TOGETHER WITH

It’s Friday and Peacock has turned a profit for the first time. Who knew Love Island and the World Cup would prove to be such a killer combo?

MONEY MOVES

The context: The uneven finances of creators have long driven a wedge between digital entrepreneurs and traditional financial institutions. In recent years, however, banks have begun to recognize the power of the creator economy—and, as a result, they’ve started developing tools tailored specifically to social media professionals.

The most prominent example of that trend is Visa, which has partnered with creator-facing financial firm Karat, classified creators as small businesses, and unveiled a “creator card” in the U.K. American Express has also collaborated with influencers like Keith Lee—and now, MasterCard is banking on creators, too.

The debit card: In partnership with Manifest Financial, the Fortune 500 firm has unveiled the Manifest Business Debit Mastercard, a product designed for professional creators.

Manifest—a banking company that caters to individual entrepreneurs—is offering the new debit card through its platform, but cardholders will also have access to MasterCard perks like seamless cross-border transactions and the small business loyalty program MasterCard Easy Savings. The physical card is issued by FDIC-insured institution MVB Bank and linked to a Manifest business account.

Creators who sign up for the Manifest Business Debit Mastercard will be able to accept payments, speed up transactions, send invoices, and prepare for tax season all from one central hub.

All in all, the new card is a win-win, since it brings more legitimacy to the creator economy while also allowing a legacy credit card company to grab a bigger share of that pie.

The numbers: "The Normal MFer” kicked off with a bang.

The animated teen YouTube series—which was created by CC0 Studios, Lawl (aka Joe McNaney), Alex Orrelle (“Space Jam: A New Legacy”), and Academy Award winner The Hive Studio—achieved massive growth across its first 10 episodes, including…

The strategy: To pull off that meteoric rise, CC0 and The Hive Studio partnered with Chronicle Media.

The AI audience simulation platform deployed its autonomous social growth technology to drive new viewers to “The Normal MFer” YouTube channel, increase engagement, and accelerate audience growth over a three-month period.

As part of that strategy, Chronicle identified underserved audience segments, including 13 to 34-year-old male viewers of animation channels like Adult Swim and Rick & Morty.

The result: "The Normal MFer" saw its organic reach, audience, and watch time multiply across a variety of devices, particularly connected TVs.

The platform: Chronicle Media automates audience growth and conversion for top global content creators, brands, studios and network partners.

Visit the website to find out how Chronicle can automate your brand journey:

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

POD PEOPLE

The rebrand: Nearly a decade after its initial launch, the podcast company formerly known as The Roost is getting a rebrand. Under the name Podium, the expanded network will pursue a multimedia strategy while continuing to work with top creators across YouTube, Spotify, and other audio platforms.

The Roost was originally part of Rooster Teeth, the gaming and entertainment company behind shows like Red Vs. Blue.

Rooster Teeth went belly up in 2024, and talent management company Night picked up The Roost shortly after. The network’s roster includes shows from creators like Sam & Colby and Ludwig, but the best-known podcast under the Podium umbrella is Theo Von‘s This Past Weekend.

Von’s show consistently ranks near the top of the Spotify charts, and his conversations with figures like Donald Trump played a pivotal role during the 2024 “influencer election.”

The plan: Taken together, Podium’s shows generate 50 million video and audio impressions per month while reaching 66 million followers across social media.

Now, those numbers are about to rise even higher—because Trisha Paytas is coming aboard. The veteran vlogger and musical theatre aficionado has received more than 180 million YouTube views on her podcast Just Trish, making her a powerful partner for Podium.

With top talent like Paytas in tow, Podium plans to transcend the “podcast network” label through video infrastructure and live programming.

MICRODRAMA MOMENT

The app: TikTok is ready to find out how much money it can drum up with microdramas. According to Business Insider, the video platform has been testing a microdrama app called LimeShorts in the U.S. since March.

The platform—which seeks to bring more monetization into the microdrama market—seems to have replaced Mytopia, a Bytedance app that launched in 2021 as a home for web novels, in the App Store.

LimeShorts reportedly allows users to watch a few episodes of a vertical series for free, but requires payment for access to a full season. Subscriptions (which cost $20 per week or $200 per year) unlock the app’s entire library, while in-app currency can be used to purchase individual episodes.

The context: LimeShorts isn’t the only ByteDance-affiliated app centered around microdramas. PineDrama already offers ad-free access to the genre, and TikTok itself has built a microdrama library by working with notable showrunners like Issa Rae.

Those platforms have been developed in response to increasing demand for microdramas, and it’s in TikTok’s best interest to keep the short-form soaps coming—but if the genre is going to stick around, it needs to make money. That’s why TikTok has made it easy for brands to produce and distribute short-form vertical series, and why it’s now experimenting with LimeShorts.

The app’s subscription-based model has the potential to turn microdramas into a stable revenue stream for their creators, but it could look a lot different once it emerges out of testing. Sources told Business Insider that TikTok is experimenting with various pricing models for LimeShorts, so the new app’s economics are still up in the air.

WATCH THIS 👀

The finance boom: YouTube has a rich population of financial experts uploading content, from Financial Audit creator Caleb Hammer to scam-buster Coffeezilla to radio host Dave Ramsey. Now, new data from Precisify shows just how many people turn to those money-savvy creators for financial advice.

According to the analytics company’s Precisify Insights: Finance 2026 report, almost one-third of U.S. adults watch finance-related content on YouTube every single day. Another 26% say they watch finance content two to three times a week, and 16% say they watch once a week.

Check out Hammer’s latest Financial Audit Short here to join the club.

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