After Amazon Prime Video’s Beast Games and Netflix’s Inside, the hunt is on for digital entertainment formats that can cross the divide intoTV and streaming
As of 2025, there are 114 million channels on video sharing platform YouTube. Between them, the owners of these channels upload 189 million hours of content every year. In sum, there are currently 5.1 billion videos residing on the platform.
True, many of these channels feature pet owners scaring cats with cucumbers or helpful older men explaining how to jump start your car. But the fact remains that YouTube is by far the largest reservoir of original IP on the planet – dwarfing Hollywood majors, linear broadcasters, super-indie producers and distribution houses.
All of which begs the question: why do so few digital-first entertainment formats migrate to TV and streaming? Despite this endless array of content – complete with detailed audience analytics – the number of formats that have been picked up for adaptation by the traditional content industry barely reaches double digits (see panel).
Superficially, there seems like an obvious business case for building a format development pipeline around digital-first IP – particularly as it often has a global fanbase. As Jonathan Shrank VP, streaming and content partnerships, at TheSoul Publishing, observes: “Unlike legacy media, social video transcends borders. A viral hit in Brazil or Indonesia can become a global phenomenon overnight. That makes the creator space a globally scalable IP factory, perfect for the international ambitions of traditional platforms.”
Thom Gulseven is as well-placed as anyone to dissect this issue, having worked at Channel 4 and LADbible Group before co-founding Strong Watch Studios with Ben Powell-Jones. Since launching in 2023, with backing from Hat Trick Productions, the studio has created formats such as The Snake and People Are Deep – and is now crafting a slate of comedic shows for Channel 4’s new digital-first channel A Comedy Thing.
For Gulseven, a key component of the explanation is that broadcasters and streamers “are not so much interested in finding digital-first formats as tapping into the huge audiences that leading creators have built. The priority is to get the creator on board then devise a show that is likely to bring the audience over with them.”
The standout example of this is Amazon Prime Video’s Beast Games, a huge entertainment vehicle devised in partnership with YouTube superstar Jimmy Donaldson (MrBeast). An outsized competition show with 1000 contestants, Beast Games attracted 50m viewers in its first 25 days and is reported to be returning for a new series.
Just as instructive is the more recent news that Netflix is planning to launch a new kids & family competition series in 2026 with ex-Nasa engineer turned social media star Mark Rober (76m followers across platforms). Underlining Gulseven’s point, the process here has been: get Mark Rober, then make a show that leans into the ambitious science experimentation that has become his trademark.
The creator-centric nature of social media has another implication for the migration of digital-first formats to traditional media, adds Gulseven.
“I think a lot of firms looking at formats in this space may be asking themselves – what is actually ownable? Formats in the digital space are often quite simple, familiar devices like line-ups, that are designed so that the audiences can get to know the creators better. The priority isn’t always to create an innovative format, but to showcase the talent.”
Gulseven doesn’t rule out the potential for digital-first formats to blow up on television, but argues that the most likely candidates are those where “the combination of talent and idea evolves into a format”.
This is something Strong Watch is exploring through its comedy content for Channel 4. The Split, for example, sees comedians pair up to use their wit and prejudice to decipher what side of a binary line public participants will fall on. Here, the alchemy of talent plus game mechanic is key.
After Party Studios head of entertainment Sam Ewen says anyone serious about taking their format from digital-first to TV needs to thoroughly understand the differences between the two ecosystems.
“Social and TV audiences have different expectations, so if you want to migrate a format you need to be sure it makes sense for the new platform. The most important thing is winning audience trust.”
Ewen identifies format flexibility as one factor that can make or break a show’s ability to bridge the gap. “You need the core IP to be adaptable. In digital, content is fast-paced, fast cuts, joke, joke, joke. But the TV audience isn’t really looking for shows that get straight to the action in the same way. So the core format must allow for that.”
He also stresses that “the talent needs to make sense for the platform. We work with creator Specs Gonzalez on Sky Sports’ Scenes, and he is an example of someone who can bridge the two spaces because of his passion for football. But bringing the format and talent over to TV together doesn’t always work out.”
Ewen expects to see more formats migrate to TV – and is backing one of After Party’s own shows – Don’t Get Catfished (pictured). But he warns “it is a marathon not a sprint. When you’re trying to build trust with audiences there is no quick fix.”
While the creative differences between the two sectors is clearly key, another barrier to digital format cross-over is the bed-blocking of slots by mega-formats, with risk-averse commissioners more likely to greenlight a Masterchef spin-off than a foodie format that has just started to come to the boil on YouTube.
“There are too few opportunities on TV,” notes Lucy Smith, founder of digital-first studio Fawkes Digital, “with broadcasters commissioning de-risked IP that’s already tried and tested.”
Smith is pragmatic about this: “IP-generators need to find fresh ways to prove new formats,” she says. “At Fawkes, we’ve reached a point where we don’t distinguish between channels and tourism boards, broadcasters and beauty brands, commissioners and social media managers. For us, the game is on to get a first iteration of a format commissioned at whatever scale, test with audiences quickly, promote through creator communities and derisk formats ourselves.”
Fawkes Digital has built up a robust slate in this way – including LinkedIn adventure format CEOs Go Wild, Channel 4.0 dating show Baddest in the World, dance competition MOVE IT: The Dance Off and L’Oreal-sponsored hair podcast Texture Talks.
“We work with innovative brands and digital broadcasters to fund formats, in addition to self-funding shows we believe have commercial potential.”
Bart Frank, co-founder of digital first studio Objekt, echoes Smith, saying his studio has pivoted towards brands as format commissioners in recent times.
“Our strategy is all about making valuable IP that can live beyond YouTube – and we have created formats like Mukbang Dates and Clone Heads that I believe could go beyond social and be exploited worldwide across platforms. But a recent trend I’ve seen is for digital commissioners to move away from complex world-building towards formats that are quick to produce and easier to hook the audience into. That doesn’t necessarily align with an IP-led strategy of building original formats that can travel.”
Instead, Frank sees the current trend for brands to launch their own entertainment-led YouTube channels as an emerging opportunity to develop and own formats. Currently, for example, Objekt has two new shows, Are You Even Real and You’re Lying, on boohooMAN’s channel.
Elsewhere, brands like Foot Asylum (Locked In) and PrettyLittleThing (Pink Courtroom) have proved it is possible to generate big audiences on their channels with the right combination of ideas and talent.
“Brands have a competitive advantage when it comes to creating highvalue YouTube content,” says Frank. “Unlike other creators, they aren’t producing the content as a means to directly generate revenue from that video. As they start to see a connection between content creation and commercial returns, they will spend more on bolder ideas.”
Of course, there’s nothing to stop digital-first studios nurturing new formats via their own channels. Jubilee is a high-profile proponent of this with its highly-watchable Odd One Out and 1 vs 20 formats.
StudioB is pursuing a similar route with Heartwired, an original format that “puts AI at the centre of modern dating”. Dropped in March 2025, Heartwired “explores just how easily AI can deceive even the most confident daters—and how hilarious the results can be when influencers attempt to charm a robot”.
Heartwired was created with the backing of Connect Management and filmed at StudioB’s studio. Brandon Baum, CEO & founder of StudioB, says: “The combination of AI and dating creates an experience that is as thought-provoking as it is entertaining.”
This last model is also attracting interest from more traditional producers. Keshet International’s Germany-based subsidiary Tresor Productions, for example, is currently producing a German version of First We Feast’s digital-first format Hot Ones for a dedicated YouTube channel in Germany.
Working with Endgame Entertainment and inSocial Media, Tresor expects to have completed 20 x 30-minute German episodes of the popular US interview format before the end of this year. The ultimate ambition is to be producing 36 original episodes a year of the German version.
Axel Kühn, managing director at Tresor Productions, says: “We first thought about the format potential for Hot Ones when StoryNation Productions successfully adapted it for Canal Plus in France. So we approached BuzzFeed (the owner of the format at the time) and secured the rights to make a version in Germany.”
Kühn says Tresor tried to sell the format to broadcasters and platforms with little success.
“They all liked it. But with most of them, the answer was that it didn’t fit their strategy. For us it was a surprise, because there are still so many episodes of the US show on YouTube and they continue to deliver huge audiences.”
Kühn says he pitched the show to a streamer as brand-funded.
“But when the streamer couldn’t find a brand partner, we did it ourselves and created our own YouTube channel. It’s such a strong brand we didn’t think it would be difficult, and we were right. We got a lot of positive feedback from brands and Uber Eats came in as our partner. They’ve been great, funding a full season, cross-promoting the show on their platform, and doing events and giveaways.”
Tresor is now committed to building Hot Ones Germany as a digital-first proposition, supporting the flagship YouTube channel with shortform activity on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.
“We have a weekly episode on YouTube and then daily shorts, which is great for building audience. On YouTube, our most successful video so far has had 190,000 views, but on TikTok one video reached 5.7 million views,” says Kühn.
Although YouTube rollout wasn’t Tresor’s first line of attack, Kühn says he would probably roll out any future digital-first formats in the same way.
“It’s an interesting model because it allows us to keep control. If we make a great show for the traditional television business and they get the scheduling or promotion wrong, we suffer.”
In a sense, this desire for independence hints at another reason why digital formats don’t often travel to TV: because creators don’t always want them to. While the pull of an SVOD payday may be hard to resist, there’s also a recognition among creators that chasing TV exposure is risky if it compromises their own creativity or undermines the relationship they have crafted with their online community.
This article originally appeared in The Drop magazine issue #1
