In 2025, CTV channel operators are widening their portfolios of creator content material in a bid to seize extra advert {dollars}.
CTV firms corresponding to Tubi, Samsung TV Plus and Netflix are leaning into creators, with all three increasing their creator choices or asserting the manufacturing of unique creator content material in latest months as manufacturers proceed to boost their spending on the channel and on creators. By 2027, U.S. manufacturers are projected to spend $13.7 billion yearly on influencer advertising, in accordance with eMarketer.
On August 14, Tubi grew to become the newest CTV firm to announce the growth of its creator enterprise, including hundreds of movies to its creator portfolio and hiring Kudzi Chikumbu, TikTok’s former international head of creator advertising, as a vp of creator partnerships.
“Within the final two months, we’re seeing a gradual enhance in consumption of creator content material, and we’re seeing nice engagement with the content material,” mentioned Tubi normal supervisor of creator applications and evp of enterprise growth Wealthy Bloom, who declined to offer precise figures, however famous that Tubi’s creator program had expanded “10X” since launching in June, going from six creators and 500 movies to roughly 60 creators and 5,000 movies. “A significant proportion of our general viewers have watched at the least one piece of creator content material.”
Tubi is much from the one CTV operator to spend money on creators in 2025. A lot of this exercise is happening on FAST channels — free, ad-supported tv channels that includes creators’ movies.
On July 28, for instance, Samsung TV Plus introduced its largest-ever slate of creator-led FAST channels, increasing its creator class from two channels to 10. Between the primary and second quarters of 2025, viewership of the creator-powered CTV channel Creator Tv skyrocketed, with the channel experiencing a 95 p.c enhance in complete minutes considered and a 111 p.c enhance in complete person periods, in accordance with Creator TV co-founder and head of content material Charlie Ibarra, who mentioned his firm’s promoting income was experiencing a corresponding rise however didn’t share particular numbers.
CTV platforms have been testing creator-style content material for years — from Pluto TV’s “Persons are Superior” channel to Roku’s Originals and influencer-driven FAST choices on Amazon Freevee, now rebranded to Free To Watch. Now, what felt exploratory is popping strategic, as streaming providers push for extra creator-backed content material to distinguish themselves.
“In our conversations with advertisers, they’re hungry for these kind of alternatives — they’re hungry to determine tips on how to attain audiences in a brand new, natural and fascinating method,” mentioned Samsung TV Plus vp of content material and programming Takashi Nakano. “That is actually the subsequent evolution of what we consider because the content material area.”
Worth for advertisers
Requested what units Samsung TV Plus’s creator channels aside from platforms like YouTube, Nakano framed Samsung’s content material choice course of as “meticulous” and as a method for advertisers to be close to higher-quality creator content material in comparison with YouTube’s feed. Different CTV operators, from Tubi to Vevo, echoed the sentiment that creator-led CTV channels supply advertisers entry to creators’ extremely engaged fandoms by way of the “premium” tv display screen.
“The lean-back, CTV expertise is unquestionably a premium one, and normally the way in which we see co-viewing occurring,” mentioned Vevo vp of U.S. gross sales Melissa Sofo.
Advertisers’ urge for food for CTV is rising. In spite of everything, content material creators have develop into an growing focus for entrepreneurs, with manufacturers corresponding to Unilever indicating plans to spend half of their budgets on social channels by the top of 2025.
Dentsu Artistic U.Ok. CEO Jessica Tamsedge informed Digiday that she was “seeing actual momentum on this space,” framing manufacturers’ rising spending on CTV creator channels as an extension of their longstanding curiosity in creator content material that reveals up in ad-supported areas. Tamsedge didn’t share particular numbers with regard to Dentsu Artistic UK shoppers’ spending on CTV creators.
“Whenever you put these two forces collectively, the cultural pull of creators and the lean-in, high-attention surroundings of CTV, you get what we name a ‘double consideration hit,’ which is unsurprisingly compelling for manufacturers,” Tamsedge mentioned.
Though manufacturers are more and more involved in creator-led CTV content material, this mounting curiosity is pushed extra by sensible economics and measurement wants, slightly than an pressing want to point out up alongside creators, in accordance with Ogilvy government director of connections and media Mack Leahy.
“Most manufacturers are treating repurposed YouTube content material on good TV channels as low cost premium video the place they’ll test the ‘we’re working with creators’ field whereas accessing stock that prices 30 to 40 p.c lower than comparable premium CTV placements,” Leahy mentioned. “The creator ingredient is sort of incidental — they’d most likely purchase the identical stock if it was generic life-style content material if the value was proper and the surroundings was model protected.”
Unique content material on the horizon
For now, the overwhelming majority of CTV creator channels merely repurpose content material that can be obtainable on different platforms corresponding to YouTube. FAST channel operators utilizing pre-existing creator content material as their stock must persuade advertisers of the worth of exhibiting up alongside creators on related TVs, slightly than the already-popular social platforms which have lengthy been a part of manufacturers’ advertising mixes.
Extra unique creator content material will quickly be obtainable on CTV. Alongside the growth of its creator FAST channels, Samsung additionally introduced the manufacturing of a 13-episode unique collection in collaboration with YouTuber Dhar Mann, which can stream solely on the creator’s Samsung TV Plus channel. On August 18, Netflix introduced the manufacturing of an unique collection with YouTuber Mark Rober, which is slated to air in 2026.
Samsung and Netflix’s bulletins are solely the start. Dentsu US and UK are “investing in creators to develop and co-create content material designed particularly for CTV and different non-social channels,” per Tamsedge. As for Tubi, the corporate plans to fund the manufacturing of unique creator content material for its channels by “later this 12 months,” in accordance with Bloom, who mentioned that this may be a key duty for Chikumbu, Tubi’s new creator vp.
“I’m excited that he obtained the job; I feel it was a extremely good transfer for them, primarily based on Kudzi’s years of expertise and being a part of the monumental development of TikTok and short-form,” mentioned Victoria Bachan, president of the Whalar Group creator administration agency Sixteenth, who mentioned that she had labored with Chikumbu since his days at TikTok predecessor Musical.ly. “He’s going to play an important position at Tubi: To see how they’ll open up creators’ audiences to new folks in a method that may be watched on an Apple TV or on a Roku.”
