It's Friday and Gen Z might just be the key to bringing cinema back to life—at least, when it comes to obscure indie films.

Today’s News

THE BIZ

Fox’s Tubi is bringing a TikTok vet aboard

The context: After amassing an audience of over 100 million monthly active users, the Fox Corporation’s free, ad-supported television streaming hub has set its sights on the creator world. Tubi’s early dealings in that area included a Khaby Lame travel series and an Issa Rae-affiliated talent incubator called Stubio. Then, earlier this year, it furthered that influencer push by announcing a new Tubi for Creators hub with hundreds of episodes of serialized content from YouTube and TikTok standouts.

Now, Tubi is once again doubling down by appointing an experienced executive to help complete its evolution into a haven for creators. Kudzi Chikumbu, who spent more than eight years at TikTok and its predecessors, has signed on as the hub’s VP of Creator Partnerships.

The new hire: Chikumbu’s first role in the creator economy was an entertainment partnerships position at Musical.ly. Following the lip-syncing app’s acquisition by Bytedance and eventual merge with TikTok, the exec rose up the ranks at TikTok, eventually becoming its Global Head of Creator Marketing.

According to Chikumbu’s LinkedIn page, he started his new role at Tubi this month—a timeframe that coincides with the next phase of the streamer’s creator hub rollout. A fresh slate of deals is bringing content from the likes of MrBeast, Jomboy Media, CelinaSpookyBoo, Steven He, and Alan’s Universe to Tubi. Chikumbu will guide Tubi as it looks to add even more YouTube and TikTok fare to its free-to-watch library.

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HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• The official Google India YouTube channel was hacked by crypto scammers earlier this week, intensifying creators’ fears over the security of their personal information. (Tubefilter)
  
  

• The Supreme Court has declined to block a Mississippi law that would require social media platforms to verify the age of users upon sign-up and obtain parental consent for accounts created by underage users. (The Verge)
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• Meta says it has removed concerning passages from an internal policy document that deemed “sensual” conversations with children and racist arguments as “acceptable” behavior for chatbots. (Engadget)
  
  

• Bluesky is giving users more control and clarity over complaints by adding an “agreement” to its policies that the platform “will talk on the phone before proceeding to any formal dispute process.” (TechCrunch)

STAR POWER

Taylor Swift’s first podcast appearance broke the internet

The reveal: Just after midnight on Tuesday morning, Taylor Swift shared the title of her upcoming 12th studio album: The Life of a Showgirl. That bombshell was part of a two-pronged announcement, during which Swift also revealed that she would appear on New Heights, the podcast hosted by her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce, and his brother/fellow NFL vet Jason Kelce.

The episode: At 7 PM ET on August 13, the Swift-Kelce collab launched its premiere stream on YouTube to massive fanfare. Within 24 hours of upload, the episode had collected 11 million aggregate YouTube views. Its peak audience of 1.2 million concurrents beat out iShowSpeed’s viewership from his record-setting stream in Indonesia.

Swift’s appearance proved so popular that it even broke YouTube, just as Caitlin Clark predicted. The stream cut to black 15 minutes before its conclusion, causing many viewers to miss the rapid-fire Q&A segment that concluded the interview.

Other curiosities from the episode included its lack of ads (the Kelces typically read multiple spots in each installment of New Heights from a laundry list of brands that includes American Express, DraftKings, Perplexity, and a lot more) and its revelations regarding Swift’s recent move to reclaim her master recordings. Those insights should help tide fans over until October, when The Life of a Showgirl—which Swift produced alongside the Swedish pop maestros Max Martin and Shellback—is set to drop.

CREATOR COMMOTION

What happens when creators don’t pay for Guinness World Records?

The question: Guinness World Records has awarded titles to numerous YouTubers, from MrBeast (for operating the world’s most-subscribed-to YouTube channel) to JackSucksAtLife (for running the most channels with over 100,000 subscribers) and Airrack (for making the world’s largest pizza and for visiting the most fast food restaurants in 24 hours).

But in case you didn’t know, the Guinness record process isn’t quite as simple as it seems. While anyone can submit a potential record for free, if you want your record verified fast, certain press opportunities, and/or other bespoke support and consultancy services, then you have to pay anything from $12K to several hundreds of thousands of dollars.

So, what happens when creators don’t want to pay those fees?

The answer: That’s the question Canadian pro wrestler Evil Uno, his org Mystery Wrestling, and Ottawa-based C4 Wrestling had to face when they set out to raise money for charity by holding the world’s longest wrestling match.

Sixteen wrestlers competed in a livestreamed match that lasted 21 hours, 49 minutes, and 12 seconds, before former All Elite Wrestling pro Stu Grayson was declared winner. Per Dexerto, the event’s Twitch stream attracted over 400,000 unique viewers, peaked at over 15,000 concurrent viewers, and raised $27,000 for the Canadian Cancer Society in the process. Evil Uno hosted alongside expert guest commentators like Nyla Rose, Mike Bailey, Colt Cabana, and Adam Cole.

That match very narrowly beat Guinness’ current world record of 21 hours, 44 minutes, and 34 seconds, which was set in 2021 by Japan’s Ehime Pro Wrestling. But if Mystery Wrestling and C4 wanted their record recognized in real-time, Evil Uno says they would’ve had to pay $16,000.

That being said, the organizers’ successful attempt can still be recognized—they’ll just have to wait through the standard application review process, which Guinness says currently takes a max of 20 weeks.

WATCH THIS

K-Pop Demon Hunters just got the “Honest Trailers” treatment

The Honest Trailer: Screen Junkies has officially come for Netflix’s latest animated hit. Earlier this week, the YouTube channel treated its 6.8 million subscribers to an “honest” rendition of the trailer for K-Pop Demon Hunters, a Sony Pictures Animation film that has produced both stunning viewership ratings and a Billboard chart-topping soundtrack.

Screen Junkies’ take on that teaser included its usual array of character nicknames (e.g. “Demon Lovato” and “Celine Demon”) while drawing some convincing parallels between the movie’s main character, Rumi, and Elsa from Disney’s Frozen. Check out the whole satirical trailer here for more easter eggs.

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