YouTube is offering some of its largest creators multi-million-dollar packages to keep their work off Netflix, according to reporting first published by Bloomberg. Several agreements are said to be close, and none have been signed.
The offers reportedly take three forms: direct financing for a creator’s shows, a share of the platform-wide brand deals YouTube negotiates with advertisers, and upfront cash. In exchange, YouTube wants windows in which the work stays on YouTube alone.
That is a departure for a company whose creator relationship has, for two decades, been an ad revenue split and very little else. Individually negotiated show funding is closer to how a studio commissions than how a platform pays out, and it puts YouTube in the position of picking which channels get capital.
The reported downside is the part that has drawn attention. Creators who take Netflix money alongside a YouTube deal are said to risk losing access to YouTube’s marketing pushes, its major events, and a cut of those platform brand campaigns, which are the promotional levers that do not show up on any invoice.
Neither company has commented publicly on the terms, and the accounts rest on people familiar with the negotiations rather than documents. What YouTube has not reportedly asked for is total exclusivity, only a period of it.
