I cover creators at Like & Subscribe, a standalone Ankler Media newsletter that’s being sampled today for paid subscribers to The Ankler. I wrote about Sony’s search for a $500k-a-year YouTube whisperer and creators launching scripted series on Instagram. I’m natalie@theankler.com
In recent months, top executives at YouTube began conferring about a very big problem: how to stop Netflix from raiding their platform for creator talent.
At first, the deals weren’t much of a threat. CoComelon packaged up episodes for Netflix in 2020. Ms. Rachel followed with a curated selection of videos last year. Then came Mark Rober, Danny Go! and Salish Matter. But then Netflix got increasingly aggressive.
It began gobbling up exclusive video rights for a number of top podcasts that once posted freely on YouTube. Then, over just a few days in July, Netflix announced deals with some of YouTube’s most visible stars: Rhett & Link, the Stokes Twins, Alan Chikin Chow and Nick DiGiovanni. This morning, Netflix added another creator to its roster, game show host Kevin Langue. And these deals aren’t just for library content — they also include plans to publish videos on Netflix at the same time they go live on YouTube.
To blunt the attacks, YouTube has decided to pay select creators to post exclusively to its platform, multiple sources tell me. The defensive move, first reported by Bloomberg, has the creator world abuzz. I can report for the first time that YouTube is currently making offers to around 15 creators, with deal terms varying from talent to talent. One source says packages start in the low seven figures and can reach roughly $10 million, all to keep creators’ videos off competing platforms for a defined period.
But the offers come with a stick and a carrot: Sources describe not-so-veiled threats. Take your content to another platform, particularly Netflix, and YouTube might not bring you up on stage at Brandcast, its big advertising pitch-fest in the spring, or promote you on its billboards. You could be removed from the preferred advertising program it operates exclusively for the tippy-top of its creator pool.
A YouTube spokesperson declined to comment.
YouTube executives are “scared shitless,” a top dealmaker tells me. That’s a remarkable posture for the company that already dominates streaming: YouTube is now paying millions to keep the talent it helped create from becoming someone else’s programming.
In other words, the creator talent wars are on.
They’re playing out everywhere, from the Hollywood agencies duking it out for top clients (see Alex Cooper’s recent move, which I reported on last week) to the movie studios hunting for the next Curry Barker or Kane Parsons. Digital talent has never carried more leverage.
Keep reading for my full dive on the fight for YouTube’s top stars, and what the company’s sudden willingness to open its wallet says about the state of the industry.
I’ve got:
- Why YouTube is sweating the talent competition despite its streaming dominance
- Which creators are fielding seven-figure offers — even when they weren’t planning to leave
- The tech and Hollywood players — beyond Netflix — now bidding for YouTube talent
- Ted Sarandos’ sly jab at YouTube last year that’s resonating in 2026
- YouTube’s history with paying creators, and why this time is different
- How talent with no intention of going to Netflix — or anywhere else — can still cash in as YouTube is “grasping at straws”
- Product changes that have creators cooling on YouTube, despite their large, loyal audiences there
Don’t stop here
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