It's Friday and if you're looking to host guests without changing out of your PJs, Meta has the answer: shareable links that can transport fellow Quest or Meta Horizon users to a "photorealistic digital replica" of your living room.

Today's News

🎥 Netflix ponders a big acquisition
💸 Slow Ventures invests $1.1M
📈 U.S. creator marketing hits $37B
⚖️ Morgan & Morgan embraces YouTube
🎬 Joey releases unaired content

SHOW BIZ

Can Netflix use a Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition to break into movie theaters?

The proposal: Several corporations are competing for the right to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, but Netflix may be the most intriguing candidate of the bunch. As other suitors like Comcast and Paramount Skydance submit their bids, the streamer has sweetened its offer by promising to honor Warner Bros. Discovery's theatrical commitments.

That incentive marks something of a departure for Netflix, which hasn't traditionally committed to the exclusive theatrical windows theater chains prefer. Despite Co-CEO Ted Sarandos' belief that the film industry's theatrical distribution model is "outdated," however, we've seen a higher number of prolonged theatrical runs for Netflix originals in recent years. The streamer has also begun treating cinemas as host venues for limited-time events, including a wildly successful KPop Demon Hunters sing-along and upcoming showings of the final season of Stranger Things.

Amid that push, Netflix execs have reportedly told Warner Bros. Discovery brass that they would continue releasing Warner Bros. films in theaters.

The questions: That plan raises a few questions. For starters, why would Netflix get into movie theaters now, amid a prolonged Hollywood slump? A glass-half-full type would say that the streaming service can revive theatrical viewership rather than falling victim to the hurdles affecting traditional distributors.

But does Netflix's Warner Bros. proposal mean it's actually committed to theatrical runs? Cinema United CEO Michael O'Leary remains unconvinced:

"Netflix's apparent agreement to abide by existing contractual obligations that they might inherit says nothing about a meaningful commitment to theatrical exhibition."

- Michael O'Leary (via Bloomberg)

Theater chains may need a bit more cajoling to believe Netflix is on their side. But regardless of whether an acquisition goes through, events like the KPop Demon Hunters sing-along show that the streaming platform's release strategy is in a far different place from where it used to be.

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

Early-stage investment firm Slow Ventures has invested $1.1 million in physiotherapist-slash creator Tayla Cannon and her HIPAA-compliant mentorship app, Rebuildr. (Tubefilter)
OpenAI has announced the launch of group chats for "all logged-in users on ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus and Pro plans." (OpenAI)
A recent study from the American Psychological Association found that frequent short-form video consumption is "linked to diminished cognitive function." (Dextero)
Amazon Prime Video is rolling out Video Recaps, a new tool that uses AI to "summarize a show's most pertinent plot points with a theatrical-quality video." (Amazon)

BY THE NUMBERS

The creator economy is now a $37B industry in the U.S.

The report: The Interactive Advertising Bureau just dropped its 2025 Creator Economy Ad Spend & Strategy Report. Here are the main takeaways from that study, which details the ongoing growth of the influencer marketing sector:

1. The value of the creator economy is still going up (but its growth may be slowing).
IAB's report projects that ad spend on creators in the U.S. will top out at $37 billion in 2025, which translates to a year-over-year increase of 26%. As impressive as those numbers are, they nevertheless indicate that the growth of the U.S. creator economy may be slowing, since we saw a year-over-year spending uptick of 34% between 2023 and 2024.

2. Roughly half of ad buyers now see creators as indispensable to marketing.
Among the 450 U.S.-based ad spend decision-makers who responded to the IAB's survey, 53% said they have specific ad budgets allocated for creator-related work and 48% said that they see creators as a "must buy" entity.

Only paid search and social media were higher on the must-buy list, with once-mighty ad categories like linear TV (a must-buy for 32% of respondents) and radio (26%) falling further behind as marketers turn their attention to the digital economy.

3. Creator marketing is still far from a frictionless industry.
The specter of badly-behaved creators caused 58% of respondents to say they weigh reputations when selecting who to sponsor, while inefficient measurement options are a common frustration among marketers. "Proving ROI" and "attributing sales to creators" emerged as the most common measurement-related issues within the IAB's survey sample.

TLDR: The creator economy may still have some maturing to do, but there's no doubt that it has officially eclipsed most traditional rivals among U.S. marketers.

AD WORLD

What happens when America's largest injury law firm goes "all in" on YouTube?

The law firm: When Tubefilter first began analyzing sponsored YouTube videos for our Gospel Stats Weekly Brand Reports, we saw some usual suspects: VPNs, energy drink brands, mobile games…and Morgan & Morgan.

If you've driven through any major American metropolis since 1988, you've likely seen the family-owned law firm's big blue-and-yellow billboards. Some proclaim Morgan & Morgan "America's Largest Injury Law Firm," while others boast about the $20+ billion it's won in court on behalf of clients.

According to Morgan & Morgan's Head of Socials & Creators, Shaul White, billboards like those—alongside TV and radio ads—are the "bread and butter" of marketing for personal injury firms, which now comprise a $60 billion annual industry in the U.S. But in recent years, Morgan & Morgan has updated its strategy to reach a younger, more digital crowd.

The strategy: At first, Wolf says, the firm allocated a "tiny" test budget of around $30,000 to creator partnerships. That initial effort "completely failed," he explains, because his team "worked with the worst influencers." But instead of giving up, Wolf decided to "go all in on YouTube."

Three years later, Wolf's in-house team partners with dozens of creators on an average of 230 pieces of branded YouTube content per month. Recent examples include partnerships with man-on-the-street YouTuber Tyler Oliviera and a multi-video sponsorship of debate channel Jubilee.

The future: Managing Partner Dan Morgan recently said the goal is to 10x the firm's creative budget for the next year, giving Wolf and his team additional cash to work with creators. Wolf notes that a "real selling point" for convincing the firm to invest more in creator marketing is competitive CPMs: "If you buy a TV ad, you're paying your fixed CPM, and it goes out onto the air." YouTube videos, on the other hand, can attract new viewers for years—and continue drawing consumers to Morgan & Morgan in the process.

WATCH THIS 👀

Heads up, Friends fans: Unaired episodes of Joey just hit YouTube

The content drop: Over the last few years, TV distributors have turned YouTube into a home for reruns. Now, the platform is also hosting unaired episodes—and Joey is the latest show to get that treatment.

On March 7, 2006, NBC pulled the Friends spinoff from the airwaves due to low ratings in the middle of its second season. That move left eight finished episodes unaired…until now. As of this month, Joey Tribbiani's many admirers can tune into the sitcom's final episodes on the official Friends YouTube channel.

The decision to make never-before-seen content available for free online is a fascinating expansion of a distribution strategy that is becoming more common among TV rights holders. You can read all about that on our website…or you can go watch all eight Joey episodes here, and then read about it.

Want to introduce your brand to Tubefilter's audience? Sponsor the newsletter.

Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe here.