Strong Watch Studios co-founder Thom Gulseven share his predictions for the world of digital-first in 2026.
What’s the single biggest shift you expect to see in digital-first production and publishing in 2026?
“Digital-First” producers will be making for every platform, from linear to streamers, AFP to TVCs. We’re way beyond digital in 2026.
I’m going to really annoyingly put “digital-first” in inverted commas here, because this year… I don’t think it really exists; everything is, will be, and should be in some way digital-first. And that is what I’m most excited about.
What does that look like? In 2026 I’m really excited about how everyone will be borrowing/leaning on “digital-first” thinking to help solve some fundamental challenges we’re all facing.
Let’s be honest – we’ve always made content for a fraction of a price of traditional media. Dirt-cheap hours, bargain TVCs… “digital-first” has been the synonym for criminally low budgets for a long time. So we’ve learnt now to adapt, and been pretty creative with very little for years.
Now that times are tougher for everyone – advertisers, broadcasters, streamers – and budgets are way tighter than ever before, buyers of all shapes and sizes are asking for creative ideas that don’t cost the world. And often using digital series, like Sidemen Sundays or LADbible’s Snack Wars in their briefs as references.
Other non-digital platforms are starting to want what “Digital First” offers… cost-efficient quality that has reach and speaks the language of YouTube. We’ve seen it in briefs from streamers, advertisers and even the BBC… traditional media wants to look more “digital-first”.
And most excitingly… content is going to look different as a result. Some production budget is still more than most digital producers are used to – so we’re going to see a mix of the two worlds colliding. Better funded “digital-first” thinking meets lower-cost TV. Premium YouTube formats on the BBC? High-quality vodcast content on Netflix? Low-cost, high impact advertising everywhere. 2026 is the year in which – through the challenges we’re facing with budgets – content finally starts to look fundamentally different. And that’s really really exciting.
Which platform behaviour or algorithm change do you think will matter most next year, and why?
Properly functional collaboration posts on YouTube. I’m potentially putting all my eggs in one very seductive basket here, but the ability to collab post a YouTube video with another channel is FINALLY here, and from the tests we’ve done – it’s pretty good.
Why is this important? Algorithms are prioritising discoverability over subscribers, we’ve seen that for the last few years, subs mean less, focussing on being served by the algorithm and finding new users, way more effective. So having a tool like collaborative posting allows you to target a new audience organically, without paid, really impactfully.
This means we can start building new channels at pace. And then we’re all building YouTube NETWORKS… not just channels. And that’s amazing.
Where will your company’s biggest increase in revenue come from in 2026 – CPMs, brand spend, partnerships, new revenue models or something else?
All of the above please, that’d be lovely if possible.
I’m sure like many, we’re NOT relying on CPMs and advertising revenue from the platforms in 2026. Sure, the money we make from our channels in brilliant – and particularly good where we’re secondarily publishing content that has already made it’s ROI elsewhere, like all our brilliant partner channels. But in an era so heavily algorithmically focussed on original content, that revenue is not going to even come close to production costs.
So brand spend and partnerships are where we are seeing – and hoping to see more – growth, as above, with longer term relationships with partners to grow real digital brands and communities rather than limit campaigns.
And in regards to where we are investing in our own original content, direct to audience payments via YouTube Memberships and Patreon etc will be a big focus for us. It’s working for a generation of comedians for whom fanbases are much happier to part with a couple of quid a month for loads of access and benefits rather than sit through ads.
What creative formats or genres do you think will break out next year?
Vodcast Plus.
Not so much break out – but I think we’re going to see the vodcast become more and more sophisticated/formatted as video output becomes more important that audio. And the result will be a lot of super interesting creative responses to what a vodcast can do. Football clips in a football chat (we’re already seeing this with Goalhanger). Formatted quizzes? Comedy Entertainment? The good old chop and chat? Anything that was previously in a costly TV studio can now be in a slightly heightened vodcast studio. So I think we should expect to see a lot of innovation and boundary pushing in the space.
How do you expect the relationship between traditional broadcasters/ distributors and digital-native studios to evolve in 2026?
As above! Digital-native studios will start to represent low-cost solutions for traditional broadcasters, as we have spent years making something that looks good – albeit different – on the budgets we’re all now contenting with. I hope!
And when it comes to what was previously called “digital commissioning” and commissions direct to YouTube from broadcasters, what I hope will happen is more of what we’re doing with Channel 4 at the moment with A Comedy Thing, in the form of broadcasters commissioning whole channels, with channel management and weekly drops of videos, not discrete runs of limited series.
I think we’ll see fewer and fewer digital “shows” get commissioned and more output deals for digital native producers to make hours of content to serve a channel they run. Commissioners will start to think of shows not as 6 x 60 minutes – but instead, commissioning a brand that COULD be a TV show. But could also be a YouTube channel that runs for a year (often for the same price).
What’s one data point, trend, or move from 2025 that people are underestimating — and what does it signal?
A recent study by Kapwig found that 20% of all content shown to a new YouTube user was AI Slop.
This is despite YouTube introducing policies to demonetise anything it deems “inauthentic” earlier in 2025.
So there’s more and more AI brain rot floating around our algorithms – and given its being served in such high volume to new users, it shows clearly people ARE looking at it! Enough for the YouTube algorithm to serve it as a shop window as to what the platform IS to new users.
Now, I like an AI video of Trump getting off with Putin as much as the next person. But I’ve probably seen enough of the same old shit by now. There has to be more to it than dictator snogging?
When we’ve had enough – what’s next? Clearly AI generated content is fulfilling an appetite for comedy, for fantasy, for ridiculousness… and for very low-cost production. And clearly the platforms are supporting it algorithmically, by accident or design. How will that turn into something less sloppy?
I don’t think AI Slop is going to fizzle out like many creatives hope. It’s going to thicken up, and find it’s place as a more substantial technique used for the right, knowing, reasons.
If you could give one piece of advice to producers or creators preparing for 2026’s digital-first landscape, what would it be?
There’s never been a bigger appetite for video content.
From buyers, from platforms, from advertisers, and crucially, from audiences. Everyone wants video as the solution to their own challenges and objectives.
So think really broadly and laterally about who the new buyers, platforms, brands and audiences are and go after them rather than chasing the same dwindling opportunities in the same familiar places.
Anything else to add?!
Whilst it’s the ramblings of a brain filled with too much Baileys and Panettone, I really believe that 2026 is the year in which the wider industry adopts “digital-first” ways of producing as not just something we do on YouTube… but a way of working that will get us some exciting new formats and innovations in form. But to do that we ALL need to rewrite and unlearn a lot. Rights and deal terms. Budgeting and schedules. Expectations vs realities. This isn’t just about the product on screen looking different. This is about the infrastructure that supports it and governs it being fit for purpose too. So I predict in 2026… some of that will start to change, because it’ll have to. And if anyone is up for talking about how we do that quicker, I’m all ears and would love to help!
Thom Gulseven features as an expert on the upcoming TellyCast Digital Bootcamp course. More info here.
