TOGETHER WITH

It’s Friday and YouTube is making sure the kids are alright. Its latest childcare strategy: the launch of a new “Family Center” where teenagers can get a little parental supervision.

Today’s News

SALES CALL

VidCon has (reportedly) been sold

The sale: VidCon appears to have a new owner. Paramount Global (which is in the middle of an $8 billion merger with Skydance) has reportedly sold the creator/fan convention to media and events company Informa after hiring the bank Oaklins DeSilva+Phillips to explore a sale earlier this year.

Although this purchase marks Informa’s first move into the creator economy, the publicly traded company already runs events like Toronto Comicon and Game Developers Conference through a division called “Fan Expo HQ.” It also boasts considerable resources, having turned over $3.19 billion in annual revenue last year. (Eagle-eyed industry pros may have seen Informa’s move into the creator space coming. The London-based company put a bid in to acquire Cannes Lions owner Ascential this past July, just after the festival embraced content creators with a dedicated programming track.)

The context: The combination of a dedicated events team and a (potential) infusion of cash could prove to be VidCon’s saving grace. The event—which was founded by Vlogbrothers Hank and John Green in 2010—has undergone little development since being acquired by Paramount in 2018. As a result, VidCon has seemingly struggled to maintain its dominant position as the go-to convention in the creator economy as competitors like VidSummit, Open Sauce, DreamCon, and TwitchCon have been gaining attention. The also ecently decided to call off its East Coast event, VidCon Baltimore, to “dedicate […] full efforts and resources to VidCon’s flagship event in Anaheim, scheduled for Summer 2025.”

Now, a person familiar with the matter told Business Insider they’re optimistic that VidCon’s sale to Informa could help the event reboot itself and restore flagging interest from attendees and creators alike.

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HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• YouTube has announced the upcoming launch of “synthetic-singing identification technology” designed to help creators find and remove deepfakes of their likeness. (Tubefilter)
  
  

• Telegram CEO Pavel Durov says he will make it his “personal goal” to ensure that abuse is properly moderated on the platform following his arrest in France. (The Verge)
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• The attorney general of New Mexico has filed a lawsuit against Snap that accuses Snapchat of fostering “child sexual exploitation.” (Engadget)
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• A Ninth Circuit court of appeals judge has granted X’s appeal to block a California law that would require social media platforms to submit annual reports on moderation decisions. (Ars Technica)

GREAT ADAPTATIONS

Who TF Did I Marry? is coming to TV. Will more TikTok adaptations follow?

The adaptation: Reesa Teesa’s Who TF Did I Marry? is getting the Hollywood treatment. Writer, producer, and Insecure actor Natasha Rothwell is helming a TV adaptation of the viral TikTok series, which unraveled the story of the creator’s manipulative ex-husband (nicknamed Legion) across more than 50 videos and racked up 400 million views within a single month.

Reesa Teesa (aka Tareasa Johnson) initially expressed her hope “to bring this story and personal experiences to an even bigger platform” when she signed with CAA in the weeks following Who TF Did I Marry?’s debut. As it turns out, the creator wasn’t the only one eager to bring her story to life. After what Variety described as a “competitive bidding war,” the adaptation got the green light from ABC Signature (which had previously signed an overall deal with Rothwell’s Big Hattie Productions).

The potential: Who TF Did I Marry? isn’t the first social media sensation—or even the first TikTok series—to inspire a TV adaptation. Reality TV satirist and TikToker Boman Martinez-Reid landed a self-referential series on the Canadian network Crave earlier this year, while a viral Twitter thread served as the inspiration for the 2020 movie Zola.

Despite that preexisting social media-to-TV pipeline, Who TF Did I Marry? has the potential to kick off a wave of TikTok adaptations—especially if Rothwell manages to reach the oft-overlooked demographic of older-than-Gen Z viewers who drove much of the series’ initial success. To pull that off, the producer will need to surmount one major obstacle: the growing consumer preference for free online content.

SWTICHING SIDES

Three years ago, major streamers ditched Twitch for YouTube. Now, most are going back.

The context: Three years ago, Twitch’s reputation was on the rocks. Concerns over the platform’s revenue split and its seemingly blasé treatment of creators had alienated many top streamers—and YouTube was there to pick up the pieces.

A wave of creators like DrLupo, Sykkuno, LilyPichu, and TimTheTatman began leaving Twitch to sign exclusive livestreaming deals with YouTube, some of which were reportedly so lucrative it would have made “absolutely no sense” to turn them down.

The present day: Now, however, those contracts are coming to an end…and pretty much everyone who signed them is returning to Twitch. It’s not hard to see why: in the last three years, Twitch has gotten a new CEO, revised its revenue split, and begun allowing streamers to broadcast concurrently across multiple platforms.

YouTube, on the other hand, has failed to meet the expectations of poached streamers like Ludwig. Last December, the Mogul Mail host gave the platform one year to correct issues like its lack of support for 12+ hour streams, its limited engagement/moderation tools and subscriber incentives, and its subpar chat system.

The question: Those cons have yet to be resolved—but are they enough to warrant a switch to Twitch? Despite its flaws, YouTube still generates far more live hours watched overall and is responsible for nearly all peak viewership livestream events, from OnePlus India‘s coverage of the latest Indian election (which peaked at 9.4 million concurrent viewers) to Apple‘s product announcements (3.7 million) (per Streams Charts).

Combined with YouTube’s growing share of the livestreaming market, those stats have encouraged streamers like DrLupo and TimTheTatman to multistream across both Twitch and YouTube following the end of their contracts—but not everyone is sure that’s the way to go:

WATCH THIS 📺

Michelle Khare’s latest challenge: Preventing airplane crashes

The job description: Michelle Khare’s Challenge Accepted series has become a YouTube classic over the last six years, with hundreds of millions of viewers tuning in to watch the Buzzfeed vet try out everything from FBI training to Olympic figure skating.

Now, Khare is taking on one of her highest-stakes challenges yet. The creator’s latest video introduces viewers to the world of air traffic control, where a casual mistake can lead to catastrophic consequences. Tune into the full episode here to see how Khare handles her turn in the hot seat.

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