched in 2023.
Axios publisher: SEO is dead, GEO is the new game for citations
Press Gazette’s Alice Brooker reports that Axios publisher Nicholas Johnston says SEO is “not the answer anymore” as publishers must learn where they surface in LLM answers.
Jomboy Media’s path from Yankees podcast to 60-person creator company
Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter reports that Jomboy Media grew from a 2017 Yankees podcast into a 60-person sports media company: more than 20 channels, 14 full-time creators, an in-house ad operation and an original sports IP franchise, Warehouse Games.
YouTube offers creators up to $10M exclusivity deals to block Netflix raids
The Ankler’s Natalie Jarvey reports that YouTube is offering roughly 15 top creators exclusivity packages from low seven figures to $10 million, built to keep their videos off Netflix as it courts creators like Rhett & Link and the Stokes Twins.
Meta agrees to pay up to $17B to settle teen addiction suits with states
Meta agreed to pay roughly $12 billion to settle state suits over designing Instagram and Facebook to addict teens — rising to $17.1 billion if Snap, TikTok and YouTube join on similar terms. The states had sought about $200 billion.
Particle’s Radar turns 130,000 podcasts into an API for AI agents
TechCrunch’s Sarah Perez reports that Particle, the AI newsreader startup, launched Radar, a podcast intelligence platform that transcribes more than 130,000 shows with speaker labels, entity tracking and ad detection. Hedge funds are already its biggest API customers.
Crooked Media revives Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight podcast as ‘Still Counting’
Crooked Media acquired “FiveThirtyEight Politics,” the podcast hosted by Nate Silver, Clare Malone and Galen Druke, and relaunches it September 9 as “Still Counting” — a revival of the brand ABC News shut down in March 2025.
YouTube raises ad revenue-sharing bar as brand deals surge
Ad Age’s Gillian Follett reports that brands are pouring record money into YouTube creator partnerships. But YouTube is raising the bar creators must clear to share in ad revenue, per Ad Age.
TikTok pays $400M to settle DOJ child-privacy lawsuit
The Ankler’s Sean McNulty reports that TikTok will pay $400 million to settle a Justice Department suit alleging it collected data on users under 13 without parental consent — a core COPPA violation.
OnlyFans says 5,076 creators have topped $1 million in lifetime earnings
OnlyFans reported 5,076 creators have earned over $1 million to date, part of $30 billion paid out to creators since 2016. The company paid creators $6.3 billion in the year ended November 2025, and creator accounts grew to 5 million.
Gamma acqui-hires Lica to build an AI presentation research lab
TechCrunch’s Ivan Mehta reports that Gamma, the AI presentation startup valued at $2.1B, acquired Accel-backed Lica to launch a research division on video and design. Lica’s co-founders will lead the effort, exploring new multimodal formats beyond slides.
Tubular data maps which creators NFL searchers actually watch
Chartbeat’s Tubular Labs ranked social video creators by affinity among NFL searchers. YouTuber Matthew Geist topped the list at 198x more likely to be watched, but Richard Sherman’s podcast had 5x Fantasy Phenom’s audience despite lower affinity.
Hollywood group led by Kathleen Kennedy floats AI framework for creative work
The Ankler’s Alison Brower reports that a group of top executives and creatives, led by Kathleen Kennedy and AFI dean Susan Ruskin, met privately to work out how Hollywood should use generative AI. Richard Rushfield presented their “Human Generative Workflows” framework this week.