Creators
State of Play
Revised Sep 18, 2026The moment. Three buyers spent the week acquiring podcast catalogs and the rights around them. Amazon closed its Wondery acquisition, with founder Hernan Lopez out and COO Jen Sargent running the business, bought podcast ad and hosting company Art19, and agreed to pay more than $100 million to Exactly Right Media for distribution and ad sales on a slate led by My Favorite Murder. SiriusXM won Giggly Squad after three suitors pushed offers to $150 million, and took exclusive global ad sales for Crooked Media’s podcasts, video, social and live events. Audacy became exclusive sales and distribution partner for Smosh from October 1, bringing more than 75 million followers and 20 billion YouTube views. Forbes put Charlamagne Tha God tenth among podcasters at about $27 million.
The tension. Nine-figure prices are being paid for creator inventory in the same week the IAB convened its first Creatorfronts specifically because nobody can measure it — president James Douglas unveiled a Trusted Creator Brand Deal Initiative built around a survey mapping where creator deals break down. The valuation problem is being admitted from the other end too: Evan Shapiro’s Affinity 100 ranks creators by an Affinity Quotient rather than follower count, because follower count stopped meaning anything. Buyers are pricing these catalogs off distribution and habit, not off proof, and the platforms underneath them keep moving — Spotify passed Apple as the most-used US podcast app at 24% to 21%, and in Canada YouTube passed Spotify at 35%.
Who’s moving. Amazon, buying Wondery, Art19 and Exactly Right in the same week. SiriusXM, taking Giggly Squad and Crooked Media. Audacy, taking Smosh. Wondery and Amazon Music, taking a one-week exclusive window on Morbid. Steven Bartlett and Authentic Brands, launching OBSN with up to $400 million against more than 50 IP holdings. Kevin Roose and Casey Newton, launching Machine Gods twice weekly with NPR on distribution and ad sales. Meta, merging its Creator Marketplace and Partnership Ads Hub into one hub and opening Instagram live video ads on September 29. Avail, launching creatorAPI so brands can generate ad variations inside limits a creator sets. Old Navy, whose first single-creator campaign with MrBeast lifted kids’ assortment traffic more than 22%.
What the desk is watching. Whether the Trusted Creator Brand Deal Initiative produces a number a buyer can hold a seller to, and what a $150 million podcast is worth once the app share underneath it moves again.
Microdramas are booming, but ad loads may cap their upside
Microdrama viewing is surging, but the format’s tiny episode length makes heavy ad breaks feel absurd to viewers. That mismatch could keep the category reliant on subscriptions and in-app purchases rather than becoming a real ad vehicle.
LLMs’ hunger for video could turn creators and planners into data suppliers
AI models need vast troves of video to train on, and creators plus media planners may end up licensing content and expertise to feed them. That opens a new, murky revenue stream — and a new dependency on AI platforms.
Ex-Twitter exec’s Spill hits positive cash flow on brand deals
Spill, built by former Twitter exec Alphonzo Terrell for Black and queer communities, is cash-flow positive with brand deals from Netflix, Paramount+, and Gilead. Signups and revenue are on pace to double year over year.
Naver says AI search summaries doubled blogger earnings
Naver says creator earnings roughly doubled since its AI Briefing search-summary tool launched, crediting referral traffic and new subsidy programs. It’s a rare data point on AI answer engines boosting, not gutting, publisher and creator revenue.
Ex-IPG India chief Shashi Sinha backs creator-tech platform Qoruz
Shashi Sinha, fresh off exiting Omnicom Media India, has made a personal investment in creator-tech firm Qoruz. It signals veteran ad leaders betting creator platforms will scale beyond campaign management into tech and commerce infrastructure.
Creators now optimize videos for LLMs, not just algorithms
Collective’s Natalie Silverstein says creators are structuring scripts and captions as clear Q&As so AI models cite their videos as authoritative answers. It’s a new optimization layer brands and agencies need to plan for, alongside platform-specific ROI metrics.
Marvel leaves Hulk social buzz to creators, missing Spider-Man tie-in
Tubular data shows just 37% of Hulk social video since July mentioned Spider-Man, with creators driving 99% of YouTube views. Marvel posted only 22 Hulk videos itself, leaving a UGC-fueled conversation Sony’s box-office hit hasn’t tapped.
Spider-Man’s social buzz translated into box office, ditching TV ads
Tubular Labs data shows 158K+ videos and 11B+ views for “Brand New Day” since July 1, coinciding with a record opening. It’s another data point that social video hype can substitute for traditional TV marketing spend on tentpole releases.