🚀 YouTube overtakes Netflix, Ryan Reynolds' Wrexham masterstroke, could Avatars win Oscars? And saying YES to directing Star Wars 🎬: News from Creatorville

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Predictions, Predictions:

Thank you so much to Derren Lawford, CEO at Dare Pictures, and Miles and Tom Angell, founders at The Angell Brothers for sharing their amazing predictions about the content industry in 2023/4 on our Creatorville Live Call this week.

Here are five of my favourite prophecies from the Creatorville Live Call:

1. An Avatar or virtual human will win a major award
2. IP wars will hot up as producers fight for the right to exploit multiple income streams
3. Generative AI use will become both an ethical dilemma and a curatorial opportunity
4. The next big thing will be born on Discord
5. Everyone will increasingly steal each other's clothes to get closer to audiences

The session was full of amazing analysis and shared experiences from the frontlines of progressive content production.  

Thanks to all the Creatorville peeps who joined and contributed.

Here are some of the brilliant links shared during the session:

From Joe Farren : https://lumalabs.ai/
From Tom Angell : https://www.theredhandfiles.com/chat-gpt-what-do-you-think/
From Joe Farren : https://www.axios.com/2022/11/03/tiger-woods-rory-mcilroy-tmrw-sports-investors
From Rachel Boyd : https://wishu.io/how-netflixs-marketing-strategy-for-wednesday-blew-up/

You can check out the full session below:

The next Creatorville Live call: HOW YOUNG AUDIENCES THINK is on Tuesday 28th February at 1700 GMT

We'll be joined by the amazing Dr Eliza Filby - an expert in demographic disruption who studies society through the prism of age and generations, examining how the traditional lifecycle is being reordered and remade in the 21st century

- REGISTER HERE to make sure you don't miss it!

It's all over: Why YouTube has won TV in America

Check out this amazing graphic:

https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/11536031/

According to Nielsen’s Total TV and Streaming Snapshot, YouTube overtook Netflix in overall share of the US audience in September 2022, with 8.7% of total viewing in December, compared to Netflix’s 7.5%.

The platform is now the biggest player in the biggest segment of US television.

So, how come YouTube, which spends almost zero on producing and licensing content, has overtaken Netflix - annual content spend $17bn - in terms of audience share in the USA?

Well, there are five key reasons:

1. YouTube is free to watch
2. Youtube is highly relevant as the content is made by the audience
3. Youtube has 37 million channels that upload at least once a week - so much fresh content
4. YouTube offers many more opportunities to watch due to the shorter nature of much of the content
5. YouTube is home to the world's most famous and desirable on-screen talent.

I am very, very long on YouTube. It has won the race to be the biggest streamer in the most important - and valuable - market in the world.

And Netflix will have to now concentrate on competition from below while YouTube pulls away into the distance.

Why buying Wrexham AFC was an entrepreneurial masterstroke

Hollywood's Ryan Reynolds is a keen entrepreneur.

He owns a Gin Brand, a mobile phone company.... and a small football club in a poor region of north Wales.

Buying Wrexham FC made for a fun documentary series.

But many people thought it was a PR stunt.

However, Reynolds was in attendance last weekend as Wrexham held Sheffield United to a thrilling 3-3 draw in the FA CUP, in what was a brilliant game shown on the BBC.

Now, Reynolds is firmly focused on the long-term aim of taking Wrexham AFC back to the top of the English Premier League.

TikTok are already Wrexham's shirt sponsor.

The combined power of a Disney+ show and Reynolds' huge social media reach have already made Wrexham one of the most well-known football clubs in North America

So, Wrexham, from the National League, the FIFTH tier of the English football league system, got more viewers in the USA than recent European Champions Liverpool FC who played fellow EPL side Brighton on the same day.

Top sides in the EPL turn over around £500m per season. They can be worth billions of pounds.

And how much did Reynolds and his partner Rob McElhenney pay to buy 100% of Wrexham AFC?

Just £2 million.

The Hollywood approach to packaging A-list talent with promising commercial opportunities is taking an interesting - and exciting - turn.

Willow director’s amazing path to success after her near-death experience recounted on THE BIG SWING podcast

Debs Paterson is an award-winning television and movie director, who has overcome a near-death experience to become one of the UK's most prolific drama directors.

Debs most recently directed Willow for Disney+, Half Bad: The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself for Netflix and Domina for Sky/Epix.

But her path to success has been far from easy, and on the upcoming THE BIG SWING podcast, Debs explains how she survived a terrible car crash and then a challenging set of career setbacks to finally prosper.

Hear how Debs almost turned down the chance to direct the behind-the-scenes Star Wars documentary THE SKYWALKER LEGACY for J.J. Abrams in this exclusive preview just for Creatorville readers:

Don't forget to check out the latest episode of THE BIG SWING PODCAST starring Debs which drops on Saturday 4th February at 1900 GMT...

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