Seven months after announcing a partnership with TikTok, Tubi has finally revealed what it’s building. The Fox-owned, ad-supported streaming service is investing in 12 TikTok creators to develop 10 original series through its Creatorverse Incubator, including animation, horror, reality, and young-adult stories. For the creators, it’s a chance to turn a following into a show. It’s one more sign that streaming companies want creator audiences, though only time will tell if the audiences will follow their favorite creators.
The first slate has been announced. Lynnell Jones Jr. is developing “Feeling Super,” an animated superhero comedy. Kai Cameron is hosting “Kai Picks the Guy,” a dating show in which three men arrive thinking they’ll date a female contestant and find themselves vetted by Kai instead. Yasmine Sahid, Alex Maystrik, and Pablo Hernandez are behind a big-city-girl, small-town-boy love triangle called “Never Have I Ever Spent the Winter with the Romano Brothers,” and Allie Tran is developing a film-inspired horror series, “Scare Tours.” Marc Sebastian is making “A Great Australian Gay Sidequest,” a travelogue following him through Australia’s quirkier tourist attractions. Kendria Bland is also in the first cohort, though her project hasn’t been announced. Neither have release dates for these projects.
None of these projects would exist without TikTok. It helped Tubi identify creators ready to move into long-form storytelling, and it’s expected to promote the shows through its Spotlight product. “The creators we’re working with have built a following, a point of view, and a body of work that people come back for,” said Kudzi Chikumbu, Tubi’s VP of creator partnerships and a former TikTok executive. “The Incubator is where we come in as their partner, giving them the creative freedom to grow what they’ve started.” He said Tubi will support creators as they make “their first TV shows, making ambitious work they may not otherwise be able to make.” TikTok’s Dawn Yang, the global head of entertainment and micro-series, said the partnership gives creators “another way to share their work with new audiences.”
The picks also track what already works on Tubi. Horror, young adult, and comedy have been recurring genres in Tubi’s earlier creator initiatives, and the platform wants to build on that success. It’s a win-win: creators arrive with a built-in audience, Tubi gets content in genres that attract viewers.
What does it mean for creators? TikTok success rarely comes with long-form funding, and developing a series takes money, crews, and time that few creators have on their own. Tubi’s backing could give creators like these a path from short videos to a season of television, and a chance to reach viewers who don’t use TikTok. It is also an indication of where things are headed for the creator economy. Instagram has begun testing 90-minute videos, FOX built a creator studio with new executive hires, and the American Film Market added a creator panel. Executives like Drew Baldwin have said creators on social platforms are “renting audiences,” and a streaming show is one way to own more of the relationship.
But not all the important details have been shared. Tubi hasn’t disclosed how much it’s investing, how creators will be paid, or who will own the shows and the characters. That last point is important, because the value of a creator’s intellectual property can grow far beyond what it looked like on signing. Deals written when a series looks small can decide who controls it when it isn’t. It’s also unclear whether the shows will be exclusive to Tubi, how many episodes are planned, or what happens if one underperforms.
Unlike most streamers, which are subscription-based, Tubi is an ad-supported service. Creators’ shows will be funded by advertisers rather than subscribers. That puts a premium on audience size and brand-friendly content. If streaming services want creators’ audiences, creators will have leverage, but only if they know what they’re agreeing to.