At a time when many traditional TV distributors are still clinging to the wreckage of linear schedules, Quintus Studios has quietly built one of the most successful independent documentary networks on YouTube – and done it on its own terms.
The company, led by founder and managing director Gerrit Kemming, has emerged as a case study in digital-first transformation. Once a conventional TV distribution outfit, Quintus saw the cracks forming in the broadcast model and made the leap to digital years before most of its peers. That early move – once dismissed by some as naive – now looks like a masterstroke.
“When we started, people were laughing at us,” Kemming told TellyCast at the How to Make Money in Digital event. “We asked content owners for rights and they didn’t take us seriously. Now YouTube is the biggest TV platform in the world. That’s where our audience is.”
Today, Quintus operates a multilingual portfolio of factual channels including Free Documentary and FD Finance across YouTube, Facebook and Snapchat, delivering content in English, German, French and Spanish. Its output spans business, history, nature, science and engineering – anything unscripted and informative that resonates with a global digital audience.
What sets Quintus apart isn’t just scale. It’s the way the company has adapted its traditional media DNA to the faster, leaner rhythms of digital platforms. Kemming talks about his channels like a broadcaster would – careful curation, audience insights, quality control – but underpinned by a responsiveness and pace that legacy media often struggles with.
“Our content comes from TV, but we’re not in the TV business anymore,” he said. “We’ve built our home turf on YouTube and social. And we’re still growing with the market.”
One of the key breakthroughs has been in localisation. While many digital channels remain English-only, Quintus has embraced international expansion by investing in language. But that hasn’t always been straightforward.
“Our audience expects high-quality dubbing,” Kemming explained. “AI alone wasn’t good enough until recently. But now we’ve developed a hybrid model – using AI with human oversight – that gives us the scalability without compromising on quality.”
This kind of multilingual, tech-enhanced approach is increasingly critical in the global race for attention. But it also highlights a challenge unique to the Quintus model: building community without on-screen personalities. While many YouTube channels thrive on charismatic hosts and creator-fan dynamics, Quintus channels are host-free – content-first, brand-lite.
That creates limits in areas like merchandising or influencer-driven product launches. Still, Kemming sees this as a trade-off, not a weakness. “We work in global territories, often with content that doesn’t have a face attached,” he said. “It’s very much a TV model – strong stories, high production value. And that still makes money. But we are starting to explore brand partnerships and other ways to diversify our revenue.”
Kemming is quick to note that the digital-first business is never static. Speaking after a packed day of sessions at the TellyCast event, he reflected on how much has changed – and how much is still to come.
“There was a lot of education for people who are just entering this space,” he said. “We’re already in it, so not everything was new to us. But events like this are always useful. You walk away with five or ten new ideas. Some of them turn out to be nonsense the next day. But some stick – and those are the ones that drive your next move.”
With Quintus continuing to expand across platforms and territories, one thing is clear: this is a company that’s not waiting for the old world to catch up. It’s already moved on – and it’s quietly rewriting the rules of what a documentary business can look like in the digital age.
