Netflix has started adding popular YouTube series to its platform. On Sept. 7, a slew of Good Mythical Morning and Mythical Kitchen episodes, including the popular interview series “Last Meals,” arrived on Netflix. Additionally, all episodes of celebrity interview show “Chicken Shop Date” were added Oct. 2, with the final season of the show airing on Netflix and YouTube simultaneously.
The reception to these additions has been mostly positive, but I had a different reaction to these announcements.
While I recognized how big of a deal this was for the creators, the feeling that overtook me was fear for what this could mean for the future of YouTube.
I am a big fan of YouTube. I’ve been watching YouTubers for a large majority of my life and watch YouTube more than shows and movies. So, I have a lot of love for the platform and the community it has created.
Because of this, I recognize that putting shows made by YouTubers on streaming platforms can do a lot of good for independent creators. I’ve come across a lot of people who tend to belittle YouTube content. When creators make shows with high production value, like “Last Meals” and “Chicken Shop Date,” people rarely give them the same credit as “real” shows and movies you would find on Netflix, despite them having the same level of quality.
So, having these YouTube shows on Netflix next to “real” TV shows exemplifies that they have a place among them.
Despite this positive outcome, the move of YouTube creators to streaming services has left me concerned about the platform’s future. While streaming services may be starting out by licensing shows made by YouTube creators to appear on their platform as well as on YouTube, this could easily evolve into streaming services being the ones producing YouTubers’ shows exclusively for their platform.
In fact, this is already happening. Another popular food celebrity interview show, “Hot Ones,” now has an exclusive spin-off show on Netflix. While these exclusive shows may come with benefits like higher budgets and exposure, it is a slippery slope into YouTubers losing autonomy.
Quite frankly, making YouTube series exclusive to streaming services goes against everything that makes YouTube what it is. What makes YouTube so special is that it’s one of the only platforms for long-form content that doesn’t have gatekeepers.
Sure, there are rules about what you can and can’t post on the site for copyright and safety reasons, but there isn’t a group of people deciding who gets to create content and what that content can be.
YouTube is a place where anyone can be creative and share their creativity with others. If someone wants to make something, they can just make it, without a company telling them that it won’t make enough money or that it’s too controversial.
On top of this, YouTube is one of the most accessible platforms out there because almost everything is free. YouTube is built by people, for people, making it a place where creativity can thrive.
Now imagine a big company like Netflix steps in and starts producing exclusive content with YouTubers; creators’ freedom will be stripped away. Instead of being able to make what they want when they want, their content will be in the hands of a company that cares more about money than people. An idea could be turned down because it won’t make enough money, or a show could get canceled after one season if it didn’t get a high enough viewership.
A similar situation happened with YouTuber Daniel Howell. In 2022 he released a video explaining how he tried getting his dream show produced with YouTube Originals. YouTube Originals was a programming division of Google that produced and distributed scripted and unscripted series, aimed to compete with streaming services like Netflix, before shutting down in 2022.
YouTube Originals ended up letting go of Howell’s project because it was no longer “viable” for their strategy. Howell has gone on to prove that he can make high quality, innovative and personal content without a big company controlling his projects through his 2022 comedy stage show “We’re All Doomed” and podcast “Hard Launch,” which he hosts with his partner Phil Lester.
Similarly, YouTube group The Try Guys made a spin-off show of their popular YouTube series “Without a Recipe” for the Food Network. Co-founders Keith Habersberger and Zach Kornfeld recently talked about their experience making the show for The Publish Press, where they said the show ended up flopping because the Food Network didn’t allow them to be the ones in charge of producing and editing the show.
Additionally, if some of the most popular content on YouTube shifts over the streaming services, pulling audiences with them, where does that leave YouTube? Would people even bother still going to the platform? With this shift, YouTube could be the next platform to get swallowed up into the conglomeration of streaming services.
So while streaming services' investment in YouTube creators may help show that the content they produce is worth just as much attention as any other title, it also strips YouTube of what makes it special.
Moving independently produced content to a place where there are higher ups controlling their content puts creativity, independence and individuality at risk, as well as the entire future of YouTube.
