TOGETHER WITH

It’s Monday and David Baszucki has good news for creators. The Roblox CEO revealed Friday that makers of in-game “experiences” will keep 50-70% of revenue from titles purchased on desktop with IRL money.

🗞️ Today’s News 🗞️

• Twitch gives streamers more control over ads

• The U.S. TikTok ban is losing public support

• Dr. Seuss Enterprises launches an “always on” YouTube hub

• Icon wants to create a LOT of AI ads (with creators’ consent)

• This week on the podcast…

MAKING AD-JUSTMENTS

Twitch is giving streamers more control over the number and type of ads they run

The announcement: A new Twitch update aims to address one of the biggest pain points affecting creators and viewers. The platform has announced the launch of a new “ad density slider” that will help streamers “understand exactly how many ad minutes you’ll be running, what revenue share you’ll be unlocking, and if your choice disables pre-roll ads for incoming viewers” (per Ngoc To, Twitch’s Principle Product Manager, Ads).

Thanks to that slider, partner streamers will now see monthly revenue estimates based on how much ad time they select and their past ad-running activity (something previously visible only through Twitch’s Ads Incentive Program).

The context: Pre-roll ads have been a consistent source of frustration for Twitch viewers and creators alike. Even CEO Dan Clancy has admitted that the format hinders audience growth, since viewers are immediately slapped with ads the second they join a stream—a major disincentive for those who may be tuning into a small creators’ channel for the first time.

Clancy has made a concerted effort to address creators’ top concerns since taking over the role of CEO in March 2023. In addition to introducing an ad slider, Twitch has updated its Ad Manager over the past year by launching experimental features like a chat countdown timer (which shows live chatters when an ad is about to run) and Auto Snooze (which automatically pauses mid-roll ads if a high-octane moment is happening).

Up next: Those features are just the beginning. In a blog post, To noted that Twitch aims “to provide even more relevant insights to help you make more informed decisions on running ads, such as the seasonality of the ads industry and ad running behavior of streamers similar to you.”

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HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• Dr. Seuss Enterprises is joining forces with Little Dot Studios to transform the author’s official YouTube channel into an “always on” content hub. (Tubefilter)
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• Instagram is introducing timely new chat themes, including one designed to promote Sabrina Carpenter’s Short ‘n Sweet album. (The Verge)

• “Thousands” of people have reportedly tested out a viral TikTok hack that encourages viewers to fraudulently withdraw cash from Chase Bank ATMs by depositing bad checks. (Gizmodo)
  
  

• YouTube has de-platformed five right-wing channels—including one belonging to Tenet Media—in an effort to “combat coordinated influence operations.” (Engadget)

SURVEY SAYS

The U.S. TikTok ban has lost one-third of its public support since March 2023

The stats: The Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversaries Act (PAFFAA) might have the approval of Congress and President Biden, but it seems to be losing favor among the American public.

The act—which will force ByteDance to either divest TikTok‘s American operations or remove the app from the U.S.—was supported by 50% of U.S.-based respondents in March 2023. By fall 2023 (when the bill was in the process of being revised), that number had dropped to 38%. Now, data from Pew Research Center shows that only 32% of Americans support a potential TikTok ban.

The context: So, what happened? For one: Donald Trump switched things up. The man who once tried to ban TikTok is now one of its staunchest defenders—a flip-flop that has likely helped the platform’s image among conservatives. Over the past 18 months, support for a TikTok ban among Republican respondents went down by 18 percentage points.

Conservatives aren’t the only group losing faith in PAFFAA. Support for a U.S. TikTok ban has dropped on both sides of the political aisle (a change that may be reflective of its increasing use by candidates like Vice President Kamala Harris, who publicly supports a divestiture despite Bytedance’s vow not to move forward with a sale). That shift goes beyond politics: 42% of people who don’t use TikTok called for a ban in the latest Pew report, as compared to 60% last March.

What’s next: The public’s changing perspective on a nationwide ban could be a major asset for TikTok as it prepares for the upcoming legal battle that will decide PAFFAA’s fate. Positive PR could prove valuable as preliminary court actions—including an attempt to expand access to classified evidence regarding TikTok’s data practices—begin to take place.

AI REVOLUTION

Icon wants to create deepfaked ads for brands—as long as creators are on board

The pitch: Deepfaked content might have a bad rap in the creator community (and for good reason), but one AI company aims to turn deepfakes into a time-saving resource for both brands and creators.

Icon—which is led by Skio founder Kennan Davison—pairs a brand with a creator, and asks the creator to film one video of themself with the featured product. Icon can then use that video as a foundation to create dozens of other advertising spots featuring the product and the creator saying whatever the brand wants (within reason - according to Icon, videos must be approved by creators before being deployed).

Icon says it charges brands a “$500-$50K/month partnership fee per creator.” That fee is “paid to creator, includes 10 approved videos per month, matchmaking, talent management, AI model processing, licensing, legal, whitelisting, onboarding, support & more.” Icon then charges creators a 10% cut of that partnership fee.

Pros and cons: There are clear upsides to that business model. Creators can make up to $50K a month without having to film multiple videos, while brands are given the opportunity to A/B test a massive amount of ads. The potential cons of Icon’s process, however, are likely to raise red flags among some creators. In a normal partnership, a creator would be paid much more to appear in 20 videos than they would to appear in one. With Icon, however, creators physically make only one video, but lend their image, name, and likeness to multiple AI-generated versions.

We’ll stay tuned to see how those potential pros and cons play out—and in the meantime, viewers can check out Icon’s demo video, which features a consensual deepfaked version of chess champ Alexandra Botez touting the benefits of Bloom Nutrition.

LISTEN UP 🎙️

This week on the podcast…

VidSummit 2024 Review: VidSummit is a wrap and that means it’s time for Creator Upload’s official review of the creator biz event. Tune into this week’s episode to find out all about 2024’s Texas-based conference—and stick around to get the inside scoop on Spotter’s new AI-driven “brainstorm partner,” Spotter Studio.

It’s all right here on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Introduce your brand to Tubefilter’s audience of creator economy pros.

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