reality shows, youtube, and the writer's strike

[@letstalkaboutstuff]

i wrote a followup to this video on cohost after doing some research into curiosity stream and nebula's vague connections to the discovery channel: cohost.org/sarahzedig/post/1457232-oh-hey-it-s-already

[@Jay32954]

"set of gambling addictions in a trench coat we call the economy" loved that line.

[@letstalkaboutstuff]

i was pretty satisfied with that one myself u_u

[@Roughling]

"so like nebula but evil?" - my gf on your corporate youtube clone idea

[@letstalkaboutstuff]

yeah pretty much!

[@steampunkerella]

good video. end capitalism now

[@shadokwastaken]

very enlightening on the whole situation, thank you!

[@thegeekclub8810]

It all comes down to how they can make as much money as possible. Art will die in this environment if we don’t fight the fundamental corporate motive that is destroying it. Great analysis as always!

[@loravura4782]

i hate how real and possible this feels, especially as kids grow up on this platform (as unfortunately i did) and have those expectations about ads and product placement and free content. and also yes i literally dont know how to find things on tv lol

[@katestahla]

I worry you're right. The last writer's strike is what got us "Dr. Horrible." And I think this pattern has already happened with "The Guild."

[@tayo_95]

Netflix will invest in a language module or build their own to write their shows if they get desperate enough

[@Leftistattheparty]

I think if Nebula has comments, I would be more likely to stay. Discussions in the comments are part of my love for video essays on KZbin.

[@RiaRosella]

Sup Sarah ❤ we are amazing and glad to see this

[@HOOTwheelz]

it's hard for me to feel much of... anything. corporations have a constant inclination, a pure passion as pure as it can ever be to make money at all costs. i want so badly for the strike to go well, but something tells me with the absolute desperation to make not just Some Money but All The Money these corporations have, and with no government oversight at all, corporations are just gonna get their way in the end. maybe i've been driven to extreme cynicism by our increasingly depressing State Of Things, but... i dont know. i want to wistfully believe we can win out against these greedy pigs, but i just... i just don't see it happening. everything you theorize about here doesn't sound like a hypothesis, it sounds like you stole their entire game plan. i dunno. shit's gonna get worse before it gets better, but like, can we get to the "better" part already? i feel like things have just been getting worse and worse, with no sign of greener pastures on the other end of it.

[@letstalkaboutstuff]

the crisis always looks eternal right up until the moment everything changes. that's why we talk about these things now, speculate and name priorities. monopolies have been broken up before, the entertainment industry has been regulated before, everything we want is absolutely possible. i reflect often on the fact that ten years before the new deal, national politicians were solidly in the pockets of big business and sent the military to break up strikes and protests (including of former military veterans miffed that the government refused to pay them the bonus they were promised when they signed up to fight in world war one!!). what feels impossible only feels that way because rich bastards have paid a loooooooooooooot of money to convince us that's the case. that immense expenditure can only be worthwhile to them if they know for a fact that it's an easily shattered lie. this moment now is the strongest the left has been in our lifetime, and it is the weakest it will be for as long as we live. sooner or later, we WILL win

[@hanklin2642]

Algorithm buried this, commenting to boost.

[@TulipQ]

11:45 peak TV is going to be **so** behind us.

[@letstalkaboutstuff]

we can only hope

[@JRCT3E]

hollywood + streamers trying to poach youtubers is probably gonna happen, but its also probably not gonna be as straightforward as ''mr beast now a peacock exclusive!'' or him getting his own show. i remember youtube trying to make exclusive, tv-esque shows with youtubers via youtube red and... it was not a success, because everybody was put off by how the participating youtubers lost their original vibe in those shows. plus, i think a lot of youtubers will find it too risky to completely jump ship to another platform because there is no guarantee their audience will follow (like you said with nebula, people do get nebula subs through youtubers but won't exclusively watch their stuff on nebula) maybe we'll see the return of the old CDN-model, where hollywood will support youtubers but only behind the curtains, the way we've seen big publications (WIRED, Bon Appetit, etc) pivoting to youtube.

[@letstalkaboutstuff]

i think you're right that whatever form it takes it won't really look like what we're used to in the streaming space

[@JRCT3E]

@@letstalkaboutstuff coincidentally i've been listening to the nebula + dropout ceos interview and they both mention that hollywood/media companies have already been trying to buy online content/youtubers in order to license their content, so i think you're right on the money. the only difference is these companies don't seem to buy creators to get them on a payroll and make content for them, but to merely add their content to a backlog

[@letstalkaboutstuff]

@@JRCT3E i just tracked down that podcast and holy shit thank you so much for pointing me in that direction, very insightful interview

[@YourHumanSarcasm]

They should just bring back 3D movies

[@Moonsong227]

Much as this sounds very possible, I don't know how long it would last seeing as tv execs can never nail the worldview or way of communicating that people who watch internet gamers and reviewers and such have. Plus execs would want that dialect toned down and made more generic daytime TV eventually to draw in the lowest common denominator of audiences rather than the original audience that made the successful KZbin thing what it was. Basically they'll try to be modern marvel about it I think. And I don't think that would go well, or at least not the way they would want. And everyone they'd bring in would probably have more bite as far as demands would go after they've been stable for a while. This contract empty, yeet and all that. So unless these execs want to make a streaming platform of all adult nerd media or all just those weird animated baby videos...

[@dimitriid]

I think you're correct: They will *try* to poach youtubers away but most likely will fail to find any success with them: I think no executives will understand how a youtuber is nothing without the algorithm that got them the views to begin with. A simple point: almost all of the most viewed videos on youtube are music videos and kid videos. Is not even close: Even the most talked about proper 'youtubers' like MrBeast and his best viewed video has just about as many views as some of the *least popular* Blackpink music videos with the more popular ones reaching the *billion* views and even they don't break the top 30 most viewed videos that start at over 3 billion views each. This tells me that most of MrBeast audience didn't come to youtube for him, they came to youtube for pop music like statistically almost all of the traffic on the website. They just eventually found the popular channels but that audience just won't follow: I'd be surprised if they reach 5 to 10% of the numbers they have on youtube peak. So the people that is already on the streaming services are there for the high production value content, it's imho a lot more difficult to turn that audience towards lower quality content (a MrBeast video is likely to appear cheap and amateurish next to even moderately compentent reality tv shows let alone fully produced shows) and youtube has been successful because its formula appears to work on the opposite direction: people come in for much simpler content, a music video, and eventually stay for gaming or other niches.

[@tanishaarora3976]

this is what I was thinking- there might be an attempt but I doubt it will go anywhere. Plus, most of youtube's activity is logged out and the fact that yt videos can be embedded/linked to/show up in search results and be viewed without an account probably brings a decent bit of traffic. I think requiring and account and the fact that a lot of these streams are available in a lot less country is going to be a huge barrier to success for a hypothetical creator taking this type of deal.

[@ElFritatta]

Do you have any thoughts about the situation with MS buying Ninja's 'streaming rights' and that falling totally flat, both for ninja and mixer and if that's any future indication? It definitely doesn't map onto this as directly since some of the platforms in question here are a lot more developed and with an existing audience than mixer ever had, but that's what came to my mind listening to this vid. And I also wonder how much of nebula's subscribers really do treat it as 'patreon but with different perks' - but the maybe likely doesn't matter that much if the bottom line looks good, ig

[@letstalkaboutstuff]

mixer! oh god i forgot about mixer. i think that failed because mixer was a clear attempt to eat twitch's lunch on consoles, and streaming to me feels like such a different beast compared to pre-produced on-demand video. anyone trying to undercut youtube has the same factors to deal with in terms of getting enough people to jump ship for it to make a dent, but i think today's streamers are much better positioned to at least make a hearty attempt

[@sallybanner]

they'd call it p tube

[@EvelynneRude]

This is very probable, but if I learn anyone I follow scabs for these corps, I can't support that. KZbinrs should get contract but not during the strike. P.S. the performers would never be able to join a union if they did. Its a clause in 99% of all unions, no strike breakers.

[@letstalkaboutstuff]

well importantly i'm thinking a lot of this would happen after the strike is over

[@TheOwl22]

Honestly, KZbinrs need to go on strike as well to protest against Google's incompetence in managing the platform.

[@letstalkaboutstuff]

oh how i wish we had our shit together well enough to make that happen

[@TheOwl22]

@@letstalkaboutstuff why don't you light the spark and be the first to strike?

[@letstalkaboutstuff]

@@TheOwl22 i barely post videos as it is lmao

[@rebeccaliar9873]

I'm really not sure what we gain from the line of discussion that takes up most of this video. Like, what does elaborately describing a possible future where any positive results of the strike are successfully circumvented achieve other than like... being a pitch document for the corporations? 23:53 onwards genuinely feels like an entirely different video than the incredibly elaborate PeacockTube hypothetical.

[@letstalkaboutstuff]

is it pointless to get people thinking about how studios could successfully undermine positive results of the strike before the strike is over? i think it's absolutely essential to be proactive in spotting capital's attempts to undermine the unions, unless you think it's better to be blindsided by them over and over again. and ugh for the love of god i do not possess the lathe of heaven, i guarantee you these are conversations that are already happening regardless of whether or not some broke little pissant like me speculates it out loud

[@anongarcia]

shines a great materialist light on what’s happening right now. hopefully more people get to see this.

[@el_m3allem]

isn't your prediction basically nebula? they've already started taking popular folks from here and exclusivising their content on that platform. and nebula's funded by discovery channel right? edit: lol you got to it

[@Sugar3Glider]

They already did it, It's called Nebula.

[@letstalkaboutstuff]

if only i'd thought to mention nebula in the youtube video that i made

[@Sugar3Glider]

@@letstalkaboutstuff You know what, you're right. It was very dumb of me to think that if a creator knew about Nebula and was attempting to provide an exceptionally similar (just ad sponsored) version, which would then be a direct competitor to KZbin (creating a TicketMaster situation; or how you can't simultaneously stream on KZbin and Twitch), that they would use simple and concise terminology with direct references to the two existing services that are analogous to the intended concept. It makes a lot more sense to keep referencing Peacock knowing they would never do such a thing, so you can spend minutes of our time reminding us that Peacock is just a placeholder that has no bearing, despite being a reference to an existing service. It would make no sense whatsoever to replace the existing IP, which you make no apparent use thereof, with one that isn't part of an existing streaming platform; confusion builds engagement.

[@letstalkaboutstuff]

@@Sugar3Glider well good on you for speaking truth to power

[@Sugar3Glider]

@@letstalkaboutstuff You're welcome, I also told Nebula that moving to a lifelong subscription for a limited time is an excellent way to signal to your fans that the service is in merky waters; then let a fan of theirs know that if they're unable to secure investors, and thus are utilizing the potential of a lifetime subscription to get over a financial hump, that is not an argument against them being in murky waters financially speaking. I'm an equal opportunity hater =)