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Harnessing the Creator Economy with YouTube

Innovation Every month, 2.5 billion people are active on YouTube — and viewing around 47 minutes of content a day. In this session, we explore the possibilities for documentary and factual storytellers to launch original content on YouTube, offering innovative opportunities for creators to thrive outside traditional commissioning pathways.

YouTube has become a top destination for audiences, and a thriving hub for nonfiction content. With an average of one billion daily viewers (on smart televisions alone), and as of 2024 the second most used social platform – how do practitioners make the most of the opportunities that lie within?

Joanna Beveridge, Screen Australia Investment Manager (Online) sits down with an esteemed panel of experts including Daniel Stephenson (YouTube, AU & NZ), Rosie Lourde (executive producer), Farhad Meher-Homji (Changer), and Luke Clark (New Mac / Never Too Small) as they share their first-hand expertise and insights with YouTube. Together they answer the burning questions many documentary and factual filmmakers have when it comes to understanding how to build a channel, what content best suits the platform’s ad-supported environment, how to build global audiences and leverage financial outcomes, as well as the benefits of working with smaller budgets, shorter production cycles and no gatekeepers.

 

Image credit: Episode 98. 19sqm/194sqft tiny house, Love2 House. (Courtesy of New Mac and Never Too Small, 2022)

 

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