Is 2025 shaping up to deliver the digital wild ride it promised?

By Derek Dyson 11-09-2025

WTFN and Radar’s chief commercial officer revisits his 2025 predictions from January to see whether the impact of YouTube on the legacy business has been as seismic as he expected.

In January this year, I wrote an article for C21 looking at my predictions for 2025, largely spurred on by the fact that everyone was starting to wake up to the opportunities available in the digital world – and especially with YouTube.

Aside from the statistics that had put YouTube viewership ahead of Netflix for the first time last August and Nielsen declaring that YouTube needed to be classified as a streamer, the big turning point for me personally was how in demand digital – and indeed I – was last Mipcom.

It is therefore no real surprise that in a year of warp-speed change, YouTube will mark its first formal presence at Mipcom next month with all the stops pulled out: a massive YouTube Space, hosted sessions and workshops, plus keynotes from senior executives once virtually ignored in this world and now feted alongside the most high-profile studio heads. All rightly so. And this comes swiftly after YouTube’s successful trip to France earlier this summer for the Cannes Lions, where the Croisette was awash with creators mingling with brands and agencies.

But before the TV world hits the Bandol and the beachside restaurants, I thought it might be helpful to look at some of those predictions from eight months ago and see what I got right, what I didn’t, and if there have been any surprises along the way.

What I got right
Distributors go all out for digital dollars
While this was well underway earlier in the year, many distributors are heavily moving into digital, looking to hold on to their IP and create and manage their own channels. In the past few months alone, we’ve seen Fremantle launch 19 FAST channels on Samsung TV and All3Media International launch Demand Drama. And I’m aware of several more distribution businesses that have pivoted to running their own YouTube channels.

One key factor for everyone looking at this space will be allowing time for results to happen. Even for seasoned digital distributors like ourselves, it can take weeks or months to get traction. The expectation is that publishing to YouTube is like turning on an instant tap of revenue. It isn’t always the case, so fortune favours the nimble, strategic and patient.

Traditional TV producers lean into digital for succour and audiences
While producers around the world continue to face challenges in finding commissions, many are diversifying into the digital space.  For example, UK indie Middlechild just this week announced a partnership with UpStream Media to create originals for YouTube, while Joy Peddlers, a new brand within Nick Bullen’s 53 Degrees Global group, is working with content creators and on-screen talent in numerous digital-first ways. It has already launched its own gardening channel, Grow It, and there is a royal channel and an aspirational escapism channel in the works. I’m also seeing some brilliant channels popping from indie filmmakers, with YouTube now leading the way in how this content is distributed. I’m currently obsessed with Cooking For Seamus. Set in rural Australia, it shares the adventures of a disabled cow who has become the world’s first bovine food critic. What’s not to like?

Broadcasters seek greater relevance with YouTube partnerships
Broadcasters the world over are now prioritising their relationships with YouTube: it’s no longer an afterthought. In Australia, for example, Radar has worked with Nine this year to launch a blue light channel, Real Emergency, and Seven’s latest results statement talks about how important digital will be going forward. Channel 4 in the UK has doubled down on its digital-first strategy and is reaping the rewards. Its content amassed more than 1.3 billion UK views across its social output in the first six months of 2025, with full episodes on YouTube growing 59% year-on-year. Such trends are tempered by plans in Australia to ban access to YouTube, along with other social media channels, for the under-16s. While it won’t impact our business specifically, it’s a worrying sign when access to quality, educational, safe and ultimately, free video content is being blocked.

MrBeast has 399 million YouTube subscribers

And what I didn’t – yet!
Successful YouTube-first creators will increasingly find lucrative new homes
This has not happened as quickly as I predicted for this year. Partly, I guess, as the world’s biggest YouTube stars such as Mr Beast and the Sidemen were already snapped up, and partly as the budgets are just not there. The odd influencer has snuck through, for example, Molly-Mae Hague’s Behind It All on Prime in the UK, but it still took Amazon’s big bucks to make it happen.

Meanwhile, some people are coming full circle. Only this month, Paramount’s 5 in the UK announced that it will soon be home to a weekly highlights show derived from Piers Morgan’s YouTube channel, Piers Morgan Uncensored. Just because it wasn’t made for TV doesn’t mean that it doesn’t make great TV!

Celebrities take on the content creators
Surprisingly, there hasn’t been a rush of big names launching their own YouTube channels so far this year. I was certain that we’d see film, music, sports and mainstream TV stars look to reach out and engage with their fans more directly. Perhaps for now, there is more reassurance in the familiar, or maybe there’s a fear of not looking as relevant as Mr Beast (399 million subscribers) or PewDiePie (110 million subscribers). Justin Bieber and Cristiano Ronaldo are the only celebrity channels in the top 10 (75.4 million and 75.2 million, respectively), while Taylor Swift only places 16^th with 61 million subscribers.

Interestingly, we are seeing an increase in the number of creator collectives launching YouTube channels. The Bov Boys hit the ground running in July, with 100,000 subscribers after posting only three videos, and soon after, we saw the launch of Beat Six from Spirit Studios, a beauty collective delivering a beauty and entertainment channel. The latter’s six creators have a combined 10 million followers to bring to the party, and from a creativity standpoint, six heads are probably better than one. I think we will see many more collectives to follow.

YouTube Originals
Back in January, I thought it couldn’t be long before YouTube commissioned its own big-ticket content. This predicted ‘House of Cards’ moment hasn’t happened yet, but it can’t be far away.  What we are seeing, though, is broadcasters and producers making more programmes specifically for YouTube, as opposed to just uploading library content. In the kids’ space, Nickelodeon has recently launched its first-ever animated series for YouTube, Kid Cowboy, while companies such as Quintus Studios and Zandland regularly announce new digital-first docs to debut on their own YouTube channels.

What has surprised me
Even after a few years of seeing the power of YouTube in action, there are some brilliant examples that break through to surprise and delight. Just last month, Avalon announced that its Taskmaster YouTube channel had hit over one billion views and that its upcoming 20^th season would see new episodes launch on YouTube worldwide the same day as they air on Channel 4. The show is particularly huge in the US, with YouTube making stars of Alex Horne and Greg Davies, even though the show has never been sold to an American broadcaster. It’s a fascinating case study and shows just how powerful digital distribution can be.

Despite the commonly held opinion that FAST wasn’t really a digital destination for YouTube creators, that all changed rather quickly with Samsung TV’s announcement this summer. It has signed up several leading creators, including Mark Rober, who will now make their television debuts with their own dedicated channels on Samsung TV Plus. I pitched the creator-to-FAST channel concept to Australian OEMs a couple of years ago. It was a flat ‘no’ then, but we’re now seeing the demand and appetite even in our own market.

As for what may happen next, who knows? But I bet we’ll get some good pointers at Mipcom. I, for one, will be fascinated by what YouTube says in Cannes and look forward to discussing the details and other opportunities in this fast-moving digital world with the content owners and creators that I’m planning to meet.