Everyone knows by now that YouTube has become the dominant streaming platform on TVs. But on Wednesday, the Google-owned video giant took things one step further: It’s TV.
“Welcome to the age of YouTube,” YouTube CEO Neil Mohan announced after taking the stage at the company’s annual Brandcast event, following a musical performance by Zara Larsson. “For decades, the entertainment industry has been built on a series of bets, formula-based programming pitches, focus groups and guess what would make an audience show up. At YouTube, we didn’t wait for a focus group. We built a stage and empowered anyone with a story to find an audience.”
Some of these creators, the company explained, left television to come to YouTube. This includes the evening’s host: Trevor Noah.
“Some of you may know me from stand-up comedy. Some of you may know me from my podcast. Some of you may know me from Daily show. “Some of you might recognize me from the Grammys,” Noah told the crowd. “But there’s one place you’ll definitely see me, and that’s on YouTube. These days, everything is on YouTube, everything. Sports, entertainment, interviews, podcasts, you name it.
But while other companies turned their first-week presentations into glorified brand celebrations of everything, with movies, TV shows and theme parks, YouTube did something decidedly old-school: It announced a slate of new shows, from some of its biggest creators, and asked media buyers to get in on the action.
“An exclusive opportunity with select entertainment creators,” YouTube chief business officer Mary Elon Koo said, calling it a “first in the Brandcast phase.”
“A whole new roster of creators shows that you can actually be a part of it,” she added. Trevor Noah, Alex Cooper, Gesser to name a few. They could have gone anywhere and they chose YouTube. They chose YouTube to build a home for the most exciting content.”
The offers that were announced emphasized the unique offering that YouTube has to offer: it includes creators who started filming things themselves and turned them into franchises or even entire media companies, like Geiser (who announced… Pros vs YouTubers), Quinn Blackwell (Feeding hungry celebrities 2.0Oh perfect dude (Group games) and Alex Cooper, who has revealed a full slate of shows for her Unwell Network, including docuseries Met Gala Before the stepsthe competition series Pot Stirrer and Microdrama Tough launch for the holiday.
“The legacy media has spent decades deciding who we should watch. Their problem is that this generation has stopped asking for permission,” Cooper told the crowd. “Networks haven’t lost this audience. They’ve never had them. And they’re not just showing up, not because of an algorithm. It’s their choice. Their loyalty isn’t bought. It’s earned. That’s why I created a new slate of shows for the Unwell Network exclusively on YouTube. Unwell is what happens when you stop making content for women and start making it with them. We could be anywhere, but we showed up where they were. You too.”
Generous mercy Take the subway Unveiling a new show called Keep the timer running.
But it also highlights how the platform has become the place where celebrities actually come to engage and grow their fanbase. Noah announced the Trevor Noah World Tour, while former NBA star Dwyane Wade announced a new season of his show, Fly on the wall. Football star Erling Haaland is planning a World Cup documentary and competition series for the fall Erling glove.
Sure, YouTube had plenty of tech upgrades, like purchasing with Google Pay, which will allow YouTube viewers on TV to purchase a product with two taps, multimedia video creation tools and an affiliate boosting program, but the platform’s overarching message was one of confidence and optimism in a week when it felt like legacy media (with the exception of Disney) had truly fallen behind digital startups for good.
So, when YouTube ended the Brandcast with a set from popular singer Chappelle Rowan, there was some extra power behind it: She had been making YouTube videos years before she became famous.
While everyone was promoting their brands and trying to catch up with the ad technology that Google already had, YouTube made it clear that the next generation of consumers and creators had already made up their minds, so the ad dollars should continue to follow.
