EXCLUSIVE: “Money” was the answer in a word given by Tobi Brown of the Sidemen when asked the chief of Netflix Uk Anne Mensah why the successful YouTube collective chose to move the second season of their reality series Inside From YouTube to Netflix.
Last year’s crowd at the Netflix UK event politely titled. It turned out that Brown’s language was only half of his cheek.
“I’m kidding but I’m not kidding,” he told a group of press, producers and packaged influencers. “The main reason is that, of course, with regard to the dominant current, you will not become much bigger or better than Netflix. You are trying to raise the bar and push to go larger – so money helps.”
Respondent, Mensah was very slightly launched, but it was also efficient, the brand Inside “All I think we should do”, before borrowing from your typical Netflix executive book: “It talks about something that is so British but who speaks worldwide, and I love it for that.”
With a collective 150 million YouTube subscribers between them, the sidemen have a unique place in the culture of global influencers. The decision to move the Big brother– The series of reality from YouTube to Netflix is therefore somewhat out of the blue at the end of last year.
At the time, the sidemen told the BBC that they had “reached the limit” of what they could achieve on YouTube, a notable sentence on the platform that obtained their fame. Directed by the unstoppable, influential and sometimes controversial KSI boxer boxer boxes, the collective of seven people Rugi on the YouTube scene over ten years ago when they started publishing game videos.
Correct a group of influencers in a house locked for seven days and make them attack ridiculous challenges while a price of 1 million pounds sterling (1.34 million dollars) dissipates, Inside Was the collective’s response to the question of what Big brother It looks like the influencer era.
Season 1 was presented on YouTube last year, while season 2 made its debut on Netflix in March. Now, with a third Inside The season being prepared for Netflix and an American version in preparation, we have digested deeply to analyze if the bet paid, or, in a world of visualization quickly saturated, if the move should even be qualified as a bet.
“I always felt like it was a good idea,” said television director Enders analysis Tom Harrington. “You want to diversify to your peak rather than later. I can see why Netflix would like them for the type of audience they can bring, and I can see why [The Sidemen] would like to be on Netflix. »»
As MD of Sidemen Entertainment, Victor Bengtsson knows the Inside Out group. He agrees with Harrington that “the waterproof future” has always been the raison d’être of the raison d’être of Netflix. “I realized that they would age and that they may not have the same influence,” he explains. “We do our [Sidemen] Match of charitable football, but it’s a marketing tool, not content. It was our ‘Big brother For the moment of Gen-Z. “Netflix refused to comment on this article.
Bengtsson recognizes that it was skeptical when things became real with Netflix. To start, Inside Season 1 had, for lack of a better sentence, absolutely broken on YouTube, landing 55 million views worldwide in all episodes after 10 days in the summer of 2024. It reveals that the streamers demonstrated interest before season 1.
“We have said that we will put it on YouTube and show them the performance,” he added, noting that the team has chosen to deliberately release Inside at the same time as the darling youth audience Love island. “Our intention was that it was so good that he had an Zeitgeist impact. Three days after releaseing the last episode, Netflix returned.”
Netflix offered the opportunity to attack a somewhat different audience while paying more budget in the show. “But each time you decide to put a show on a different platform, it is associated with the risk,” adds Bengtsson.
Bengtsson expresses Netflix with praise for its practical approach, its main contribution being the budget and the “quality control”. “They knew that the show had a charm that existed because it was made by the sidemen, and once it was no longer like their show, so there would be no time on Netflix.”
The streamer’s draw probably played a role in the special roommate of Sidemen Landing, Patrice Evra, the ex-star of Manchester United football, who was loved by the others “ initiates ” and produced some of the best moments of the season.
Notes
The winners of the season “inside” 2. Image: Charlie Woodward / Netflix © 2024
As always with a modern vision, notes can paint a mixed table. According to the streamer, Inside, which, according to its leaders, was carried out on a budget of Netflix “modest”, struck several top 10 of the first 10 weeks, in particular by sitting briefly in the number 3 in the world and by hitting number 2 in the United Kingdom and 9 in the United States
Comparison of the YouTube visualization in Netflix is a bit of apples and pears – to start, you don’t have to part with the money for a subscription to watch a program on YouTube – but we have still given a blow, gracity of digital -i analysis, which only analyzed the public in the United Kingdom.
Digital-I gives a boost upwards, noting that the most watched episode on Netflix, season 2 episode 1, reached more than 1.3 million Netflix households, against 967,000 for the episode of season 1 equivalent on Youtube. Digital-I stresses that the visualization of figures for YouTube and Netflix in the United Kingdom is estimates based on data from representative and consenting panels, and data is only collected from account holders aged 18 to 64.
Bengtsson says he was still concerned about “perception” on Netflix, with fear that “mothers of 45 years would not see the show [on Netflix] And think we are all spoiled frogs. He will therefore be encouraged by digital – I see that Inside Was watched by more households with children on Netflix than YouTube. About two-thirds (68%) of the vision of season 2 came from households with children, well above the Netflix average, against 40% for season 1, which is lower than the average youtube, found digital-I.
There is however a question about the question of whether Netflix Inside Never became a real vision of watercooler, in the same vein of young successes of the public as Treatments or the last decade Love islandWith Molly Mae. The barb data for the United Kingdom, which we have seen, show a great decline in visualization as the series advanced. Although he has certainly biased young, after only Adolescence For the vision of the United Kingdom aged 13 to 24 during its launch week, the data found that season 2 has now abandoned the 100 best British shows for 2025 in terms of Visualization of Gen-Z.
Whatever the notes show, being able to operate in your own ecosystem of social creator as well as being on an American mastodonte streaming service feels crucial to explain why the sidemen and the CO seem satisfied with their bet. Netflix did not postpone the desire of the sidemen to use heavy social platforms of competitors to put themselves at the top of the season. For example, many roommates have broadcast their reactions to the show on Twitch live once it has dropped. “We estimated that the social angle would be super core for our audience,” adds Bengtsson.
Looking with the interest of all this time was Fagbenle, the producer of Blue therapy, The next large YouTube format that can be watched soon on Netflix.
“The sidemen have ridiculous follow -ups, their figures blow Blue therapy in the water, “says Fagbenle.” The Netflix team is brilliant, but even if it does not do things correctly, it is a world led by creators in which we live. Those who can exploit in it and operate the talent will obtain huge victories. “”
Blue Therapy’s The trip to Netflix was slower than Inside And comes via the Public Channel broadcaster 4. The format, which sees a diversified distribution of couples guided by a experienced expert during the striking therapy sessions, made a splash on Youtube before the Youth Channel of Channel 4 picked it up and broadcast a version to a solid set of dimensions. Fagbenle holds rights in the format and international versions are in preparation, he tells us.
For Fagbenle, who says he “cultivated [Netflix] Relations for years ”, the stream draw was powerful. While the sidemen have pushed to Inside Season 2 remains mainly the same, Fagbenle says that the impact of Netflix has led Blue therapy Advance, giving it “more substance and drama alongside the original DNA”.
Fagbenle thinks that YouTube is “more democratic” than broadcasters and banners when it comes to giving under-represented horizons a platform, although it does not think it should be so.
“Was Pirate radio a way for marginalized communities to do so in the music industry?”, He said. “Well yes, but radio 1 could have played them. We, as a business, are very at the center of black culture and we often seek on YouTube and Tiktok, because it is our hunting ground.”
How much things could stay in this way is certainly debating.
Traditional television leaders, who want the young audience to go above all, are desperate to take a bite from the YouTube pie in any way possible. Just discover dear to Mr. Beast Beast games For the premium video. This morning, the British regulator of OFCOM said that the government should change the law to facilitate the search for diffuser content on YouTube. On the other hand, the creators of successful YouTube like Amelia Dimoldenberg seek support from the British government and formal recognition. The lines are blurred. For global giants like Netflix, it is unlikely that Inside And Blue therapy.
“We have created something slightly tough on the edges that calls into question the status quo,” explains Bengtsson. “We have the impression that we have completely broken the dominant current.”
