Top content exec Susanne Daniels to exit as YouTube scales back on originals

YouTube is scaling back significantly on its original programming business to focus on user-generated content, with global head of original content Susanne Daniels set to step down in March.

Susanne Daniels

Robert Kyncl, YouTube’s chief business officer, confirmed via Twitter that in future the platform will only fund projects that are part of its US$100m Black Voices initiative and YouTube Kids Fund.

According to the Google-owned company, growth in other areas of the company, namely its creator community, has made its exit from unscripted and scripted a logical one. YouTube said there are more than two million creators within its YouTube Partner Program, with the company paying out more than US$30bn to creators, artists and media companies over the past three years.

“However, with rapid growth comes new opportunities and now our investments can make a greater impact on even more creators when applied towards other initiatives, like our Creator Shorts Fund, Black Voices Fund and Live Shopping programming, to name a few,” said Kyncl.

For the original projects that are already in progress, YouTube said it will honour its commitments, with Kyncl noting that “creators who are involved in those shows should expect to hear from us directly in the coming days.”

The strategic shift comes six years after YouTube first ventured into the originals space with former MTV Networks president Daniels being tapped to lead the new division.

Initially, the company commissioned scripted originals such as Karate Kid spin-off Cobra Kai and comedy series Step Up as it looked to build out a paywalled SVoD tier within the platform. However, in 2019 YouTube pivoted away from scripted, refocusing its strategy on unscripted content that could be viewed for free with ads.

Over the past year, its commissions in the unscripted and documentary space have included a feature-length doc about the Pope, a four-part series for HiddenLight Productions, a fitness series with Will Smith and a slate of Olympic-themed programming released ahead of the Tokyo Olympics last summer.

“As global head of originals, Susanne and her team created an international slate of award-winning programmes collectively amassing billions of views, shining a light on incredible creators, important social topics and introducing YouTube to new audiences. In short, [YouTube Originals] played an integral role in growing the YouTube creator economy,” added Kyncl.