This year’s Mipcom marked a significant moment by hosting YouTube’s leadership for the first time, while also highlighting various models that drive the creator economy during a packed session on Tuesday morning.
The session, moderated by Shira Lazar, CEO of “What’s Trending,” featured creators like Callum McGinley, known as “Callux,” and Ben Doyle, aka “Rvbberduck,” both from After Party Studios, followed by Sean Atkins from Dhar Mann Studios and Kudzi Chikumbu, Tubi’s VP of creator partnerships.
On stage, Callux and Rvbberduck were joined by Nella Rose, a prominent YouTuber and presenter who gained fame from the U.K. reality series “I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here,” with over 4 million followers across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. Rose announced her upcoming show, “The Nella Rose Show,” which will be produced by After Party Studios and pitched to potential broadcasting and streaming partners.
The Mipcom television market has previously offered insights into the digital creation industry. Lucy Smith, the Mipcom director, recalled how the conference a decade ago held the Mip Digital Upfront, an initiative that was warmly received but deemed a bit ahead of its time. Today, the creator economy is significantly influencing the future of entertainment, with increasingly more collaborations between traditional media and digital platforms, notably illustrated by the recent partnership between BBC Studios and YouTube, as discussed by BBC Studios digital SVP Jasmine Dawson and YouTube’s EMEA chief Pedro Pina on Monday.
During the After Party discussion, Rvbberduck shared that he and Callux first crossed paths in 2015 during a KFC campaign titled “Around the World in 99 Gigs.” He noted the disconnect between the expectations of the client, who wanted an “entertainment format that was essentially a long form chicken advert,” and the director, who aimed to engage the audience through “crazy stuff.”
“Upon returning to London, we decided to create our own studio to bridge the gap between mainstream and digital,” Callux remarked, aiming to “become the leading producers of the internet’s most culturally relevant content.”
“We achieved this by adopting a creator’s mindset,” he explained. Today, After Party Studios boasts a team of over 30 individuals who tackle each project through the lens of a creator, a strategy he believes is crucial as “these social platforms were crafted by creators.” Ultimately, Callux noted that After Party Studios has successfully positioned itself “right in the center between creators, brands, and commissioners.” The studio’s collaborations with broadcasters include Channel 4.0’s “Hear Me Out” and the Sky Sports series “Scenes,” targeting the next generation of football enthusiasts.
Nevertheless, there is still progress needed to align tone and creative freedom. Rose reflected on her contrasting experiences working in television on shows like “I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here” versus digital media, highlighting the much greater creative liberty available online.
“In reality TV, everything is scripted from beginning to end, which many people are unaware of. In contrast, digital media allows me to be completely myself, and that resonates much more with my audience,” Rose stated. Her new show, “The Nella Rose Show,” being developed independently by After Party Studios, aims to capture her spontaneous spirit even as it is pitched to broadcasters.
At Dhar Mann Studios, Sean Atkins discussed how the company, which focuses on inspirational scripted short films, has become one of the biggest creators on Facebook and YouTube, counting 143 million followers globally.
“The beauty of storytelling is its universal appeal, especially with our focus on human emotions,” he explained, dealing with themes such as acceptance, rejection, and inequality.
Atkins, who joined Dhar Mann Studios in 2024 after a significant tenure at MTV and serving as chief digital officer at Discovery, also emphasized the studio’s efficiency through lean operations.
He noted that Dhar Mann Studios produces an impressive five and a half hours of television content weekly with just nine crews, working about 18 hours a day, seven days a week.
“If you stepped onto our lot, you’d think you were on a Warner Bros. or Pinewood set in the U.K. However, the operation’s comparison to traditional media shows it’s much more streamlined and efficient, as required by economics,” Atkins explained. “To create a feature film requires thousands of people; a broadcast television show needs about 100; a cable show might require tens; whereas for digital shows, you could have one person. It’s an exponential curve.”
Atkins also broke down the revenue model for Dhar Mann Studios, highlighting its various income streams. One method is basic revenue sharing, with creators receiving around half of the revenue generated across six platforms; another involves brand deals, which tend to be more financially rewarding, comprising about 50% to 60% of their income; and finally, auxiliary business development where Dhar Mann Studios collaborates with its agency, Fifth Order, to support creators in managing their assets.
The Upfronts culminated with a dialogue on distribution with Tubi’s Kudzi Chikumbu, who mentioned that the AVOD service is a desirable destination for creators due to its substantial reach. “We’ve cultivated an audience of over 100 million monthly active users, chiefly comprising Gen Z and millennials,” he noted. Chikumbu added that 70% of viewers “seek content from independent filmmakers and creators.” Tubi’s content library encompasses “nearly 300,000 episodes with an advanced recommendation system,” and the ultimate aim is to cultivate a “creatorverse.”
“It’s a space where creators can chart their course to Hollywood while retaining their authentic creativity,” Chikumbu expressed.
Lazar, who hosted the Mip Digital Upfront a decade ago, shared with Variety post-event that the showcase offered “three perspectives” on the sector. She pointed out that After Party Studios is “a creator-founded company” that collaborates with other creators, launching shows funded in a cost-effective manner while exploring additional distribution opportunities. Meanwhile, Dhar Mann Studios has built a production empire around its creator’s persona, maturing into a force that crafts new formats with talents, executing both scripted and long-form content successfully and monetizing effectively, as Lazar elaborated. On the distribution front, Tubi exemplifies how “streamers are engaging in partnerships with creators through their archives and libraries, akin to traditional media trends,” she concluded.
At this year’s Mipcom, several partnerships with traditional media companies were announced, including Banijay teaming up with YouTube to create an Entertainment Creators Lab in France and acquiring a majority stake in the Dutch label Werktitel.
