TOGETHER WITH

It’s Thursday and Alphabet is bringing in the big bucks. For the first time ever, Google’s parent company has topped $400 billion in annual revenue.

GAME ON

The big game: TikTok has something big planned for the Super Bowl. The short-form video platform is teaming up with Bleacher Report to present the B/Rcade, an activation that will be part of Radio Row (aka the locus of pregame activity that brings media companies into the Super Bowl hype machine). According to The Hollywood Reporter, the B/Rcade will be a “video-centric” experience filled with arcade games, podcast recording equipment, and a set for shooting TikToks.

Top creators will be on the guest list alongside football players like Micah Parsons, AJ Brown, Myles Garrett, CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens, and Bryce Young. Both the participating TikTokers and official Bleacher Report channels will share footage from the B/Rcade.

The context: That might sound like pretty standard fare for a branded activation, but the B/Rcade actually represents a significant shift in TikTok’s Super Bowl strategy. In previous years, the app sponsored tailgate concerts that highlighted both its ad products and its status as a pop culture tastemaker. Last year, however, YouTube supplanted TikTok as the tailgate concert’s sponsor, pushing the platform to take a different approach.

These days, TikTok is positioning its ads as must-buys for brands that want to be at the center of big cultural moments. The platform has given advertisers a calendar full of culturally-significant dates while also predicting that flash-in-the-pan trends—aka the “Irreplaceable Instinct,” as TikTok puts it—will be a defining topic of 2026.

The equation "more hours = more views" eventually breaks. Every growth-focused creator hits a ceiling where working harder doesn't move the needle, it just burns you out.

To restart your growth curve, you don't need more stamina. You need leverage.

Made allows you to decouple your success from your timesheet.

Made is an always-on engine that runs parallel to your creative process, handling the execution so you can focus on the vision.

Here’s how your new high-leverage workflow operates:

Stop grinding for inches. Start leveraging Made for miles.

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

SCHOOL’S IN SESSION

The nonprofit: Hank and John Green are transforming Complexly—aka the production company that encompasses several of their educational hubs—into a nonprofit. By reducing external pressure from shareholders, the duo long known as the Vlogbrothers are hoping that popular Complexly channels like study aid Crash Course and STEM-oriented SciShow can stay afloat in a social media landscape driven by algorithmic decisions.

In a video on the Vlogbrothers YouTube channel, Hank Green explained why Complexly has a new 501c3 status (and a new .org URL to go along with it). He noted that the company has received multiple acquisition offers, but that he and his brother wanted to ensure that their scholarly channels remained “open to every teacher, student, parent, and learner with an internet connection fast enough to stream video.”

The context: The Green brothers understand the complex ins-and-outs of creator funding as well as anyone. Their company Subbable (which was eventually acquired by Patreon) was an early form of the fan funding model, and ventures like the Internet Creators Guild and annual Project 4 Awesome fundraisers gave John and Hank firsthand nonprofit experience.

Now, the brothers will give up their personal equity in Complexly, with John becoming the company’s “founder emeritus” and Hank sitting on the Board of Directors (and also hosting some educational shows).

In those new roles, the Greens will look to build Complexly into an even bigger operation. According to The Washington Post, the production company has already set aside $8.5 million for new content initiatives.

PLATFORM RIVALRY

The deal: In 2020, Spotify paid a reported $250 million to acquire The Ringer, a sports and pop culture podcast network founded by Bill Simmons (who went on to become Spotify’s current Head of Talk Strategy).

Then, last October, Spotify announced a deal that would bring some of The Ringer’s video podcasts—including The Bill Simmons Podcast, The Zach Lowe Show, The McShay Show, The Rewatchables, and Conspiracy Theories—to Netflix. Shows included in that deal will continue to air in full and in video on Spotify as well as on Netflix (where they began airing last month).  

They won’t, however, be airing on YouTube.

The comments: Netflix, Spotify, and The Ringer’s agreement mandates that shows airing on Netflix will not air on YouTube—and Simmons had made it clear that he doesn’t want those podcasts on YouTube anyway:

Those remarks echo comments Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos has made in the past about YouTube being just a place to “kill time” as opposed to a real home of premium content.

Netflix’s tune, however, has changed over the past few months. It defended its pending acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery by noting that YouTube would still have more watch time than all the streaming services it planned to buy, combined. Then, during a recent earnings call, Sarandos said YouTube is setting the standard for modern television.

YouTube is also competing with Netflix and Spotify for video podcasts (and winning). This time last year, YouTube had over 1 billion viewers tuning into at least one video podcast per month. Spotify, meanwhile, said that over 390 million users had streamed a video podcast on its service as of Q3 2025.

WATCH THIS 👀

The YouTube approach: TV news programs will need to evolve quickly if they hope to keep up with internet-based competitors—and KSHB Kansas City is taking that mission seriously. The NBC affiliate (which is owned by the E.W. Scripps Company) has started making news clips that turn its reporters into YouTube creators.

A quick look at KSHB’s YouTube channel reveals several of those social media-style videos. Reporter Elyse Schoenig recently did her best lifeofcian impression with a segment shot in her car, while her colleague, Charlie Keegan, channeled Tom Scott with his on-the-spot reporting.

Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe here.​

Want to introduce your brand to Tubefilter’s audience? Sponsor the newsletter.

Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Drew Baldwin, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen.