YouTube is coming for TV's money
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Cleo Abram speaks onstage at YouTube Creator Premieres at Metrograph on Nov. 13, 2025 in New York. Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for YouTube
Every advertiser seems to know of MrBeast. YouTube wants them to know more creators who have similarly built studios to produce high production quality shows.
Why it matters: Even as YouTube dominates watch time, increasingly so on TVs, the company has yet to fully break into the budgets and planning cycles of traditional TV buyers.
Driving the news: At Metrograph in New York last month, YouTube hosted its first Creator Premieres, an event for about 100 ad buyers at agencies like WPP and Omnicom and brands like Verizon and LVMH that previewed videos from top creators like Mark Vins, Cleo Abram and Trevor Noah.
- YouTube has long held presentations for ad buyers. But Google president of Americas and global partners Sean Downey says this event responded to advertisers' desire to see content earlier to plan against it and get more involved.
- "Buyers know a handful of creators. They don't necessarily know the breadth of discoverable, episodic content on YouTube ... or that they're not just creators; these are studios," YouTube vice president of Americas Tara Walpert Levy says.
- The event showcased Vins' Galapagos wildlife documentary, Abram's explainer video about asteroids, Noah's stand-up special from South Africa, a new late-night series from Julian Shapiro-Barnum and shows from Deestroying, Brittany Broski, Dhar Mann and Ms. Rachel.
The big picture: YouTube is making its platform feel more like TV, for viewers, creators and brands.
- Last year, YouTube announced it would allow creators to organize videos into seasons and episodes. Last month, it released more tools to "make any YouTube content a premier experience on TV."
- Digital creators' videos are increasingly being watched in living rooms, a trend that Abram says she is seeing for her show, "HUGE* If True."
- "When people are taking a load off at the end of the day and they want to sit back and open their television and watch something great, more often than they turn on any other streaming platform, they turn on YouTube, and they look for extremely high quality stuff," Abram tells Axios.
Follow the money: YouTube highlighted case studies of brand sponsorships throughout the event. Abram noted her partnerships with Formula 1 and IBM while speaking onstage with Shapiro-Barnum.
- "We recognize [brand sponsorship] is a lot of how a lot of our creators make money. If we want to continue to earn the right to be their home base, we have to support them in a smart way," Walpert Levy says.
What's next: YouTube plans to host more Creator Premieres events, likely timed with other advertiser and entertainment tentpoles, Walpert Levy says.
