The halls of the Palais des festivals have for years been filled with producers telling you that they have a series launch on YouTube. And for a long time, they couldn’t find distribution through traditional means.
However, the Google-owned TV and platform has reached an inflection point. Now, when a producer talks about a YouTube launch, they may well have built a solid business model that bypasses global networks and streamers.
Of course, established television brands such as The Sidemen, MRBEast, Ms. Rachel, Cocomelon And Blue therapy started life on YouTube. The difference now is that any “traditional” production house worth its salt is developing directly for the platform. Even The traitors Maker Studio Lambert, which could surely turn over enough cash from its traditional TV business alone, is in early-stage development on formats that can break the platform.
The industry shift comes as the pendulum of consumer taste swings from television to YouTube. YouTube topped the Nielsen-to-Nielsen Distributor Gauge Reports table in the United States for most of 2025, accounting for about 13% of all shows – a huge turnaround from years past. This shift is manifesting itself in YouTube becoming a distributor even for established television shows.
In August, word broke about this British comedy series Tyrant A for the first time, I passed day and date in the United States – where it is mainly available on YouTube – with Channel 4 broadcasting in the United Kingdom
This was after the BAFTA-winning comedy format Avalon’s YouTube channel surpassed 1.2 billion views, with a considerable percentage coming from North America. Season 19, which featured American comic Jason Mantzoukas among its competitors, garnered nearly 20 million North American views and helped subscriptions increase by 200,000.
Tyrant was remade in the United States in 2018 on Comedy Central, but it failed miserably after numerous format changes. So, it’s clearly the popularity of YouTube that has gained the show’s reputation now in North America. This reached the point where hosts Greg Davies and Alex Horne appeared on late night shows, although they never appeared on American television screens. They also held sold-out private screenings in New York, while Mantzoukas’ appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers promotion Tyrant is the show’s second broadcast interview online – behind Barack Obama.
“It’s ‘Custry,’ and people have to look it up for themselves — it’s not promoted there on Peacock or advertised,” Horne says. “A million Americans is a tiny fraction of their population, but it’s still a lot of Americans.”
“We are both absolutely blown away by the response from people on the street,” adds Davies. “It was just wonderful.”
There have been rumors that an American network might give Tyrant Another try, with YouTube, now proven to be a great audience incubator. Both Horne and Davies said they would like to Taskmaster us 2.0 and keep control of production. They are not desperate for this to happen, but they will try, if there is a willing buyer. “We’d love to do an American version and do it right, but we’re not courting it,” says Horne. Maybe YouTube is enough.
