YouTube’s TV Takeover: Ben Woods on Social Video, Streaming Shifts & The New Hollywood

Is YouTube really the new TV? In this week’s TellyCast, Justin Crosby speaks with Ben Woods, Creator Economy Analyst at MIDiA Research, about his new report The New Hollywood: Tactics for YouTube’s TV Takeover. They explore why YouTube has now overtaken Netflix on living room TV sets, how younger audiences are watching social video instead of broadcast, and what this means for broadcasters, producers, and advertisers.

From the dominance of children’s content and the long-tail power of creators, to the rise of AI tools and the threat of platform cannibalisation, Ben unpacks the biggest shifts shaping the production economy. He also shares lessons traditional media can learn from creators who iterate fast, build communities, and turn audiences into collaborators.

Discover why thinking like a creator – not a broadcaster – is becoming essential for the future of TV and digital video.

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Transcript

Hi, I am Justin Crosby and welcome to this week's TellyCast. This week we're diving into one of the most important industry shifts happening right now. The rise of YouTube as the dominant TV platform. My guest is Ben Woods Creator Economy Analyst at Midia Research who've just published a major new report called The New Hollywood Tactics for YouTube's TV Takeover.

We'll be talking about why YouTube now leads TV, watch time in the us, how younger audiences are using their living room TVs to watch social video instead of broadcast channels, and what all this means for broadcasters, producers. And advertisers from the rise of short clips in children's content to the power of long tail.

With creators, Ben will explain why traditional media needs to stay relevant in the new production economy. 

Ben, welcome to TellyCast. How you doing? I'm great Justin. Thanks for the invite. Not at all. Best to be here at. 

Yeah. Were you, [00:01:00] uh, fresh back from, uh, IBC, I believe. 

Yeah. Not feeling too fresh, but definitely, definitely back from IBC.

Yeah. So, um, you know, back sort of, um, having a bit of a chinwag about the creator economy, big focus, um, uh, this year at IBC. Yeah. Really interesting. Actually to see that shift, obviously it's a central point for traditional entertainment and broadcasting to, so to see the creator economy really embrace this year was, was pretty interesting.

Yeah, I bet. Well, well, we're gonna get into that with your new report, which is really the interesting stuff. So YouTube. Is calling itself the new tv, isn't it? The, they're, uh, touting themselves and their creators of the new Hollywood. What's that mean in practice? 

Sure. Well, I think when we look at YouTube now, and it, it's really become this central point for, for all types of content for, for all people.

You know, the, the days of it just being a place where we found, um. You know, very small content creators and cat videos are [00:02:00] very, very much behind us. You know, go on to YouTube now. You can find TV shows, movies, you know, live, live sport with NFL. Was a big moment in recent weeks and you know, we will get into it, I'm sure, but children's entertainment and beyond, um, all of that thrown together with, you know, how to fix your car videos and, um, you know, niche, um, niche sports or or niche entertainment in interests.

There is kind of something for everyone and of course. In the past, that was, that was the promise of of tv, but it couldn't cater, um, to quite the same niche level that, that YouTube does. And, you know, why is it calling itself, uh, the new tv? Well, it's taking over the TV set and becoming more and more prevalent.

Yeah. Well, it is. There's a lot of, I've seen so much going backwards and forwards on LinkedIn recently about, oh, you know, is YouTube tv? Yeah. Is YouTube tv. 

Yes. I mean, I, I, I see it from a different lens to perhaps others in this debate. I think it's interesting because it [00:03:00] depends how you're coming at the debate as to whether you, you believe it's TV or not.

I come at it from the focus of the attention economy, where are, um, consumers spending their attention and we're all fighting as, as entertainment providers to, um, capture that attention. Um, and if that, um. If that attention on the TV is being taken up by YouTube, then to me that is TV viewing. Now, I think a lot of the other parts of the debate are around, well, you know, when it comes to advertising and clearly, you know, YouTube are going after TV advertising with this kind of.

TV style push. I think there's, there's some concern around that, that if, you know, if YouTube presents itself as, as TV advertisers see it as tv, then how do broadcasters and traditional TV companies continue to get that advertising spend that they need to make great content? 

Well, four Studio Channel four are, are obviously great.

Uh, example of that, they're selling their own [00:04:00] advertising on YouTube as our zoo 55 for ICV studios. So maybe, but we'll, we'll get a bit more into that in a, in a little while we've seen that YouTube has overtaken Netflix in the US on, in terms of streaming on, on TV sets. How significant a moment do you think that is?

I think it's a really big moment, and I don't, I, and I see it as a, as a fundamental shift that I, I don't think is going away. I don't think this is a, a sort of flash in the pan as it were. And I think when we deci dissect why this is happening, I think it's a big vote of confidence for the YouTube style of engagement over the streaming style of engagement.

So what do I mean by that? Well, YouTube, um, enables a lot of different ways to engage with content. You know, you've obviously got the, um, the algorithm which is serving you things based on your niche interests. That's actually a great form of lean back consumption because it's giving you what you want and then you can, you don't have to make your mind up, you just start watching 

the doom scroll.

Yeah, exactly. Um, [00:05:00] and um, and obviously it's also giving us this lean through engagement, as we call it. Well, what does that mean? Well, we're able, if we want to, to. Get into the comments, engage with a community around content. We're able to find a community around content. Um, and obviously that's very different to the type of experience that you have when you gone to Netflix or another streaming service where very much it's around.

Finding the right show and consuming that show and really that being the definitive full stop on that experience. 

Yeah. Well, it's also about community around content. And actually many, you know, super smart creators and, and digital first studios are iterating their content as they go based upon. What the, what the community wants.

You know, they might say they love a particular, want to hear more of a particular character or of a particular topic and, and that's brilliant. That's, it's, you know, it's real time feedback from the audience. Well, 100%. 

And I think that's, um, that's actually really key, um, [00:06:00] to the sort of success I think of social first studios or those that do it really well.

'cause that actually. That's, that's directly from the creator mindset. That's what these creators doing. I mean, if you look at, um, look at live streamers or you look at, um, very successful YouTubers, you know, they're publishing and then they're deep in those analytics. They're looking at where are the peak engagement times?

Where did it drop off here? What, why did I lose some engagement here? Or where did things really pick up? You know, these guys aren't just creating content. They are, you know, the audience. Analysts and specialists for their own areas, and that's what makes them so successful. And so I think that is a bit of a shift in, in, in mindset because actually I suppose in the past it was a lot of, you know, we come up with a creative idea, we put it out there.

It's quite a long cycle production wise. Then we get the audience feedback from the critics or what have you. How did it go down? Oh, good. Okay. Bit more of that than thanks or not so good. What do we need to do? Well, if you're a creator, this content's going out [00:07:00] and then the next day you are looking at the analytics and you might change your tack, um, in two days time for the next piece of content that you're putting out.

So that level of flexibility and responsiveness is, is a lot quicker. Yeah. 

And it's actually similar in many ways to how Netflix operates as well. Obviously we know that the, the. Millions and millions that have been put into developing Netflix is a super smart, algorithmic based platform. Yes. And it's kind of just what they do.

Right. And, but it's, it's putting that sort of power in the hand of a producer or, or a creator to, uh, to iterate their content in, you know, in. In, in no time at all. In real time. 

Yeah, sure. I mean, I absolutely, and it's actually really interesting because I think we're actually starting to see even the likes of Netflix embracing some of the behaviors around the creator economy as well.

You'll see that there was a recent, um, announcement about Netflix releasing this editing tool, or at least, um, um, uh. Changing the feature somewhat to make it more responsive. So actually [00:08:00] what can, what consumers can now do, they can go and watch their favorite shows. They can clip it up, drop it onto social for their community, and start creating a bit of buzz around it.

Um. That to me shows just how powerful the creator economy's becoming. 

Absolutely. That's super interesting. That's, that's, uh, because I suppose that's one of the reasons why Quibi was, was a disaster, is that it wasn't socially shareable. You know, we, they, they proved that there was a demand for, for, uh, uh, for vertical drama, vertical content back then.

But, um. But the fact that you couldn't share it, it was inside a walled garden. 

Yeah, 100%. And I think, you know, obviously we can take, you know, take our chat in lots of different directions, but, you know, one of the things that I think is so important is that, um, engaging with audiences now is it's collaborative.

It's, it's not just, we give you the content and enjoy it. And, um, we'll keep you at arms length. Thank you very much. One way broadcast. Yeah. Yeah. Right. And now it's about, you know, we talked about the data side. You know, what do we learn from the [00:09:00] audience? What are, what are they telling us? They're, they're our closest fans.

They're our biggest champions actually. Yeah. They're the ones that give us visibility. 'cause if they're going away and creating content about us, if they're sharing it with their friends or if they're, um, you know, commenting and what have you, that gives us all visibility. Um, so. Yeah, they're, they're, you know, some of, um, some of my, um, peers in the industry have talked about them being a, a part of the infrastructure now, of the success of, of content and, you know, I would agree with that.

Yeah. Are we seeing the death of broadcast TV then? Is it seemingly is heading only one way, but is the death now being been rung for it? 

No, I mean, I'm, do you know what? I'm very much obviously, um. Excited and, and champion the creator economy. But I'm also a, a great champion of, um, the broadcast industry, especially in, in this country.

And we're going through a period of transition. We've been going through that period of transition for a while. You know, it's called the, the shift to streaming. And, you know, we can, you know, watch things live through streaming. Now [00:10:00] we can catch up through streaming now. Yes. You know, the, the, the linear channels, albeit there.

Cash generative and very lucrative still for, for the broadcast industry. They, they will lose their, you know, their relevance and time. And, you know, part of that is to do with, with this just the shift in the way that young consumers consuming content, right? But younger consumers who are, um, consuming social content, they're also consuming a lot of streaming content on the likes of S-V-A-V-O bvo platforms and the likes of broadcasters.

So. This isn't something to be, um, gloomy about. This is another opportunity to engage, I think a slightly different type of audience. And, and it's, it is really important to engage that type of audience, but it's also important to realize that yeah, this still remains a really important business over here, you know, in the streaming world, which, you know, these guys are gonna dom dominate and.

Yeah, well you're talking about shift. Let's, let's, let's look at some of the data from, from your report. Um, so the data shows that 16 to 34 year olds now rank social [00:11:00] video as their second biggest use of the TV set. Yeah. Behind streaming while live broadcast is dropped into third. Um. How fast is this shift happening?

Well, it's, well, it's here and now, basically, um, the interesting thing about that data is actually when you look at it from an average consumer, um, point of view, um, broadcast is, is further up, it's further up the tree. And, and, and so with the older, older consumers, consum, yeah, because all the consumers are pulling that up there.

'cause that's, they're still, you know, professional, uh, preferential way should I say of, of consuming content. But when you look at younger consumers, um. That isn't the case. And you have to, um, make the assumption that a lot of those behaviors, which are being ingrained in them now will carry through, um, to, to when they, um, when they, when they become older basically.

And it's, you know, 16 to 34 year olds that's already already a significant, um, portion of that younger audience. So. It's [00:12:00] here and now it's happening now. Um, so it's really important to, to get your strategies in order to make sure you're catering to both that social and streaming side of the market if you wanna reach these people.

Yeah. Well, let, let's, let's, I'm gonna pull out another stat here. Um, and this is in the UK specifically. 35% of 16 to 19 year olds now use the TV set primarily for social platforms. Yeah. Compared with 25% watching live broadcast. So what is it, what's this telling us about that group, that 16 to 19-year-old demographic?

And the interesting thing about this report was that one of the things we were able to do was we were actually able to take, um, and create a segment. So we were able to create a segment of watches of, um, social platforms on tv. Now what that meant we could do was look at all the different sort of behaviors, um, that they engage with.

Um. And I think, you know, with that, with that younger demographic, it just shows that, um, that's. Key to them in terms of how they reach [00:13:00] content now. And then when we looked at that segment, we realized what's, what's really driving that is YouTube. You know, it is that YouTube phenomenon. You know, we know obviously that, you know, while TikTok, um, has a, has a smart TV app, it's not quite the same level as YouTube.

And I think YouTube is really captured, um, engagement in, in a number of. Different ways. Is 

Twitch anywhere on the, uh, on the scale there? 

Twitch? Actually, no. It's, it's, Twitch remains quite a niche level of, kind of penetration wise. It's mainly 

kind of PC based around gaming. And, uh, you know, people are, are are obviously, obviously there's, there's lots of other genres that people are, are consuming content.

But gaming remains the dominant, Damien 

remains the dominant, um, dominant way of, um, consuming content on there for sure. You know, you do have things like kind of. IRL streams and music is actually becoming really big, um, on Twitch now too. Um, in terms of that smart t um, in terms of that smart TV or TV cut through it's YouTube.

All it's 

YouTube. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um, well let's talk about some content [00:14:00] now. Uh, children's content like Pepper Pig is dominating, uh, the YouTube TV charts. Um, what lessons can broadcasters and, and producers draw from that then? 

Yeah, I mean, well, it's, um. It's quite remarkable and it just shows, you know, I think children's content was one of the, one of the really early adopters of taking this, taking this kind of strategy forward.

And it says a lot about the, you know, the audience that are watching on YouTube that, you know, we've got a lot of very young audiences who are growing up now with, with this type of content and not just this type of content, but. The, the way in which the platform operates, you know, um, which, you know, there's plenty of unique features to YouTube that perhaps aren't the same as as a Netflix, but, you know, if I take something quite similar, and I'm sure you've talked about it on this podcast, um, before, but something like Bluey, you know, if you look at what BBC studios have done with, with the likes of Bluey, they've really leaned into that.

Sort of crater approach. So this isn't about just putting up an episode of Bluey or Pepper Pick. [00:15:00] This is about, okay, how do we then recut that into clippable moments that can target a specific demographic? Um, one of the great things, the great examples I loved about the, the Bluey, um, the bluey strategic approach was they took Bluey.

Um, and they cut it up, um, into chunks on, uh, for TikTok. And then they, they suddenly realized when they looked at the data that actually were, there was a, an older sort of teenage, um, demographic that were really engaging with that content. Something you just simply wouldn't have learned, I don't think, if you hadn't have taken that content onto social.

And that is actually one of the big benefits of social is actually you embrace it. You learn a lot more about who the audiences are on there for your type of content. And then you can pivot and, and lean into that if it tells you a new thing. Yeah. 

Well, let's, let's talk about, um, the strength of YouTube as well.

Then, um, now. We obviously always talking about Mr. Beast and Sidemen and some of these, you know, huge superstar creators and, and uh, creator brands out there. But its [00:16:00] real strength really lies in this long tail of creators. You know, these, these hundreds of thousands, in fact, millions of creators who have got, you know, there may not have.

Uh, the 20, 30 million subscribers, but they may have, you know, a hundred, 200,000 really healthy, engaged communities. Uh, can you expand on that a little bit in terms of, uh, why that is such a strength for, for YouTube? 

Yeah, definitely. And I think that, you know, this is sort of one of these things which. I've always really encouraged people to sort of take away and sort of maybe slightly change their mindset when they're thinking about YouTube because, you know, the Mr.

Beasts of this world aren't always very reflective of a lot of what's going on on YouTube. You know, for me, I always think about YouTube, you know, niche is king on YouTube and those that manage to, um, find. Um, a bespoke community by really honing in on a niche, you know, a niche area. They get that kind of repeat engagement, um, that a lot of broadcasters [00:17:00] would love.

And as you rightly said, in the long tail, there are hundreds of thousands, if not, you know, millions of creators who are doing that. Yeah. You, you know, they might not be making, you know, um, vast sums of money, but they are making decent money and they're getting, um, audiences who. Love what they do. It reflects their values, you know, it directly reflects their interests.

So they've got that, you know, real buy-in. So you, so 

it is, it's also entertainment and I think that people don't talk about YouTube as a, um, educational, uh, service as well. Right. Obviously. Yeah. We all, we can use YouTube to find out how you hammer in a nail into a particular type of. You know, wall or whatever.

But, um, but it's also about, you know, people discover new creators, new content by searching. And that's the also the power obviously of Google and, and, and the overall algorithm that, um, that we can, we can search for content or we can search for an answer. We get served up content and then we. [00:18:00] We discover a new creator, and then we find that that creator is absolutely answering exactly what we want and telling, telling us more.

100%. 

And I think that's the thing, isn't it? If you, if you start to develop perhaps, uh, an inkling of an interest in a new hobby, and you take that interest to YouTube, that's, you know, it's just gonna reel you in because you've got, you know, the, the passion, the community, the creators that are really driving that.

You can feel a part of that community pretty fast? I think so. I think that it's like a, it's like an amplifier for interests and, and hobbies. It just, it makes people feel a part of something, which I think is actually really powerful in, in this sort of fragmented world that we live in now. 

Yeah, absolutely.

Um, so in your report you argue that traditional media needs to think like creators, not like broadcasters. What does that mean in terms of, uh. Production and the overall future for traditional media. 

Sure. Well, I think, you know, we touched on it a little bit, which is this idea of, you [00:19:00] know, you've gotta start thinking about audiences as a collaborative partner and a bit more of, uh, in more of a way like that rather than just someone who you're serving content to.

I think that's, that's, that's important to think about straightaway. Also, it's about finding a way to produce content that is, um, fast and flexible too. It's not gonna be easy, you know, to, to create sort of social first content right from the outset. I actually think one of the interesting things about the Channel four approach, which was they took a lot of content that was already there on broadcast onto YouTube, and they built, um, they built an audience, they built a following, and then they sort of.

They sort of, you know, split up clips, they repackage things. They really sort of learnt their way in terms of how to really engage with that community. And then they started commissioning sort of social first, um, pieces of content. Because, you know, what is sort of key on, on, on YouTube is to find your formula.

You know, what is your formula, what is your sort of secret sauce, which people are gonna come back and engage with you. Um. [00:20:00] And then you need to be fast and flexible. So, you know, actually spending vast sums of money, um, over long, um, production cycles to, to create a piece of content for YouTube that's just, that's not worth your time.

You're not gonna get the return you want on that. Um, it's about, I think, producing quickly. Probably failing quickly at the beginning, learning and adapting. And if you do that, um, and you find that sweet spot, then I think you are often away in terms of getting that advertising money. 

That's, that's a really interesting point that I think that traditional TV producers and the, the not just producers, the industry as a whole is almost allergic to failure.

They're terrified of failure, whereas the creator mindset is about fail fast. Right. And it's about. Learn, iterate. Don't, you know, it's not a problem that a, that a video has only, you know, generated what, a couple of thousand views as opposed to the 5,000, 200,000 or million that they were expecting. But the fact [00:21:00] is that the data's there to tell them why they've failed and they can go and, and, and, and immediately.

Um, address that on their next video, and they can do that within 24, 48 hours or so. 

Definitely. And I think, you know, the really interesting thing when, when, um, uh, you know. People go on this journey is that sometimes it can not just be, it's not just about the type of content that the reason it didn't, um, you know, really take off to begin with.

It could just be it wasn't packaged in the right way. IE maybe you needed to break it up into some short clips. Maybe you actually, if you got one social channel over here, maybe it wasn't right for that one. You needed to put it in this one over here. And actually you can sometimes take a piece of content.

Publish it two or three times, and it may be the third time is where you get it, right? Yeah. Maybe with the right thumbnail or the right title. Right. So you're right, metadata and, yeah. Yeah. So, so actually it's, it's all about, yeah. Not being afraid of failure is really important. Um, and actually the good thing, and like I said, is actually, you know, you can publish really engaging content on YouTube and it doesn't [00:22:00] have to cost the earth.

Yeah. 

So you're not putting all your eggs in one basket to, you know, use a cliche. 

Yeah. There's so many AI tools there that can help you clip up content and, you know, speed up that what feels, you know, what potentially feels like a, uh, quite a scary proposition to, to produce the amount of content. I mean, you talk to lad bible or you talk to many, uh uh.

Larger social publishers and the number of pieces of content that they talk about, they're publishing a year or a week, you know, it's in, its thousands and it's like, well, you know, that is, uh, it, it seems, you know, just impossible, a possible mountain to climb. But, but actually, you know, they're using. Uh, chat, GPT.

They're using, uh, uh, Opus Pro. They're using all these different tools, auto pod, to help edit all of these. They can really speed up this process and automate a lot of it. And, uh, and so, you know, with those tools on [00:23:00] board, then it, it, it doesn't seem quite so daunting. 

Definitely, you know, the industry is kind of working in, in your favor.

Now, if you, if you really want to take this kind of approach and, you know, actually one of the things that really fascinates me about where, you know, creation, these creator tools are going is this idea now that actually one man band type creators can kind of come together now through some of these AI type collaborative tools and almost create their own kind of mini studio and can produce, um, content.

So. Yes. You know, a lot of when we see innovation with AI allows one individual or two individuals to do, to do more work, you know? But. If you're looking to produce content at speed and engage at speed, then that's gonna be helpful for you in the long run, for 

sure. Yeah, absolutely. And I, uh, I use it every single day in, uh, for, for TellyCast.

Absolutely. Um, coming back to channel four, you mentioned, uh, uh, you know, channel four, they, they're, they're a great example and, and we actually had Ofcom on the show a few weeks ago, and they were talking [00:24:00] about, you know, uh. Traditional TV and broadcast TV is, you know, facing an extinction moment. Yes. And, uh, lots of different broadcasters in the UK have perhaps been slower off the mark than Channel four, um, of going into the social first space.

Um, and why do you think that is? 'cause I mean, channel four have proven through data that. The, they brought new audiences to their content as opposed to it being cannibalizing. Um, do you think that's why these other UK broadcasters haven't made this leap yet? That, that this fear of cannibalization? 

Yeah, definitely.

I mean, that, that's, I think, the key worry around, you know, all of this and, and whether you should be so fast moving, um, in this particular, in this particular space. Uh, what's really interesting though is that. There is definitely a type of consumer. On social platforms, he was happy on social [00:25:00] platforms.

Thank you very much. And doesn't want to be migrated elsewhere. And I think that's really important because a lot of the, the, um, the broadcast and streaming approach to social so far as being kind of like a marketing tool, it's like, right, let's cast that line out well, um, into, into the pool of social by dropping an episode on there.

Um, get people interested and hopefully you can sort of reel them back into our streaming services over here. But what you find is that there is a type of person over here that doesn't wanna be, that doesn't wanna buy on that line, right? Doesn't wanna buy on that hook. Um, they just wanna consume content and there's a lot of TV content on there.

But that's actually quite a good thing because also what that means is that you can go over and serve that, um, particular consumer with content and it's not gonna impact, um. And cannibalize what you've got over here on your streaming services. It's, it's additive, you know, and I think that's something that Channel Four talks about, is it being additive?

The question though, and I think this still remains the question, how do you efficiently and effectively bring people from over here to over here? And I [00:26:00] think actually key to that will be fandom. Building communities around, around your content, um, really nurturing communities around your specific ips and content to the point where they are so engaged, they've got so much buy-in, they feel a part of this process that when you do drop content over here, they have to come over and and 

consume.

Mm. It's interesting 'cause uh, we've seen Amazon Prime with Mr. Beast of course, and Netflix with a number of different creators including sidemen, have have made. They're actively looking at the creator, uh, market to, to build new, uh, brands and everything, uh, and, and uh, obviously bring in younger audiences as well.

Um, do you expect to see more of that? 

Yeah, I think there's gonna be plenty more of that. You know, what we call sort of lane hopping basically. Um, there's gonna be plenty more of that, mainly because I do think sort of streaming services. Do see creators as the gateway to accessing younger audiences [00:27:00] and communities, especially with some of those superstar creators who they just have such significant reach.

Um, but also on the creator side, you know, some of these big creators are moving from just being creators and social to being these basically entertainment franchises. Now, if you look at the sort of dude, perfect, you know, they've got a Nerf range of toys. They've got, they've had a Nickelodeon show they're doing, you know, live events.

And so, you know, when they're building out these franchises, if, you know, the, the opportunity to access a different type of audience on, on streaming is also attractive to them, you know? Yeah. So I think there's gonna be plenty more of this kind of lane hopping going around. And I, you know, I think actually what we're gonna see a lot more of as well is, um.

Traditional TV type content, movie content, you know, finding its way onto social too. 

What are the key risks then, do you think, for broadcasters and producers that are not adapting to this shift? 

I think the, yeah, I think the, the risk is. [00:28:00] You don't want to be invisible to, to a, to a new generation of, of audiences.

And there is so much content out there now. There's so many ways to be entertained out there now, and especially when, you know YouTube and, and, uh, the social platforms have this ability to cater to niche interests. If you're not there, you're not gonna get, you're not gonna get cut through. I think the days of just, you know.

We'll release it and they'll, they will come, you know, they're, they're very much over and I think actually it's a good thing because it's building. Um, communities engaging with audiences around, um, communities. Actually gonna be a really interesting pivot, I think, going forward, because it allows you to unlock different types of monetization.

Merch, for example, becomes much more important. You know, we talked about, you know, just touched on live events with Dude. Perfect. But live could become much more important going forward, and there's no end of really popular franchises that exist within the, the traditional, um, TV space [00:29:00] already. And actually, you know.

One of the things I think so important to, to remember here is that broadcasters are experts in entertaining, in entertaining and in fandom. It's just about how do you take that expertise and apply it to this new world? And there's absolutely no reason that they won't be successful in this new world.

Producers are master storytellers. That's, that's what they do, right? Absolutely. And, and I think, you know, the, the, the skills that they have. Um, versus the new skill, the new skills that they need to learn. They can learn those very, very quickly, or they can bring in the right people, or they can work with the right consultants in the short term to really future proof their businesses because they've got that inherent skill set of being able to tell an amazing story.

It might not be your, you know, half an hour story or an hour long a programming block story. It might be, well, it gives you the freedom to, to, uh, to, to make that story as long or as short as you want, [00:30:00] but it gives you the opportunity to tailor the, the length of the, and, and the format of that to the audience by listening to what they really want to, uh, to consume 

100%.

And also just, it's always really important to remember that. YouTube isn't a place for really just for younger audiences. You know, YouTube is, is a place for audiences right across, you know, the age brackets. And it's also a place where traditional TV talent can go and have a very successful time. You know, you've only gotta look at, you know, Gary Ker with, you know, the rest is football, you know, uh, podcasts, traditional, um, uh, talent.

With great personality does really well, you know, on social, so personality and storytelling, um, in formats that are geared towards that world. You know, it's a, it's a, it's a formula that succeeds. 

It's a really exciting time, actually. 'cause just seeing, uh, some creators and creative channels like that's football and the overlap, just acquiring international, uh, [00:31:00] uh, football rights for the Bundesliga, for example.

And, uh, and I think, uh, goal Hanger of acquired l Liga rights as well for, uh, uh, for, uh, Gary Lineker is gonna be, whether, whether they do watch alongs or whatever, all these different types of consuming content. Great for Buns Liga. It gives them new, you know, new audiences, uh, and great for these production companies because it gives them lots of amazing content.

And, uh, you know, we can see much more of that, I think coming down the line, can't we? 

And great for the, the funnel for fans, right? One of the real challenges, um, over the years has been we've gotta make, um, live sport pay, you know, because of, you know, how it trickles down into the competitions. As a result, that means it has to go behind a pay wall a lot of the time, which means then an older person with a decent amount of cash flow and money, as is the main person that can pay to access that.

So, you know, when you've got this sort of democratization of content, this ability [00:32:00] to, you know, give some live rights or some access to live rights or clips to, to creators, you're creating an opportunity to bring younger fans into the funnel. Keep that whole thing healthier. 

Yeah. And it's all, uh, it's all about future proofing and longer term Yeah.

For your business. For sure. Brilliant, Ben. Well now it's time for our, um, story of the week where our guests get to highlight the TV industry story, entertainment industry story of the past seven days that's caught their eye. What's your story of the week? 

So this really jumped out to me. Um, 'cause I think it's gonna be a really important, um, moment coming down the line and it's, um, open AI and critters.

I dunno if you've seen this, but OpenAI, um, has, has announced that they're actually working with a UK studio on this, that they're gonna be releasing a sort of toy story style animation film. It's gonna be coming out next year. They're aiming to do it in a significantly less budget and a significantly shorter time than you would see from a traditional kind of [00:33:00] Hollywood, um, uh, uh, animation.

And it's gonna be a really important moment to see. What's the critical reception around this? What's the quality of this? Can they achieve that level of cost reduction? And I think actually, even if, you know, it's not well received critically, I think, you know, Hollywood and elsewhere are gonna be looking at this and thinking, okay, so how did they do this?

Where can we save money? Yeah. And also big tech now in the form of AI coming and looking at an entertainment in a really serious way. So what sort of role are they gonna play going forward? 

Feels like seminal moment coming down the end. Seminal moment coming down the line, I think. Yeah. 

Yeah. 

Um, and how about your Hero of the week?

Hero of the week. So slightly, um, left field maybe for this audience, but I'm gonna talk about, um, a video game developer called Team Cherry who have launched a game called Silk Song. Um, and I wanna talk about this because I think it's created this cultural moment actually. On social, especially within the video game, um, community and some of the tactics they, they, they used to [00:34:00] do that.

I think were really clever. So this is a game which has been anticipated for a long time. No one really knew when it was gonna come out, that because of that there was all this community, um, buildup of anticipation of round when this was gonna happen. It was suddenly announced it was gonna be, um, released, um, uh, a couple of months ago, last month.

Huge amount of buzz around this. Um, not just from those big fans of the previous title. And there was one that came before Hollow Night, but it really created, um, a lot of buzz for, for people who didn't really know the franchise but wanted to be part of this moment. And as a result, we had this ripple effect across Twitch of, across YouTube of everyone playing this game as it came out at the same time.

One of the things I loved was I was watching a partic particular live streamer playing this game because I was intrigued. It's actually a really hard game, too hard for me to play. Um, but one of the developers jumped into the chat on the Twitch live stream and was saying to the creator, oh, you know, I actually watched, um, you talking about how much you know, you're [00:35:00] anticipating this coming out.

Um, what do you think? And it was. Something that I think the video game industry does really well. They already see, I think their audience as a community, everyone in that chat loved that moment. Um, the creator loved that moment 'cause they were playing the game at the time. It's clipped up, it's then shared on social and it creates another great piece of publicity for this company, for the game.

And it's a sense that they are in touch with their community. So I would, I would, I would encourage people to go take a look at that. Um, you know, even if you're working in the TVs, of course you're working in the TV space. Um. I think there are lessons to be learned there. Yeah, 

a hundred percent. Um, and finally, Ben, who or what are you telling to get in the bin?

Well, this is such an easy target, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna talk about my, um, miserable time with budget airlines over the last couple of days. It wasn't, it wasn't terrible. I mean, both flights were delayed. Going out to IBC, the conference and coming back. But it's, it's, for me, it's, I've fallen the trap every time of [00:36:00] paying for the extra services and never ever get the rewards.

So, you know. Expecting to be able to put my thing in the, in the, um, the overhead bin, having to put it about six, um, rows down, paying for, you know, a fast track access at Stanstead, watching everyone go past as I can't sort of scan through the machine. Yeah. You know, one day I'll get it right. But not this time, 

you know, if they made the Eurostar vaguely affordable, it's like, you know, 300 quid return or something to go to Amsterdam, I mean.

It just didn't, uh, you know, the whole emission stuff versus, you know, green travel. You know, that doesn't, doesn't make sense. The UK or international travel does it? 

Yeah. I'm def well I think we're gonna have to consider it next time. Yeah. Yeah. 

Ben, thank you so much for coming on. TellyCast it. Pleasure.

Fantastic to speak with you. Um, great new report. Um, and, uh, go on to how, how can people access the full report then, Ben? 

Sure. So if you, um, if you're interested in the report, you can go on to um, omi research, um, [00:37:00] dot com, um, follow to um, the report section. You'll see it on there. Um, either that, or you can, you can email me, ben@midiresearch.com and I can, um, talk you through the process of accessing it.

Alright, fantastic. Well, that's about it for this week's show. A big thanks to my guest, Ben Woods from midyear research for sharing his insights on the new Hollywood report. Don't forget, you can catch it with previous episodes of TellyCast on YouTube and obviously on your audio app of choice. And while you're there, why not subscribe so you never miss another episode.

I'm Justin Crosby. Thanks for listening. Stay safe.