TOGETHER WITH

It’s Wednesday and OpenAI is not-so-unexpectedly being sued. Its opponent: David Millette, a Massachusetts YouTuber seeking $5 million in damages for himself and other creators.

IT ALL ADS UP

YouTube doesn’t want to interrupt your live stream, but it also wants creators to make money

The announcement: YouTube’s latest ad offering is good news for streamers and fans alike.

The platform announced an experimental new format in an August 5 blog post, which revealed that “some viewers on select devices” will begin seeing picture-in-picture (aka PiP) ads on live streams “in the coming months.”

Industry context: That feature is available within the mid-roll ads YouTube introduced on live streams about a year ago.

As on Twitch, mid-rolls haven’t been particularly popular among YouTube creators and viewers—in large part because they contribute to an increasing number of ad breaks and sometimes interrupt crucial moments in gaming streams. PiP ads (which appear on-screen without fully obscuring live streamed content) offer a solution to that problem without affecting creators’ ability to earn revenue.

• The format also comes with the added bonus of consumer familiarity. TV viewers will already be used to seeing PiP ads displayed during sports games and action-packed programs like the 2024 Summer Olympics on Peacock.)

The bottom line: YouTube’s decision to roll out non-interruptive ads gives it a significant edge over Twitch, which recently lost 10% of its market share to competitors after lifting its ban on simulcasting. Given that YouTube livestreams are already siphoning traffic from Twitch, the Amazon-owned platform may want to debut its own version of PiP ads sooner rather than later.

🔆 SPONSORED 🔆

Viral Nation creators are gearing up for the school year—with Adobe history lessons, sponsored class stores, and more

These 3 creators spent the summer building thriving communities and brand campaigns with Viral Nation. Now, they’re going back to school in style:

🏖️ Stephanie Pena 🏖️
Our favorite #momsofTikTok star wrapped up summer vacay by taking a Kopari Beauty-sponsored trip to Puerto Vallarta with fellow creators like Lauren Wolfe and Sophia Cuerquis. But even on vacation mode, the Viral Nation creator is still winning back-to-school prep: thanks to a recent ALDI partnership, the super mom already has weekday meal planning covered.

🍎 Shelby Lattimore 🍎
You might remember Ms L as the teacher who went viral for charging her third graders rent. The TikTok star is still dedicated to sharing financial education tips online—and now, she’s partnered with Sam’s Club to offer teachers an exclusive membership deal and take her lessons to the next level: by opening a class store!

🌷Tulio Tulip Sasaya 🌷
After thousands of commenters blew up a collab video with his professor by joking about his nickname (Tulip), Sasaya kept the joke alive. In fact, you’ve probably already seen the Duke University student use Adobe Creative Cloud to create a sponsored presentation on the history of tulips.

Ready to meet the other 900+ creators on Viral Nation’s talent roster?

Visit the website to learn more →

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• GameSquare—a firm backed by the Dallas Cowboys—has announced NFL 4 The Fans Live, a creator-led roadshow that will tour the U.S. to generate gameday excitement. (Tubefilter)
  
  

• An antitrust lawsuit filed by X claims that dozens of major brands conspired to “collectively withhold billions of dollars in advertising revenue” through an illegal boycott. (The Verge)
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• Reddit plans to begin rolling out AI-powered search results before the end of 2024. (Engadget)
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• Disney says it will raise subscription prices across Disney Plus, Hulu, and ESPN starting October 17. (TechRadar)

HOT TICKET

Will Gen Z users buy movie tickets on Roblox? The platform is ready to find out.

The collaboration: Roblox is betting on its ability to turn in-game consumers into IRL moviegoers. The platform has teamed up with Warner Bros. and Fandango to sell tickets to the upcoming Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice film out of a branded virtual theater.

• Tickets went on sale yesterday, with screenings beginning September 6. Roblox users who make a purchase through the platform’s virtual theater will also gain access to exclusive in-game items.

The fine print: While Warner Bros. aims to tap into Roblox’s expansive Gen Z consumer base, the platform itself won’t be taking a cut of ticket sales. Instead, Vice President of Global Partnerships Stephanie Latham told Digiday that Roblox is “focused on testing purchase intent and conversion in a different consumer category—entertainment.”

• Essentially, Roblox aims to gather data on whether users who spend millions of Robux on virtual items (including in-game looks from previous brand partners Paris Hilton, Gucci, and Ralph Lauren) will pay up for IRL items like movie tickets.

• That information on real-world purchases is especially valuable given that most of Roblox’s previous deals have involved purely virtual destinations and items. (The exceptions to that rule are collabs with Walmart and e.l.f. Cosmetics, both of which launched digital ecommerce storefronts stocked with real items in April.)

The potential: If the data from Roblox’s Beetlejuice deal proves promising, the potential applications could mean major revenue boosts for both the platform and its future partners—a group that will no doubt expand dramatically if users prove willing to buy real-world items like food, clothing, movie tickets, and skincare products.

DATA • U.S. TOP 50 📈

NBC Sports is the big winner of the 2024 Olympics

The context: Regular season game highlights might be a hot commodity on YouTube, but Olympics content is the golden goose for sports channels. Every four years, YouTube hubs associated with the renowned event series see rapid growth.

2024 is no exception. Thanks to the buzz surrounding the Paris Olympics, the official YouTube channel of NBC Sports (aka the broadcaster behind Peacock) has enjoyed a significant surge in traffic. That boom has a lot to do with the Olympics’ varied viewership. Unlike other major athletic events, the Olympics doesn’t just draw in sports enthusiasts—it also appeals to fans eager to see their favorite celebrities perform at ceremonies, attend events, and offer commentary.

The stats: Content centered around stars like Celine Dion, Snoop Dogg, and Martha Stuart have already reeled in big numbers for NBC Sports. In fact, a video of Beyonce‘s introduction of the U.S. team has already proven to be the channel’s top video from the 2024 Paris Olympics, with a total of 9 million on-demand views:

• Timely clips like this one contributed to a major rise in NBC Sports’ viewership during the first partial week of August. The channel’s seven-day YouTube traffic topped out at 214.8 million weekly views—a sum that put it at #15 in the U.S. Top 50.

Check out our full article here to discover the rest of this week’s U.S. Top 50—or head over to Gospel Stats for data on thousands of channels, brands, and rising creators.

WATCH THIS 📺

Firms are teaming up with Latino influencers to keep U.S. voters in the know

The mission: Priorities USA and Somos Votantes are joining forces to keep Latino YouTube viewers informed ahead of the 2024 presidential election. As part of that campaign, the two firms have recruited four influencers to help them reach the 36.2 million U.S. Latinos who will be eligible to vote in November.

One of those creators, Colombian-born YouTuber Daniella Legarda, encouraged voters to show their support for abortion rights while whipping up her recipe for patacones. Check out the full sponsored clip here.

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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen. Drew Baldwin helped edit, too. It's a team effort