“Traditional media has changed a lot,” said Andreas Briese, Managing Director for YouTube Germany and Regional Director of YouTube in Central and Northern EUrope. “In the last two or three years, we’ve seen that broadcasters and distributors are leaning much more into YouTube because they’ve discovered that YouTube provides them with new audiences and new opportunities.”
Briese, who has worked at Google since 2008, stepped into Deadline’s Zurich Studio after speaking the Zurich Summit and he outlined how he’s seen the relationship between legacy entertainment entities and the platform change in recent years and why he thinks the traditional media space has a long way to go when it comes to harnessing talent from the platform.
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“I think still they are not seizing completely the opportunity which YouTube offers because YouTube is a global platform with a huge creator ecoysystem, which means you can produce outside of your own country,” he said. “I think the secret sauce for success is of course building your own channels and running your own business on YouTube but somehow make a connection to the core of YouTube, which are creators and finding models of cooperation with those creators.”
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Briese pointed out that YouTube has poured $100 billion into the creator ecosystem and that has resulted in seeing filmmakers and talent on the platform become “more professional.”
“They’re getting better equipment, better editing tools and have hired edit teams,” he said. “Many of them, especially the midsize and large creators, are entrepreneurs. They really run their business. The beauty of having a direct connection to the audience [is that] being the creator means you’re the person that raises funds, brings in deals and commercializes the production. And many of these creators, because also of the new tools available, specifically iTools, are now capable of doing things that only studios have been able to do before. So that creator economy is really, really thriving on YouTube.”
Pointing to the success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms and Curry Barker’s Obsession, Briese said he believes that “creators are the new Hollywood.”
“If they become the new studios, that verdict is not out yet. Look at Mr. Beast for example. He’s running a massive company. He’s not only producing content, he’s selling merchandise and more and that is really quite amazing.”
Take a look at the full video above.