Sleeping With The Enemy: Creators And Legacy Media Get Entangled
WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?
And what it tells us about where this is all going.
Since launching Open Gardens earlier this year, the convergence between legacy media and the creator economy hasn’t just continued—it’s gone into overdrive.
So fast, in fact, I can’t even keep up with the deals.
Case in point: a few weeks ago, I met up with my friend David Alpert.
Alpert is the co-founder of Skybound, the company he built with comic book creator, Robert Kirkman. Together, they turned The Walking Dead into a global franchise—but what made Skybound different was how early they understood that you don’t just make content. You build worlds. Around that comic was a full ecosystem: games, merch, live events, fandom strategy. They called it the “Wheel of Awesome.”
So over lunch, when Alpert casually mentioned that Skybound had acquired Nine Four—a digital creator management company—I was caught flat-footed.
I hadn’t seen the headline. A company I admire. A space I live in. A friend I talk to. And I still missed it.
Which tells you everything.
It's All Moving Too F*cking Fast
This moment isn’t about big flashy announcements—it’s about velocity. The smartest companies aren’t making noise. They’re making moves. And if you blink, you might miss the deals that actually matter.
That conversation made me want to take a beat and look back. Not because convergence is breaking news—everyone gets it by now.
But the deals we’re seeing—the agency acquisitions, the platform integrations, the cross-pollination of talent—they’re just the surface.
What Now Tells Us About Tomorrow (Maybe)
It’s the moves underneath the surface that matter. Where’s Chernin placing his next bets? What’s Night Media circling? Even Alpert—we only had time over lunch to talk about what he’s doing now, not where his head’s going next.
I keep thinking about the production company buying spree a few years back. So much FOMO. So many 10x valuations. Then the bubble burst. The math stopped working. Expectations got ahead of reality.
Things are moving fast again—but differently this time. In order to talk about whats coming in the next 12 to 24 months, it’s worth pausing to look clearly at what’s actually happened. What kinds of transactions have reshaped the landscape? And what do they signal?
Because whether you’re a filmmaker, a producer, an exec, a social media manager, or a creator—the scaffolding of the business is shifting under your feet. You can’t just focus on your passion or your craft. Not anymore. If you can’t see where the business is going, you won’t stay ahead—and you won’t stay in business.
Here’s what really happened over the past year—and the hard-won lessons that will define who thrives and who falls behind in the next wave of convergence.
Content Without Commitment: Inside the New Deal Dynamics
A quick scan of the most telling transactions from last year’s IP deals:
Glitch Productions signed non-exclusive deals with Netflix (Sept 2024) and Amazon Prime Video (May 2025), keeping full creative control and YouTube distribution for The Amazing Digital Circus and Murder Drones.
MrBeast launched Beast Games exclusively on Prime Video (Dec 2024), which became its most-watched unscripted show ever and was renewed for two more seasons.
Sidemen released Season 2 of their reality series Inside exclusively on Netflix (Mar 2025), following their doc The Sidemen Story (Feb 2024).
Ms. Rachel debuted Songs for Littles on Netflix (Jan 2025) with four compilation episodes and more planned.
Pop the Balloon's creators partnered with Netflix to produce a separate, reimagined version of their show, "Pop the Balloon LIVE" while retaining full ownership and control of their original, ongoing YouTube series.
What These Transactions Signal
The past year made one thing obvious: the structure of content deals has already changed:
Audience ownership now drives deal terms. The most valuable asset in media today isn’t IP—it’s the direct line to an audience. That’s why creators like Glitch and Ms. Rachel are keeping YouTube in the mix and retaining full control. Their audiences aren’t portable. They’re anchored—and creators know it.
Non-exclusive isn’t fringe anymore. What used to be a workaround is now standard. Platforms are adapting to creators, not absorbing them. Exclusivity is optional. Coexistence is strategic.
There’s a clear split in strategy. For MrBeast-sized stars, exclusivity still makes sense—and costs a premium. For high-performing studios with focused fanbases, non-exclusive licensing with full control is the smarter model.
YouTube isn’t discovery—it’s validation. Legacy players aren’t guessing anymore—they’re scooping up hits that already have traction, data, and demand.
Legacy platforms are repositioning. They’re not trying to own the whole pipeline (because they can’t afford it or because they can’t make the deals). They’re jumping in where momentum already exists—adding scale, not starting from scratch.
Swallow or Be Swallowed: Mergers in the Age of Convergence
A quick scan of the most telling M&A transactions from last year:
Publicis bought Influential (3.5M+ creators) for ~$500M (July 2024), plugging influencer marketing directly into its martech stack at Epsilon.
Shine Talent Group acquired Spark Talent Group (Jan 2025), expanding its grip on beauty and lifestyle creators—its second deal in this space.
Wasserman snapped up Long Haul Management (Sept 2024), adding gaming/sports creator talent like MatPat (40M+ subs) and naming Long Haul’s Dan Levitt SVP, Creators.
Whalar Group merged with Sixteenth (Oct 2024), forming a global 360° talent shop under the Sixteenth name, led by Whalar’s Victoria Bachan. Roster includes Ali Abdaal and Doug the Pug.
Skybound acquired Nine Four Entertainment (May 2025), launching an incubator for creator-led brands. Nine Four reps Jacksfilms, I’m Dontai, and Eamon & Bec.
PodcastOne added 5 new shows (May 2025), bringing its roster to 208—targeting social-native hosts with 3M+ collective following.
PodX Group entered the U.S. podcast market (May 2025) by acquiring a majority stake in Lemonada Media, betting on its audience and revenue growth.
Sprout Social bought NewsWhip (July 2025) for $55M+ to boost its predictive AI media intelligence.
Roblox launched an IP licensing platform (July 2025), enabling Lionsgate, Sega, and others to partner with Roblox creators. Target: 10% of global gaming content revenue.
Rooster Teeth was reacquired (Feb 2025) by founder Burnie Burns via Box Canyon Productions—a strategic reset focused on community-first content. (We saw this with Smosh back in 2023).
What These Transactions Signal
These deals reveal how the creator economy already works today. Look closely, and a few clear patterns emerge:
Talent Management Is Professionalizing—Fast. Big agencies are buying boutique firms to plug into existing creator rosters, vertical expertise (gaming, lifestyle, sports), and operational playbooks. The result: creator management is no longer a cottage industry—it’s being integrated into global media infrastructure.
Representation Is the New Battleground. Companies like Publicis and Wasserman aren’t just acquiring access—they’re buying systems to scale creators as media channels. Influence is being packaged, optimized, and productized like never before.
Audio Is Consolidating Around Creator Reach. Podcast networks like PodcastOne and PodX aren’t just growing libraries—they’re acquiring creators with built-in digital followings. In today’s market, the podcast isn’t the product—the creator is. (We explored how podcasting companies have developed into creator companies through our analysis of Sonoro Media).
Tech Infrastructure Is the Invisible Engine. Acquisitions like Sprout Social x NewsWhip and Roblox’s IP licensing system show where real leverage is being built through AI and automation.
Founders Are Taking Back Control. The Rooster Teeth deal is a reminder: not every roll-up is corporate. Sometimes consolidation looks like going indie again. Creator-owned brands with strong communities may thrive better under original stewardship than inside corporate stacks.
This isn’t “media vs creators” anymore. It’s an open garden. These moves reflect a market reshaping around audience control, scalable ops, and platform-native IP—where ownership, infrastructure, and identity all matter more than just content supply.
From Studio Suits to Creator Crews: The Talent Migration Reshaping Media
A quick scan of the most telling Media hires and re-orgs from the last year:
Sony Pictures Television named Matt Ford (ex-Channel 4, Unilad) VP of Commercial, Digital (July 2025) to lead a new push into digital-first originals and the creator economy.
CAA brought on Brent Weinstein (May 2025) to oversee Digital, Podcasts, Games, Ventures, and M&A—signaling deeper bets on creator-led business models.
Strand Entertainment launched a digital division (Jan 2025) led by Monica Khan, focused on giving creators operational support beyond brand deals. Khan also co-founded BACE (Oct 2024), a Bay Area network for the creator economy.
Broadcasters like Channel 4 are creating in-house studios specifically for content destined for platforms like TikTok and YouTube, prioritizing these channels to reach younger audiences.
Paramount Global Content Distribution is rolling out new FAST (Free Ad-supported Streaming Television) channels to the international marketplace in 2025, building on a portfolio of FAST channels already produced in the U.S. with third-party brands.
CAA and WME reorganized their digital departments into Creator Economy divisions between 2024 and 2025, helping creators develop IP, license formats, and build media businesses.
Netflix recently announced they are strategically entering the video podcast space by searching for a "Head of Podcasts" to build a talent pipeline of YouTube creators and podcasters.
Nebula announced its first prestige scripted series Sub/liminal, hiring Academy Award-winning producer Dan Jinks, with production starting May 2025 and premiere slated for late 2025.
What These Transactions Signal
This past year, legacy companies stopped just partnering with creators—they started hiring them, reorganizing around them, and in some cases, trying to become them. These aren’t signals of an oncoming shift. They’re examples of how the system is already restructuring itself.
Here’s what’s playing out:
The Creator Economy Is a Core Competency for Legacy. From Sony to NBCUniversal, companies are building new roles, divisions, and entire strategies around creators—not just as talent, but as media businesses. These are not “digital experiments.” They’re executive-level shifts.
Agencies Are Rebuilding From the Inside Out. CAA, WME, Strand, and others are no longer repping creators off the corner of their traditional businesses—they’re building new arms to handle IP development, monetization strategy, and long-term business building. Talent is just one piece of the value chain.
The Platform Mindset Is Infecting Legacy Media. Studios and networks like Channel 4 and Paramount are creating internal content pipelines built for TikTok, YouTube, and FAST channels. They're not just licensing to digital—they’re programming like digital.
Operational Support Is the New Talent Perk. It’s not just about getting creators brand deals anymore. It’s about giving them infrastructure: teams, strategy, growth capital. Reps like Monica Khan aren’t just signing influencers—they’re scaling founder-led companies.
The result? A hybrid structure where creators bring audience and culture, and legacy media brings infrastructure and capital. The organizational walls are changing to reflect that reality. This isn’t theory. It’s practice.
The Collision Course: Old Power Meets New Influence
All of these deals look great on a balance sheet, but behind every merger and acquisition is a human story. And when a legacy media company buys a creator-led business, it's not just a transaction—it's a culture clash.
The "Authenticity Tax": Creators build their brands on authenticity, speed, and a direct line to their community. Legacy companies are built on bureaucracy, legal teams, and a slow, cautious approval process. What happens when a creator's fast-moving, "post now, fix later" ethos slams into a corporation's brand standards and compliance review? The legacy company risks killing the very thing that made the creator valuable in the first place. (This deserves its own stack, so much to chew on here…)
Who's Really in Charge?: In legacy media, the executive calls the shots. In a creator business, the audience does. This creates a power struggle from day one. A legacy executive may want to change a show's format or take it in a new direction, but the creator knows that deviating from their brand will risk alienating their core audience. The creators who are negotiating non-exclusive deals with creative control are, in effect, drawing a clear line in the sand: "You can invest in my world, but you don't get to run it."
The Talent Pipeline as a Two-Way Street: Legacy media is bringing in creator talent to produce new shows, but the smartest companies are also learning from them. These organizational shifts aren't just about new hires; they're about a forced education. Legacy executives are now learning how to think about content velocity, audience engagement, and community-building from the very creators they once dismissed. This is where the true transformation will happen—when the creative DNA of legacy media starts to absorb the nimble, audience-first mindset of the creator economy.
What the Power Shift Leaves Behind
This moment isn't just about who's winning. It's also about who's being forced to pivot, adapt, or risk becoming obsolete. The same forces that are creating opportunity for some are creating an existential crisis for others.
Who Needs to Adapt?
The truth is, the scaffolding that sustained legacy media for decades is shifting, and not everyone is equipped to move with it.
The Mid-Level Production Company: For years, a production company's value was in its ability to execute. They had the infrastructure, the connections, and the crews to make a show. But in a world where audience ownership drives deal terms, they’ve lost their leverage. Now, their clients—the networks and streamers—are going directly to the source: the creators. To stay relevant, these companies can’t just be vendors; they must become partners. They need to find ways to build a creator-forward pipeline, offering their operational expertise not just to a network, but to a creator who needs help scaling their vision beyond YouTube. Their pivot is from being a service provider to a co-founder.
The Traditional Showrunner: Once the ultimate authority—the single voice in the room. But in a world where audiences are built through direct, authentic connection, that authority is losing its grip. A showrunner with no social media presence, no direct audience, and no brand of their own is now at a disadvantage. Their value is purely in craft, which is still important, but no longer the sole determinant of success. To thrive, these showrunners must learn to think like creators. They need to build their own communities, not just their résumés, and leverage their expertise to help a creator turn a viral format into a long-running series. Their pivot is from being a gatekeeper to a collaborator.
The Old Guard of Hollywood Executives: These are the people who built their careers on a different set of rules. They saw the value in an actor, a director, or a writer, but didn’t yet see it in a person with a camera and a million followers. As their companies reorganize, they are the ones most at risk of being sidelined. They are the ones who will need to learn to speak the language of audience engagement, data analytics, and platform-specific formats—or be replaced by a new generation of executives who already do. There are amazing executives in these ranks whose talent can translate if they get fluent fast.
The message is clear: in this new era, your value is no longer just in what you can make, but in who you can reach.
Infrastructure Is the New IP
Legacy media was built to own the pipeline—development, distribution, monetization. That infrastructure, once an asset, has become a liability in the creator economy. Why? Because the creator economy is built on a different premise: an individual’s direct relationship with their audience is the most valuable asset in media today.
This isn’t a merger between two models. That would suggest a clean shuffle—like two decks of cards fanned together, even and orderly. But as we look at the last year of convergence, its not feeling like both sides are bringing the same force and value to shape the future.
The rise of non-exclusive deals is just the first crack in the system. Over the next 12–24 months, I believe legacy media will be forced to reimagine its role—not as an IP owner, but as a content accelerator or audience amplifier for creators who already have momentum. It’s not all or nothing. Premium legacy content will still have its place. But a lot is going to change in favor of the creator economy.
Deal-Making in a Creator-Led World
The Netflix-as-Financier Model: For creators, a Netflix or Peacock deal isn’t a finish line—it’s one more spoke in the wheel. They’re not handing over IP. They’re scaling production quality and expanding reach, while keeping the core audience and brand under their control. Legacy media becomes just another revenue stream—not the center of gravity.
The Rise of “IP-Lite” Content: Think Netflix's podcast strategy or YouTube-first formats: low-cost, high-volume content designed for retention, not ownership. Here, the value isn’t the show itself—it’s the creator’s brand and output velocity.
The Mid Level-Creator Strategy: Yes, everyone will chase the top 1% of creators—but the more interesting opportunity might just be the medium sized niche communities. Hundreds of mid-tier creators with loyal, specific audiences can drive as much engagement as a single superstar. It’s a farm system for IP, loyalty, and future franchises—and it’s cost-effective. India’s streaming strategies are already built around this logic (probably worth writing a stack just to illuminate this, was surprised when this research emerged).
The Infrastructure Race
This convergence is about more than deals and formats. It’s about who builds the infrastructure that supports the new creative economy.
AI as the Creator’s Back Office: The real power of generative AI isn’t infinite content—it’s infinite scale. The most valuable tools will be the ones that automate editing, subtitling, translation; repurpose long-form to short-form; and handle community management. That unlocks time for creators to focus on high-leverage work—brand, vision, storytelling. (Yes, its a paradox that AI will help them focus on the human-touch work that separates them from infinite AI content).
Talent Infrastructure 2.0: The big acquisitions—Wasserman, Skybound, etc.—aren’t about rosters. They’re about playbooks and platforms. The next wave of competition will be over brand deal execution, IP development, audience analytics, and legal, accounting, and business ops. Every piece that helps creators behave like companies.
The Discovery Layer: In a world of infinite content, discovery is the choke point. We’re seeing new battlegrounds emerge: community-driven platforms (Roblox’s IP tools), AI-powered recommendations, and context-based search, not just algorithmic feeds. Whoever owns this layer won’t just surface content—they’ll shape taste.
Whose Flywheel Wins?
The real battle ahead isn’t just about partnerships or content deals—it’s about which flywheel wins. Legacy media has long operated on a simple cycle: create and own IP, license it, generate returns, and reinvest in more IP.
The creator economy, by contrast, runs on a different engine: build an audience, monetize across multiple streams, reinvest in growth, and deepen the audience connection. The convergence between these two models isn’t a merger; it’s a stress test.
Can they spin together without one breaking the other? Early signs suggest creators don’t need legacy media to keep building. But legacy media may not survive unless it finds a way to plug into a creator’s momentum without trying to control it.
The companies that will matter in 2026 and beyond won’t be the ones that own the pipeline—they’ll be the ones that become part of the flywheel.
This was so good that I don’t even know what to say.
Hey Ben,
I’m trying to connect with you and 3pas studios about producing.