Wildstar Films, the Fremantle-owned natural history producer, has partnered with wildlife filmmaker, explorer and scientist Dan O’Neill to launch The World is Out There, a YouTube channel combining documentaries, a filmed podcast and shorter science explainers.
The digital-first venture aims to build a wildlife community around O’Neill and reach viewers who may not traditionally watch natural history programming. It brings together Wildstar’s production expertise and O’Neill’s experience as a scientist, presenter and content creator.
The launch adds to a recent wave of wildlife activity on YouTube, with Cineflix Rights and McAvoy Media launching an Inside Taronga Zoo channel and One Tribe TV introducing Wild Frontier Films. Together, the initiatives point to natural history producers pursuing a broader YouTube ecosystem spanning established television brands, creator-led originals and emerging filmmaking talent.
The World is Out There will feature three core strands. Expedition will offer longer-form documentaries following O’Neill on wildlife expeditions around the world, while a monthly filmed podcast will see him take guests on outdoor walks, combining conversations with encounters and discoveries along the way.
An Explainers strand will feature shorter presenter-led films covering animal behaviour, science and topical stories from the natural world.
Rebecca Wootton, COO of Wildstar Films, said: “As audience habits continue to evolve, The World is Out There represents an exciting opportunity to extend Wildstar’s storytelling beyond traditional platforms and build a long-term digital brand.”
O’Neill said YouTube offered scope to show more of the experience behind wildlife filmmaking: “On YouTube we can show it all unfiltered: the embarrassing bits, the painful misses and the absolutely magic moments, so viewers can feel what it’s really like to be out there.”
He added: “Whether it’s tracking tigers in the jungle, going for a walk with a guest on the podcast or unpacking some brilliantly horrible parasitic behaviour in an explainer, I want everyone to finish watching and immediately feel like heading outside to find something for themselves.”
Wildstar’s television and film credits include Animals Up Close with Bertie Gregory, Queens, Disneynature’s Tiger and Orangutan, and Underdogs with Ryan Reynolds.
The venture takes a different approach from the recently announced Inside Taronga Zoo channel, which combines existing and future seasons of the television series with clips, compilations and new YouTube originals produced by McAvoy Media. That channel follows keepers and vets at Taronga Zoo Sydney and Taronga Western Plains Zoo, with Cineflix Rights also planning localised language versions.
One Tribe’s Wild Frontier Films, meanwhile, provides a home for work by emerging wildlife, natural history and science filmmakers. Its initial contributors include students from UWE Bristol, the National Film and Television School and the University of Salford, with films supplemented by short-form videos, interviews and podcast-style content.
That launch builds on One Tribe’s existing Life at Anna’s Zoo YouTube channel, which combines weekly long-form episodes with short-form clips and social content from Manor Wildlife Park in Pembrokeshire.
Across the launches, producers are using a mix of library programming, original series and supporting formats to develop wildlife brands directly for digital audiences.
