Because YouTube is now television…
ALSO: Netflix touts "The Netflix Effect"
Well worth a read today is this Deadline article talking to TV show producers taking their innovative formats to YouTube rather than be held captive to TV network lengthy development processes where the show may not even see the light of day.
Kareem Rahma is the producer of SubwayTakes and his story is a great example of where YouTube distribution is a strength.
Riding high on the success of Subway Takes, a show that has seen the likes of Cate Blanchett, Lil Nas X and Ramy Youssef give hot takes on a train, he was supposed to be taking a victory lap after he scored a major television deal for his other show, Keep the Meter Running.
But CNN had kept that show — in which Rahma asks New York cab drivers to take him to their favorite places — in development for three years, with no sign of making it to their final destination.
“I did the whole rigmarole with television, and it was a disaster,” Rahma says. “I don’t want to wait anymore. I walked away from the deal and decided to do it independently on YouTube.”
I guarantee more people are watching SubwayTakes on YouTube than ever would have seen it on CNN. The article on Deadline doesn’t mention it, but Rahma has also sold the show to multiple other platforms like Tubi, while maintaining YouTube as its primary distribution channel.
Here’s an episode where Ethan Hawke is 100% right with his hot take on The Beatles:
Julian Shapiro-Barnum had dreams of being part of the traditional entertainment industry when he was studying theater acting at Boston University. But when the pandemic began, he funneled his creative energy into posting videos of himself interviewing children on YouTube.
That video led to Recess Therapy, which has received millions of views featuring the likes of Ben Affleck and Rihanna. After a couple of years, Shapiro-Barnum met with broadcasters and streamers about adapting the show.
“It didn’t go anywhere, but it wasn’t devastating,” he says. “It felt like the industry wasn’t ready.”
The industry wasn’t ready? I think that is charitable. Broadcast TV’s relationship with online distribution has always felt like a combination of wilful ignorance meets malpractice.
Related: The threat of ‘creator journalism’
The former BBC News boss Deborah Turness delivered the Sir David Nicholas memorial lecture in London:
“I believe that the established media hasn’t confronted the hard truth, that this revolution isn’t just about consumers moving to different platforms. It’s that they are choosing more direct forms of journalism,” she said.
“This creator journalism is not a side-show. It is fast becoming the show. If we have been wondering for years what would eventually replace the broadcast news mass media model, we are seeing the answer now.
“Will we wake up to the existential nature of this great shift in our industry? Will we respond with the speed, urgency and purpose required? Or will we be like the proverbial frog in boiling water, who knew it was getting warm, but failed to jump?”
She’s very much talking about news, but I’d suggest that everything she is saying in this speech can be applied more broadly to the entire broadcast/network television structure.
“What we are witnessing is the wholesale shift from one established information ecosystem to another,” she said. “And, if we’re honest, one where established news providers have so far struggled to authentically play at scale.
“My recent conversations have only strengthened my view that news providers are going to have to be more prepared to liberate their talent.”
She added: “The brutal truth is that, even with all this innovation, most large news organisations remain structured around broadcast – with key decisions being made with a broadcast-first approach. Yet I would argue that, if the established media are to thrive – or even survive – they need to start from where the consumer is.”
Authenticity. Meet the consumer where they are. Scale.
No new ideas here. And yet it still just doesn’t feel like traditional TV services are taking online distribution seriously.
Read more: The Guardian
How much should one pay attention to ‘The Netflix Effect’
I spent earlier this year upset that Netflix had stepped away from the deal to buy Warner Bros. It wasn’t that I wanted Netflix specifically to buy the business, but I love Warner Bros with its library, its history, and its track record of producing so many of the shows and movies I have loved throughout my life. A Netflix purchase of Warner Bros would have brought greater stability to Warners than it has had since, well, since before I was born. This was a company that has had wrong owner after wrong owner for much of its existence.
But Netflix did a terrible job at selling itself as a safe pair of hands for Warner Bros.
The industry didn’t trust it. Media commentators didn’t trust it. Nobody was rushing to defend it.
Since the deal went the way that it did and Skydance Paramount now has everyone freaking out, the narrative has shifted on what the benefits of Netflix might have been.
Netflix itself has been far better about telling the positive impact of its own story in the months since.
I’ve been taking a look its new report The Netflix Effect, with the company touting its benefits to the industry and the economy, more broadly. Why couldn’t it have been getting the industry on board with messaging like this last year?
The Netflix Effect (almost as significant as the Colbert Bump…) has been packaged with this video:
The company is pushing the benefits of its expenditure in the US and abroad. The spirit of it is best summed up by this note from Ted Sarandos:
Over the last decade, Netflix shows and movies have consistently shaped what people read, buy, listen to, eat, wear and play. We’ve pushed old songs back up the musical charts, helped niche sports go mainstream, and boosted sales of everything from chess sets, to Halloween costumes, to home storage.
Now we have a responsibility to keep that flywheel going. That’s why, while other entertainment companies pull back, we’re leaning in - spending tens of billions of dollars on content every year, investing in production facilities from Spain to New Jersey, and growing the entertainment industry through training programs that have reached over 90,000 people across more than 75 countries.
Some stats for you, which, to be clear, is info provided by Netflix:
Global Figures
Over the last decade we have:
Contributed more than $325 billion to the global economy.
Invested over $135 billion in series and films.
Supported more than 425,000 jobs, plus over 700,000 additional extras and day workers across our production.
Partnered with more than 2,000 local production companies globally.
Produced original series and films in over 4,500 cities and towns around the world.
Licensed films and series from more than 3,000 companies, including public broadcasters, globally.
Over the last five years we have:
Run more than 1,000 training programs and events, reaching nearly 90,000 people across more than 75 countries, supporting writers, directors, producers, and below-the-line talent at every stage of their careers.
Title-Level Figures
Alice in Borderland (Japan)
The three seasons of Alice in Borderland contributed over ¥12 billion to the Japanese economy.
Over 700 cast and crew worked on the series.
It took nine months to create the show’s set, including hundreds of unique pieces of hand-crafted debris.
Lupin (France)
The series has contributed over €90 million to the French economy.
Over 600 vendors have been employed by the production across three seasons.
80 musicians from the Orchestre National d’Île-de-France performed “Lupin Symphony” in the second season’s final episode.
Troll & Troll 2 (Norway)
Filming for the two movies took place in 15 cities, towns and villages across Norway, including Geiranger, Grotli, Trondheim and Oslo.
Each film enlisted the help of more than 500 extras.
Together, the productions booked 4,250 hotel nights in Norway.
The Lincoln Lawyer (US)
The four seasons of the legal drama hired over 4,300 cast and crew, working across 359 days of shooting in total.
Production of the series has contributed more than $425 million to the California economy.
The series has filmed at over 50 locations across Los Angeles since its debut, including Dodger Stadium, and Grand Central Market.
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (USA)
Over 900 vendors were employed by the production.
The cast and crew hired for the film were over 2,000 people.
$140M in GDP was contributed to the California economy.
When Life Gives You Tangerines (Korea)
The production of the 16 episodes of When Life Gives You Tangerine contributed over ₩90B (KRW) to the Korean economy.
The production team and nearly 4,000 vendors went to extreme lengths to ensure the series was historically accurate, blending real landmarks with meticulously reconstructed sets depicting different time periods.
Over 600 cast and crew worked on the series, which won four Baeksang Arts Awards.
Blood & Water (South Africa)
Over 700 cast and crew worked across the show’s four seasons.
In addition to the cast, over 3,500 extras were employed on the series.
We have filmed in over 75 locations across the Western Cape in South Africa.
The Empress (DACH)
Over 500 cast and crew from Germany, the Czech Republic, and Italy brought Sisi’s world to life
The show also employed more than 1,200 extras and daily hires across the first 2 seasons
RIP professional film bitch Rex Reed
Legendary film critic and writer Rex Reed has passed away at age 87. A colourful figure, he was known for his acerbic tongue. Every single one of his obits today where his work is quoted will have you in the very least chuckling.
Of course, I say that he was a legendary film critic, but please don’t walk away from that statement as though I am suggesting he was a good film critic (or even that good of a writer). He was known for only watching parts of films and sometimes sending assistants to watch the films for him.
He was kind of the Fashion Police of cinema. Not to be taken seriously, but there to be entertained by. I also appreciate that Fashion Police isn’t the most current of references I could make, but… it fits…
This from the NYT obit:
What raised perhaps the most hackles across the years were his reviews. It’s not that he disliked whatever he saw; it just seemed that way. And he could be brutal. “A loopy, lunkheaded load of drivel” was his dismissal of Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar-winning drama “The Shape of Water” (2017), and “just because he stopped shaving doesn’t mean he can suddenly act” was his 2018 verdict on Keanu Reeves in the thriller “Siberia.”
In self-defense, Mr. Reed insisted to The Times in 2018 that “I like just as many films as I dislike. But I think we’re drowning in mediocrity,” he continued. “I just try as hard as I can to raise the level of consciousness. It’s so hard to get people to see good films.”
News Desk
Conan O’Brien will host the Oscars for the third time. Read: Variety
Alec Baldwin and Betty Gilpin have joined the cast of the Oscar Isaac-led Vegas-set TV show from the creators of Billions. The Netflix show now also has a title: The Roman. Read: THR
Netflix will co-finance all five of the first films in the Dogma 25 initiative. Read: ScreenDaily
Don’t expect a cinema release for Amazon’s upcoming Voltron movie. However it is released, I will beg, borrow, and steal my way towards watching this. Voltron had an oversized presence in my childhood. Read: Dark Horizons
The US ABC has announced its primetime schedule for 2026, holding some big titles like High Potential back until 2027. Read: thefutoncritic
The NBC Peacock logo turned 40 years old on May 12. Read about the history of the logo and its evolution at Variety. It also has some detail on previous logos used:
The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon will join JKL in airing a repeat when The Late Show with Stephen Colbert airs its final episode. Read: Variety
The World Cup coverage in the US on Fox will this year have a very healthy injection of Sesame Street characters. Read: THR
Jury Duty has been renewed for a third season at Prime Video. Read: THR
ABW is a very pro-Brett Goldstein publication and is very excited to see his TV show Escorted has just received a series order at Prime Video. It’s about a dad in Manhattan who accidentally becomes a male escort. Read: thefutoncritic
Snooker-themed game show Big Break will return to the BBC after a 24-year break. Read: Radio Times
Trailer Park
Every Year After debuts June 10 on Prime Video.
Told over the course of six years and one week in Barry's Bay - the quintessential lake town - Every Year After is a romantic, nostalgic story of first loves and the people and choices that mark us forever.
Two Years Later debuts on Paramount+ June 4. It’s a great-looking trailer. I’m keen to take a look.
Two Years Later follows thirty-somethings Emily (Phoebe Tonkin) and Ryan (Brenton Thwaites), whose brief, daily flirtations on their work commute are abruptly cut off by COVID-19.
Two years later, they reconnect unexpectedly, and Ryan impulsively proposes they go on eight dates to decide if they’re meant to be married. Together, they navigate personal revelations, unexpected family drama, professional upheavals, and their contrasting worldview – all while discovering genuine intimacy.
That’s the newsletter for the today.
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