Farm to Table

One of the overarching themes of Streaming Media 2025, which took place October 6–8 in Santa Monica, Calif., was the rise of the creator economy. Discussions centered around the changing economics of content creation, delivery, distribution, and curation (with AI playing an ever-larger role in leveling the playing field to varying degrees at all stages); evolving business models for creators looking to leverage and grow their brands and survive and thrive; and the ongoing, unignorable convergence of creator channels and “traditional” streaming platforms. The last topic seems like a particularly noteworthy sign of the times—how many conversations carried on just down the 405 in Huntington Beach in the heyday of Streaming Media West concerned the convergence (or divergence) of streaming upstarts and traditional linear broadcast?

In one of the exhibit hall interviews from the show, streaming industry stalwart Timothy Fore-Siglin sat down with pocket.watch SVP David B. Williams to discuss the fast-evolving interplay of creators and audiences and social and CTV platforms. Trying to parse out pocket.watch’s relationship to creators and its particular role in kids-oriented media—which Williams described as “a network with distribution, an ad agency, and a consumer products group”—and where the industry appeared to be moving from Williams’ unique vantage point, Fore-Siglin asked a question that cut right to the heart of how profoundly the relationship between social and scrolling platforms to the streaming establishment has changed in recent years: “So if you look at social media—let’s say, generic platforms like YouTube—is that sort of a farm team where you can say, ‘Here’s somebody who’s got some traction. We can then help take them to the next level?’ ”

“Well, sometimes it’s a little hard to tell which is the farm and which is the next level,” Williams quipped.

Ben Relles, who runs content strategy at Reid Hoffman and spent 11 years at YouTube in various roles, including head of content strategy for
YouTube Next Lab and head of innovation for YouTube Originals, gave a fascinating talk on the first day of the show titled “Creators Are Redefining Media” that revealed much of how the landscape has changed and effectively obliterated the line between the farm system and the presumptive big leagues. “You’re seeing some creators blowing up their channels and becoming massive media companies,” he said, “but you’re also seeing this mid-tail of creators and more and more channels that are … building communities where they feel like they have a real chance to make this their career because they have that loyal audience that comes back.”

Getting a seat at streaming’s big kids’ table isn’t even on creators’ vision board necessarily, nor is it essential to monetize their shows or establish legitimacy with the brands that make them profitable. “Although brand deals aren’t the only money coming in, it is also still as robust a brand market right now for creators as there’s ever been,” said Relles.

Relles pointed to a headline from The Ankler heralding Cannes Lions 2025 as a “tipping point” for the creator economy, as brands are spending $185 billion on creator content. The biggest change, Relles argued, is not so much in how brands view creators as how creators view themselves. “Even though this has been a conversation since I first started a channel—How will creators make a living?—over the last year or two, more creators are thinking of themselves not just as creatives, but as entrepreneurs as well.”

Relles touched on the other key driver of the new creator economy: the new economics of content creation taking shape in the era of AI tools that both streamline and augment various aspects of the production process. “AI is democratizing production value, and it’s making it possible to do things that individual creators couldn’t do before. … After a lot of time in the creator economy, I love [seeing] how much creativity is in this AI community right now, because it’s less about views and monetization and more about what’s the next creative thing we can do. It’s exciting to think about.”