What's On The Tube?
Youtube stories, Beast Games, an internet manifesto; The Matrix reloaded by Taika Waititi, Asian Ghosts & Boy Love.
How legacy media brands grapple with Youtube has been a prickly issue for many years. I have worked on projects attempting to leverage Youtube for legacy brands or their IPs; irrespective of their success or failure, all such attempts have always been bombarded with a plethora of ‘issues’ from cannibalisation of revenue to licensing dynamics, or most often- no desire to assign resources.
Today’s edition of The Colour Bar seems some related threads in this space, as Youtube becomes even bigger on TVs.
I offer some thoughts on the just-concluded Beast Games series, with a look at how it is being assessed- did the big-ticket show with the planet’s biggest Youtuber do bigly well? But before that some other Youtube stories thread through our TVs, and legacy brands wading through the platform.
Today also features an impassioned manifesto from an internet content veteran, the founder of Buzzfeed. I go through his perspectives, beyond the most common takeaway everyone has had (spoiler: they are working on a joyful social media app). He lays into the founders of TikTok and Meta, and proposes the Buzzfeed view of how the internet can be a better place again.
In Curated/Cuts we find Asian ghosts who want to get cleaned up; the enduring pop culture legacy of The Matrix brought to us by Taika Waititi and a snack; Nike’s return to the Super Bowl with Led Zeppelin and a superhero collab.
+ Quickies on entertainment that include JioHostar, Thai romance, HBO and Spotify.
The Colour Bar is where creativity, content, culture, tech, brands & humanity collide. Let’s go!
Youtube, Metube, we all tube.
A little thread of Youtube related stories that may have interconnected lessons.
Legacy media brands (cable, broadcast, news) have grappled with Youtube for many years now. Time has not made the wrestle easier. I’ve worked on projects attempting to leverage Youtube for legacy brands or their IPs, sometimes with brilliant results. Other times, less so. But all such undertakings have always- always- been laced with challenges around cannibalisation of TV revenues, threatened cable deals, losing control of IP, monetisation puzzles, regional and global licensing dynamics, or simply a fundamental reluctance to assign resources for a Youtube push.
I’d argue that most legacy players can still not claim to have cracked this; though some have made much better plays at it than others. There is an element of risk and a leap of faith needed to jump into a Youtube strategy that many (understandably but unacceptably) are loathe to take. My general view, in a landscape that is fundamentally challenged- please, give it a real go. With so many of these brands and providers on the wane, attempts to ride the biggest platform must be made. And, with the TV in homes and Youtube coming together like never before.
The Tube, is Youtube.
TV has surpassed mobile and is now the primary device for YouTube viewing in the U.S. (by watch time). As CTVs proliferate globally, this will become truer for many regions.
The folks at Youtube are also bringing “a second screen experience that lets you use your phone to interact with the video you're watching on TV — for example, to leave a comment or make a purchase”. A natural but powerful extension to own our attention across devices.
All of this and more in CEO Neal Mohan’s annual piece on the big bets for Youtube. They span:
The epicenter of culture. Sounds grandiose, but its really one of the truths- not the only truth, but valid nonetheless- of our landscape.
Youtubers are the startups of Hollywood. In some ways this is not something you can argue with. In others, you could look at it as a ‘corporatisation’ of the ecosystem.
Youtube is the new TV. This seems to be narrative Youtube has really leaned into in the last 12-18 months, and why not. The stats reiterate this. *Viewers are watching, on average, over 1B hours of YouTube content on TVs daily, and TV is now the primary device for YouTube viewing in the U.S.
AI will make it easier to create and enhance the YouTube experience for everyone. Ok. This might sound both obvious and inevitable, but my jury is out on where this takes us. There is an impending integration of Veo 2. At the same time, apparently creators are “most excited about the ways AI can help with their bread-and-butter production.”
In this light, returning to my opening point about legacy media, here are some recent attempts to bridge the gap.
Channel 4 in the UK has made some stellar, bold efforts in the last year or so; and now it appears they are seeing some excellent results. Led by Matt Risley, MD of 4Studio at Channel 4 (whom I had the pleasure of crossing paths with at Paramount), they have played across durations, formats and experiments. What do they have to show for it? The small matter of 2.3bn UK video views across platforms, +169% YoY YouTube growth, and brilliant headway with the elusive young category- +81% on TikTok, +25% Instagram.
& broke it down in a chat with Matt; talking about the strategy around premium programming, how the audiences are additive and, of course, monetisation. A good showcase of how legacy players need to be bold, and wade in to areas where failure is a very real possibility.In its wake, Ch4 has announced the launch of a brand new, social-first project, with short-form original Food and Drink content, with a focus on Vertical video.
Exhibit 2, in not quite the same exciting way- Warner Bros has released 31 movies on YouTube. Full-length. Free. None of these can be classified as blockbusters, and the titles traverse the decades, but also none of them are available on the MAX streaming service. It has happened relatively quietly, an one cannot be quite sure of the strategy behind it. Testing the waters? Looking for some nifty ad revenue? Navigating some obscure streaming license issues? Who knows. Also, they seem to be available only in the US for now.
Finally, documentary streamer Curiosity Stream has partnered with Youtube channel/creator Economics Explained/ Michael Burnand. They “have joined forces to help unlock the secrets of how our world works from the viewpoint of an economist”, providing episodes ad-free on the service. This is example of Youtube content being valued off-platform, and some feel the most efficient way for streamers/legacy media to partner with Youtubers- licensing.
Which brings us to the biggest Youtuber of them all.
BeastGames: Yay or Nay?
Beast Games finished its run on Amazon Prime Video last week. Disclaimer- I have not watched the entire season. At any rate, here's my take.
Look- I get it, reality is driven largely by two things- the payoff at stake, and and the (constructed) emotions. Mr Beast’s Youtube content is also often predicated on the scale of the giveaways, the $ involved. So one should go into Beast Games expecting much of the same.
Staggering prize monies are great— in this case US$5m for the winner, but plenty else offered along the way— but the loud, unabashed focus on money at every possible stage of an episode, and every game, really started to put me off. The incessant high decibel level around the dollar value at stake, literally every few minutes, was a bit much. I will be honest, I found it crass. Some of the psychology around the games was undeniably interesting, even riveting in patches, but the games themselves were not as invigorating. Many seemed crude vehicles to put people into cash-grab situations, or to test some sense of ‘morality’; there’s a gratuitous use of self-sacrifice mechanics, and leveraging the ensuing (overblown) disappointment or shock or anger as entertainment.
Also- major Squid Game vibes, Jimmy?!
I wrote about the show last year soon after it was announced, and Jimmy Donaldson spoke to Colin & Samir; I noted (but was not surprised) by the level of hyperbole. “The biggest ever”, “things you haven‘t seen before”, “a different animal than anything anyone has ever done”; these set the bar high, and besides the highest prize money (and some impressive scale), I am unclear what the show has done that is truly ground-breaking.
James Hibberd takes a very interesting generational lens to the show, calling it “a riveting demonstration of the ideological gulf between brutal Gen X pragmatism and fragile Gen Z idealism.”
A couple of weeks ago,
declared it ‘Mid’, with an as-always meaty analysis of multiple data points, charts, interest trends, and reviews (of which there are surprisingly few). If you want to get a wide range on the show, his is the piece to look at. Two of many points to note:“Compared to a show like Physical: 100, it actually does fairly well, and may best it in total viewership. Compared to the tops of the reality genre, though, Love is Blind or Squid Games: The Challenge, it’s not close. Not a hit, but it’s at least in the conversation.”
Why is his humongous YouTube follower count not converting ? This leads to the wider question of how legacy/mainstream media should work with Youtubers.
All of this has to be taken in the context of the show costing a cool $100million dollars. A reality show costing more like a big drama series has to deliver, no? And from the biggest creator on the planet, I think the expectation must have been for a show that undeniably breaks through the zeitgeist. There is little to show that it has.
Aside: the second biggest market for Prime Video is India; Jimmy has a huge Youtube following from there too. Amazon has said 50%of its viewership came from outside the US. Would love to know how the show did in the Indian market… but I am not holding my breath for those numbers to come out.
I will leave you- because I can’t help myself- with a scathing review after the first couple of episodes, from Stuart Heritage in The Guardian, who after introducing Beast Games with “obnoxious Squid Game imitation is ugly, tasteless TV,” includes gems such as:
“if MrBeast is new to you, you might wonder why someone has made a TV show about a shouting, weaselly-looking man who seems grimly determined to rip off Squid Game.”
A Better Internet
“YOU WON”T BELIEVE IT! click here for 5 reasons why this is a great idea!”
Apologies for the faux- click bait headline but I couldn’t resist, given this is about Buzzfeed’s recently announced plans to launch its own social media service. Founder Jonah Peretti wants to focus on making the internet fun again (MIFA?) and giving users agency- “built specifically to spread joy and enable playful creative expression.”
On the face of it, any intention that is focussed on community and connections more, and mean to help us escape from the big bad algorithms is a worthy one; this is “designed as an oasis from algorithm-driven doomscrolling”. But as with many intentions, the devil lies in the details- which we don’t have much of at the moment.
If the early internet was serving beer and wine that brought people together, today’s internet is dealing crack and fentanyl that tears people apart.
In his post, called ‘The Anti-SNARF Manifesto’, Peretti passionately critiques the current state of internet content and outlines his vision for a healthier digital environment. What is SNARF? It stands for Stakes/ Novelty/ Anger/ Retention/ Fear- the kind of content that is a result of platforms not caring about content, only about the AI that can maximise usage.
Even for those of us with all the time and love for the creator economy and the ‘democratisation of content’, we know this sounds painfully familiar. “Content creators exaggerate stakes to make their content urgent and existential. They manufacture novelty and spin their content as unprecedented and unique. They manipulate anger to drive engagement via outrage. They hack retention by withholding information and promising a payoff at the end of a video. And they provoke fear to make people focus with urgency on their content. Every piece of content faces ruthless Darwinian competition so only SNARF has the ability to be successful, even if it is inaccurate, hateful, fake, ethically dubious, and intellectually suspect.”
Content Doesn’t Matter.
Peretti believes that this started with Tiktok. Not one to waffle, he recalls a 2017 meeting with Bytedance founder Zhang Yiming. “He explained to me that he wanted to launch an app in the US, but he needed a source of video content. I asked what kind of content and he said it didn’t matter, he just needed tens of thousands of videos each day. He explained that [his AI was] so good that the content didn’t matter. He just needed raw tonnage of content so the AI could create a personalised experience and get the flywheel going.“
He paints the Zuckerberg in a similar light, claiming that he too, similarly, “doesn’t care very much about the content on his platforms and is much more interested in technology and AI.”
The SNARF he speaks of is hard for many of us to deny, however much fine, meaningful content also exists on the internet. Whether as writers, creators, readers or watchers, we all have felt sometimes that we are merely ‘consumers’. And it is not just our content consumption that is affected in some entertainment bubble. Much of our discourse and culture is shaped by these highly controlled (and out of control) content engines; “downstream from big tech’s global SNARF machines.”
Reading his post also nudges one to a 2024 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research (US), which found that many social media platforms generate negative externalities— a take that the likes of CHT have spoken often and eloquently about. Head-shakingly, a majority of respondents said they would prefer a world without IG & Tiktok. Yet, we continue to engage, despite perceived and real negative impacts.
The report raises the question- whether companies introduce features that exacerbate non-user utility and diminish consumer welfare, rather than enhance it; increasing people’s need for a product without increasing the utility it delivers to them.
Of course, all of this leads us to what he believes Buzzfeed is looking to do (must do)- create content that actively avoids the SNARF traps, “great stories that keep people engaged, without annoying retention hacks”, and “human curation of the best of the internet, providing an alternative to algorithmically recommended SNARF.”
Peretti has obviously had a storied journey in digital media, building a website that was at the heart of the zeitgeist for many years. It has been a chequered trajectory in recent years though, and Buzzfeed’s struggles have been equally storied. How that combined DNA will give rise to a more ‘pure’ social media is very much an open question. If I sound cynical, I am not- as I said, good intentions in this space are very welcome indeed. Peretti is excited "after years of being beholden to other platforms".
We shall wait.
Curated/Cuts.
Indonesian ghosts clean up their act! Kuntinalaks or Pontianacs, Pocongs and shivering zombies in this far-out hilarious spot from Indonesia. Watch it without knowing the product.
A freaky way to channel horror tropes that are incredibly popular across the region, blended in with random humour and a fearless brand approach. Great fun!
· Production: Factory01 · Director: Wuthisak Anarnkaporn · Mullen Lowe Lintas for Lifebuoy Indonesia.
After 27 years, Nike decided to advertise in the Super Bowl. Their travails in the last year or more have been well-documented, and as they look to bring back the brand love, the halo (and the retail), they could do worse than combining powerhouse athletes with powerful script read by a Grammy winning rapper, driven by a Led Zeppellin track.
The Matrix meets Taika Waititi meets Keegan-Michael Key meet rabbit holes, with Trinity. And oh, eating Lays. Pretty cool how a movie released nearly 26 years ago still has cultural resonance. It does, right?
What happens to regular folk when Superheroes cause all that darn chaos (aka “action sequences”) in those movie worlds? If they know right, they clean up pretty well, in this spot (one of a few), in the lead-up to the new Captain America movie.
QUICKIES
JioHotstar revealed its new logo, and opinions were… shall we say, not friendly. Now, online discourse is predisposed to ‘hot takes’ and scathing takedowns, so this is not in intself a surprise. I won’t share too much of an opinion here (underwhelmed), but I did like the considered perspective that Lakshmipati Bhat offered.
Talking of logos, HBO is going for a rebrand, per Lucas Shaw. “Warner Bros. Discovery is looking to rebrand its Max streaming service. The name isn’t changing (for once). This time, it’s the colour scheme. The blue color is going away and will be replaced by something more neutral, likely some combination of black and white. The color of the app’s name will change with the colour of the show in marketing campaigns.”. Go figure.
BL or Boy Love originated in Japan in the 1970s; manga depicting gay couples sold in niche comic-book stores and at fan conventions. But when Thai production firms recognised the genre’s screen-worthy potential, combining manga plots with sleek aesthetics, it took off. The Economist looks at the Boy Love and Girl Love interest, in “Fans are going crazy for Thai television shows and music”
Spotify is likely to add a premium option for added features including high-fidelity audio and mashups.. I’m happy as I am, and would not consider topping it up; and there are those who’d argue that higher sound quality should be already part of the package (ala Apple Music). And what does ‘remix or mash up’ artists music even mean? Having said that, the approach of doubling down on ‘superfans’ makes sense and is a sign that Spotify wants to listen to its customers, not sit on its recent laurels.
Thanks for reading!