TOGETHER WITH

It’s Thursday and Spotify’s music industry payouts are adding up. In 2025, the streaming platform says it paid out over $11 billion in royalties.

GAME ON

The big game: Super Bowl LX won’t just feature rising NFL stars like Drake Maye and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Ahead of the big game, YouTube‘s annual celebrity flag football game will also bring creators, sports stars, and musicians to the field.

Instagram Live standout Druski will serve as one of the team captains, while J. Balvin—the reggaeton hitmaker who was part of the Super Bowl halftime show in 2020—will lead the opposition.

Other participants in the game will include creators like Deestroying and Jesser, musicians like Benson Boone and Kane Brown, flag football stars Diana Flores and Ashlea Klam, and NFL legends Cam Newton and Michael Vick.

That lineup packs a star-powered punch, but the two teams will have to put on quite the show to top last year’s game. That matchup drew six million live views on the official NFL YouTube channel thanks to the pull of streamers like Kai Cenat and iShowSpeed.

The context: YouTube’s 2026 game isn’t just about demonstrating how influential its creators can be in the sports world (although simulcasts on the channels of participants Deestroying, Jesser, and Pierson Wodzynski will help prove that point). The face-off will also give the platform another chance to show off its football broadcasting chops. Since acquiring the rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket package, YouTube has been eager to prove that it’s ready to build a bigger presence in the NFL world.

That’s why, at the onset of the current NFL season, YouTube hosted its first exclusive stream of a regular-season game. Now, some of the personalities who participated in that broadcast—like Deestroying and Newton—will return to the field for the upcoming flag football game.

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HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

FESTIVAL CIRCUIT

The festival: Roblox’s creator payouts passed the $1 billion mark in 2025, and its community is so plugged-in that the platform has become a must-buy for many advertisers.

Now, Twitch is tapping into that hype by presenting three weeks of “nonstop Roblox activations.” Between February 5 and February 27, the Amazon-owned streaming hub will host Bloxfest, a competitive event featuring a star-studded lineup of Roblox creators and a $300,000 prize pool.

During the festival, Roblox players will be able to claim in-game rewards, special badges, and an exclusive “RobloxCheer” emote for Twitch chat. For streamers, Bloxfest will serve as the next chapter in the Twitch Rivals series, which pits creators against one another in popular games like Fortnite. To translate that model to the Roblox world, Twitch will conclude Bloxfest with a “Grand Finale” contested by teams led by all-star captains.

The process: To qualify for that two-day gauntlet, streamers must rack up “points” during the initial phase of Bloxfest by streaming daily and completing special challenges.

Participants who make it to the grand finale will get the chance to collaborate with some of the biggest names in Roblox content, including NicoBlox, IBella, iBugou, ElAbrahaham, robinhoodgamer, CherryAhrizona, KreekCraft, and Lanaraee. Those eight captains will assemble squads from among 64 qualifiers.

Streamers will be able to accumulate points between February 5 and February 23, with the grand finale beginning on February 26—but before any of that happens, interested creators must check their eligibility for the event.

Applications are open until February 2 via this link.

MICRODRAMA MANIA

The deal: Last fall, Fox Entertainment invested an undisclosed amount of cash to take an equity stake in Ukraine-based tech firm Holywater. At the same time, the media giant agreed to create and produce an “ongoing” slate of over 200 minidrama titles for debut on the firm’s minidrama app, My Drama.

Now, Dhar Mann’s production company is getting in on the action. Dhar Mann Studios has sealed a multiyear deal with Fox that will see it produce 40 “narrative-driven” vertical titles for My Drama.

That content will have an exclusivity window on both My Drama and distribution platforms owned by Fox Entertainment Global. It’s not clear yet whether the shows will later come to platforms like YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram, where Dhar Mann collectively claims over 160 million followers—but Variety did report that the creator’s agreement with Fox gives him “ownership and creative independence over his original content.”

The 40-program slate will be led by Dhar Mann Studios’ recently-appointed Head of Vertical Content Erin McFarlane. Per Variety, McFarlane is an experienced producer, showrunner, and development executive who previously led programming development/production for vertical video platform SaltyTV.

The context: This may be Dhar Mann’s first formal deal in the vertical space, but the creator has already collected billions of views by posting hundreds of short-form clips across platforms like TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels.

Anyone familiar with Dhar Mann’s didactic social content will likely see this deal as an obvious move. His main fare arguably fits into the macrodrama category, with videos like “JEALOUS TWIN Destroys Her Sister’s Looks” and “Billionaire Family Jet STRANDED ON CHRISTMAS” drawing over 200 million monthly views on YouTube.

Just like in minidramas, plots in Dhar Mann videos are fast-paced, with exaggerated scenarios and cliffhangers designed to keep viewers watching—and that addictive quality is exactly what Fox hopes to capitalize on.

WATCH THIS 👀

The free solo climb: Over the weekend, Netflix built upon its portfolio of live sporting events with an ambitious production that had 6.2 million viewers holding their breath for a little over an hour and a half.

That special, called Skyscraper Live, followed pro climber Alex Honnold as he scaled a 101-story, 1,667-foot skyscraper (aka Taipei 101)—while wearing zero safety equipment. According to Variety, that feat represents “the highest free solo climb of an urban structure in history.”

So, how much does someone get paid to risk their life during a Netflix livestream? According to Honnold, the answer is “an embarrassingly small amount” in the mid-six figures.

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