The Branded Content Governance Project presents a three-year international study examining how branded content practices evolve across media-marketing ecosystems. Through a 32-country analysis, the research maps the growing convergence between media, platforms, creators, agencies and marketers.

It identifies four major challenges:  weak advertising transparency, risks to media integrity, the expanding communicative power of marketers, and reduced governance capacity among creators and practitioners. These issues are amplified by fragmented regulations that struggle to keep pace with hybrid content formats.

The project proposes key pathways for improvement, including a legal duty of advertising transparency and a more integrated, polycentric governance model. Together, these recommendations aim to strengthen clarity, accountability, and support across the rapidly changing media-marketing landscape.

As AI accelerates across Hollywood pipelines, new analysis from Guy Busson (Ampere Analysis) shows a decisive shift: AI has become a professional production infrastructure, not an experimental gadget. Multimodal and agentic systems now support scripting, pre-vis, VFX, editing and distribution – forming a connected workflow across the entire chain.

The findings highlight a new power dynamic: Google, Amazon and Microsoft racing to build full AI toolshops, while studios position as « builders » using these ecosystems to develop IP and streamline production. As the report notes, « the market has evolved from a ‘toy’… towards toolsets geared towards professional use », and adoption is accelerating through deals with Netflix, Lionsgate and A24.

With cinematic models like Veo, Luma and Kling delivering high-fidelity output and agentic AI automating complex tasks, AI is entering its industrial phase – reshaping how content is created, refined and delivered.

Behind Brand Entertainment is a series of interviews with producers, studios, distributors and brand leaders exploring how brands and the entertainment industry are collaborating to develop, fund and scale premium content.

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As Aardman celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, the studio behind Wallace & Gromit and Shaun the Sheep is proving that legacy entertainment brands can still evolve – not by chasing trends, but by getting closer to audiences.

Over the last two years, Aardman has grown its revenue from brand and content exploitation by 30%, driven by a strategy focused on understanding audiences market by market and expanding how fans interact with its worlds.

“Audience expectations have changed,” says Emma Hardie, Board Director and Executive Commercial & Brand Director at Aardman. “Audiences want to interact with brands and feel part of them rather than just consume them.”

That philosophy is reshaping Aardman from a traditional animation studio into something broader: a participatory entertainment ecosystem spanning social media, live experiences, retail and branded storytelling.

From TV Characters to Global Companions

That audience connection has helped turn Aardman’s characters into global entertainment brands. Shaun the Sheep is now available in 170 territories, while Wallace & Gromit recently drew 21.6m viewers in the UK alone for their latest BBC Christmas special, plus becoming a Top 10 title in six territories on Netflix internationally.

Part of that success comes from the universality of Aardman’s storytelling. The studio’s signature mix of craft, comedy and relatable underdog characters translates across generations and cultures. “People really appreciate the tangibility and authenticity of what we do,” says Hardie. “Especially now, with the rise of AI-generated content.”

Internally, Aardman has also reorganised teams around audience insight and territory-specific strategies, bringing together licensing, content sales, digital and live experiences to better understand how fandom behaves differently across markets.

In Japan, for example, Shaun the Sheep has built a large adult fanbase through experiences and collectibles, while South Korea has become a major growth market for merchandise, with demand increasingly fuelled by social content and user-generated trends showcasing the products.

Aardman has also extended its reach through retail collaborations such as its partnership with Uniqlo, bringing its characters into limited-edition clothing collections that travel far beyond traditional media distribution.

Building Participation, Not Just Reach

Aardman is increasingly shifting from reach to participation. For the upcoming Shaun the Sheep movie The Beast of Mossy Bottom, the studio launched a TikTok competition inviting fans to prove they were Shaun’s biggest supporter. The winner was transformed into an actual clay character appearing in the film.

The company also launched “The Clay Offs,” an audience voting initiative celebrating Aardman’s top characters across its 50-year history. The results are not just engagement drivers – they are also valuable audience insight. “We’re constantly learning from how fans engage with our characters,” says Hardie. “That feedback is shaping how we think about audience expectations.”

That philosophy extends into physical experiences, too. From immersive exhibitions in London to Shaun the Sheep attractions in Japan – where fans even get married at the themed farm park – Aardman is expanding its IP into real-world experiences that deepen emotional connection beyond the screen.

Why Aardman Started Animating for TikTok

One of the company’s most significant strategic shifts has been creating animation specifically for social media platforms. Historically, Aardman never produced original animation for digital-first channels. That changed with the creation of a dedicated Shaun the Sheep social animation unit producing platform-native content for TikTok and Instagram.

The results have been dramatic: total viewers increased to 5.2 million over 28 days, a 60% increase compared to the previous period. The channel also attracted 1.2 million new viewers to the brand (50% increase), generated a 78% increase in likes and added more than 52,000 new followers (50% increase).

The content taps into meme culture, creator trends and platform behaviour while staying true to Shaun’s personality – turning the character into an active participant in Internet culture rather than simply a TV icon reposted online. “We didn’t want to just post clips from shows,” says Hardie. “We wanted to tell the right stories in the right way for the right platform.”

From Advertising to Entertainment Worlds

Commercial storytelling has also evolved. After more than 40 years creating advertising campaigns for brands, Aardman increasingly sees the future in long-term Branded Entertainment partnerships alongside transactional ads.

Recent collaborations include animated storytelling for Lego, campaigns shot entirely on iPhone for Apple and immersive branded experiences that blur the line between advertising and entertainment. Backed by effectiveness research, Aardman believes great storytelling can create measurable impact for brands. “The best advertising is about putting on a show,” says Hardie. “People want connection, characters and entertainment.”

At 50 years old, Aardman is proving that modern entertainment brands can no longer rely on passive audiences alone. Increasingly, success comes from building worlds audiences can interact with, personalise and feel part of – across every platform and touchpoint.

Behind Brand Entertainment is a series of interviews with producers, studios, distributors and brand leaders exploring how brands and the entertainment industry are collaborating to develop, fund and scale premium content.

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As AI-generated content floods the Internet and audiences spend more time than ever online, an unexpected trend is emerging: younger consumers are increasingly craving physical experiences, tangible products and real-world connection.

That shift is something travel and lifestyle publisher LOST iN has quietly been building its business around

for years. Founded by Jonathan Skogmo, the former founder of Jukin Media, LOST iN started as a premium travel guidebook brand. Today, it spans social video, creator collaborations, memberships, live events and branded partnerships with tourism boards and hospitality brands.

But unlike many digital-first media companies, LOST iN is deliberately investing deeper into the physical world. “We think our books are sacred,” says Skogmo. “We don’t publish the editorial from our books online.” That philosophy feels particularly relevant at a time when entertainment companies are searching for ways to build loyalty beyond algorithms and short-form attention.

From URL to IRL

At the centre of this strategy is a clear audience definition. LOST iN describes its community as “Premium Economy” travellers – younger Millennials and Gen Z consumers who prioritise curation, culture and experiences over traditional luxury.

While the company reaches millions through social media, Skogmo believes digital scale alone no longer creates meaningful connection. “You can get scale digitally,” he says. “But to really gain loyalty and following, I think you need to be in person and be with your fans.” That thinking has led LOST iN further into IRL experiences, from supper clubs to cultural activations and community-led events.

One recent example involved a live tuna-cutting ceremony featuring authentic Japanese drummers and a 150-pound tuna prepared in front of guests. Tickets sold out within 48 hours. For Skogmo, the goal of these events goes beyond entertainment. He wants guests to leave feeling like they experienced something they had never seen before – while also forming genuine connections with other people in the room.

The event itself is telling. In an era where media companies are optimising for clicks and feeds, audiences increasingly seem willing to pay for experiences that feel immersive, memorable and impossible to replicate online.

Physical Media as Identity

Perhaps the most surprising part of LOST iN’s strategy is its continued investment in physical products. At a time when most media businesses are moving toward fully digital ecosystems, LOST iN’s printed guidebooks remain central to the brand.

The company now distributes them through nearly 400 bookstores worldwide. Unlike traditional travel guides aimed at older audiences, LOST iN’s books are intentionally young, culturally plugged-in and slightly edgy – focused less on tourist checklists and more on the local creatives, venues, brands and subcultures shaping a city.

For Skogmo, the resurgence of physical media reflects a broader cultural reaction against digital overload. “I think Gen Z is rebelling against how they grew up,” he explains, referring to a generation raised almost entirely on screens. He points to the return of vinyl records, Polaroid cameras and bookstores as signs of a generation searching for more intentional, tactile experiences.

In a digital landscape increasingly shaped by AI-generated content and algorithmic feeds, physical objects and real-world experiences also create something increasingly valuable: trust and identity.  “The only way to really believe something is real is almost going to be holding it physically,” says Skogmo.

Beyond Advertising

For TV producers, another interesting aspect of LOST iN is its monetisation structure. Rather than relying on a single revenue stream, the business combines media partnerships, branded content, memberships, events and direct-to-consumer products. Skogmo describes it as an interconnected ecosystem where each part strengthens the others – a flywheel.

He adds that this loop is not just theoretical: 77% of guidebook readers reportedly visit the physical location first, then attend an event, and ultimately sign up for a membership, showing how effectively the ecosystem converts audience engagement across touchpoints.

This kind of multi-layered journey is also reflected in its commercial partnerships. A branded tourism partnership, for example, might include social content, creator collaborations, live experiences and physical guidebooks distributed both through retail and directly via the partner itself.

Importantly, some parts of the business are designed less for immediate profit and more for long-term audience loyalty and community-building. That ecosystem approach increasingly mirrors where many entertainment brands are heading as traditional advertising models become less reliable.

Why Music Matters

Looking ahead, the next step for LOST iN is particularly telling. Skogmo revealed that the company is now expanding further into music and artist-led storytelling – an evolution that feels highly aligned with broader entertainment trends around fandom, culture and experiential IP. “Music has always been a big pillar of cities,” he says.

The idea makes sense. Artists touring globally already create cultural narratives around places, communities and identity. Increasingly, those worlds extend far beyond the music itself – into travel, fashion, food, experiences and lifestyle.

For entertainment companies, that may be the bigger lesson. The future of Branded Entertainment may not belong to companies that simply create content for audiences to watch. It may belong to the ones that create worlds audiences want to physically step inside.

Hello new creative era! – by Jo Redfern

15 year old YouTuber Kane Parsons (aka Kane Pixels) helped create the lore of Backrooms after learning Blender during COVID and posting to his channel. Now aged 20, the movie he directed has opened with a $118M worldwide box office.

Iron Lung, made by Markiplier, a YouTube gaming creator whose fan community followed every step from financing to shooting, even saw his fans phoning their local cinemas to request bookings. Both films were built on years of direct relationship between creator and fan, neither relied on traditional marketing but each mobilised young people back into cinemas in their droves, at a time when studios were struggling to do just that.

What this highlights is a new kind of creative era. One where internet lore, creators and crowdsourced characters can become actual movies, games and TV shows. That is not to say Hollywood, nor traditional producers will go extinct, but they are no longer the only ones that decide what gets made and what works. Fans do too.

Similar has happened in kids media, Danny Go! for example built an avid, active fanbase on YouTube and IN countless classrooms before Netflix wanted a piece of the fan-action, and Italian Brainrot – the most outlandish example of kids on the internet taking a cast of characters and running wild with them – has spawned hundreds of games on Roblox, Fortnite, animation on TikTok and is being turned into a movie. All because of the strength of their fandom.

What links them is not budget, genre, or platform. At its simplest, it’s TRUST. The kind earned by showing up consistently, whether they are going from 1 follower to 10, or from 100 to 1,000. They built trust by replying to comments. By being vulnerable. By letting their audience see successes and failures. And in building trust, it becomes fuel for fandom.

The other great thing about fandoms? They’re much easier to mobilise than an ‘audience’. Audience is measured by their presence only, rather than their willingness to buy a ticket, to invest in merch, or to wait by a stage door for a selfie.

When the fan community feel like participants in the IP, like Danny Go!, like Savannah Bananas, like Brainrot characters, like Backrooms, The Amazing Digital Circus and more, the fanbase becomes not just an engine of creativity but also an engine of monetisation.

So, here’s a suggested change in kids and teen media vernacular that I’m proposing, starting at MIPJUNIOR 2026: let’s stop talking about our consumers as ‘audience’ and let’s start serving them as fans – by financing, creating and distributing in a way that encourages active engagement and willingness to mobilise. And by mobilise, that could be to get up and dance, go to show, buy the dress up outfit or buy a cinema ticket.

The old assumption that influencers were only good for driving awareness for what movie theatres showed has been dispelled. Markiplier was not just ‘awareness’ for Iron Lung but rather proof of creator fandom functioning as demand. Markiplier’s community moved from YouTube to ticket purchasers because they trusted the creator first and the movie theatre second. They didn’t need to be ‘made aware’, they were already there, already invested, already mobilised.

Success isn’t a given however. Take MrBeast. 500 million subscribers should make him the ultimate test case for creator-to-Hollywood success but instead, Beast Games on Prime Video has become shorthand for ‘creators cannot do TV’. I think that’s creator-sceptic hyperbole but it does appear to be true that at MrBeast scale, the intimacy that helped build his channel is gone. The trust loop between creator and fan has diluted. The trick is to find the sweet spot where creators can still recognise their fans, learn from them, have fun with them, and convert the relationship into something when the time is right. Theatrical, TV, chocolate bars; anything. You need to be big enough to matter yet feel and act small enough to mean it.

MIPJUNIOR 2026 will put all these trends, questions and considerations front and centre.

Because if this piece proves anything, it’s that the next big kids franchise might not come from where we’re expecting. It could come from a creator, a game, a YouTube channel, a fan community or a piece of internet lore. As the lines between content, creators, gaming and platforms continue to blur, understanding fandom has become just as important as understanding distribution.

The conversation has broadened across the entire kids and family ecosystem, preschool through young adults, stories through franchises, broadcast to social video and gaming and more! The theme is that great IP can come from anywhere, that fans are what we need to make, and that a new era of creativity is flourishing.

If MIPCOM is where deals close, MIPJUNIOR is where they begin.

So, join us at The Palais des Festivals in Cannes on 10-11 October for conversation about what comes next, I will even be there moderating a panel on fandom. Come and find me!

Let’s make a promise not talk about audiences anymore. Instead let’s obsess about our young fans; how we make them, and how we mobilise them.

See you in Cannes.

As governments introduce stricter under‑16 social media rules, new data from The Insights Family reveals a different reality: kids don’t rely on social feeds to discover content. Their discovery journeys are driven by friends, gaming environments and online video, forming a fluid ecosystem that continues to thrive even when platforms are restricted.

The findings show that peer influence, immersive play spaces and video‑led behaviours shape what kids watch, play and share. Roblox acts as a social hub, YouTube remains a constant across markets, and in‑person conversations still rank among the top sharing channels — proving that discovery is distributed, social and resilient.

In this exclusive white paper produced by The Insights Family for MIPJUNIOR 2026, the data makes one thing clear: banning platforms doesn’t stop discovery — it simply redirects it. Brands that understand these pathways gain a strategic advantage.

Download the full white paper for cross‑market insights, behavioural data and strategic takeaways reshaping how 6‑15s discover entertainment today.

Behind Brand Entertainment is a series of interviews with producers, studios, distributors and brand leaders exploring how brands and the entertainment industry are collaborating to develop, fund and scale premium content.

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What happens when Branded Entertainment stops feeling like Marketing?

That question sits at the centre of BRABUS: One Second Wow, the reality-doc hybrid available on Prime Video, developed and produced by LEONINE Studios together with luxury automotive brand BRABUS – and it reflects how quickly the relationship between entertainment and brand strategy are moving closer together.

For Christian Meinberger, Chief Digital Officer at LEONINE & MD i&u Studios, this moment feels fundamentally different from earlier waves of brand-funded content. Having worked in Branded Entertainment since 2012, he argues the term itself no longer fully captures what projects like this are becoming.

In earlier phases, Branded Entertainment was often an extension of Marketing – tied to campaigns, product placement or short-term KPIs. Entertainment came second to commercial objectives.

Today, however, some brands are beginning to operate more like content players themselves, building audiences, ecosystems, and platform-native storytelling approaches. That shift is part of what made BRABUS an interesting creative partner in the first place.

BRABUS: ONE SECOND NOW |Offizieller Trailer | Prime Video

A Project Built Around Story, Not Sales

Interestingly, the series did not originate with BRABUS approaching LEONINE. Meinberger himself became fascinated by the company’s story – particularly the generational shift following the death of founder Bodo Buschmann and the rise of his son Constantin Buschmann as a young CEO transforming BRABUS into a more content-driven lifestyle brand.

After meeting during an industry event in Munich, conversations quickly evolved from a documentary concept into something much larger: an international premium reality-doc hybrid designed specifically for streaming audiences. “The most important thing,” Meinberger explains, “was that it had to be good content people genuinely want to watch – not a 90-minute commercial.”

That audience-first philosophy shaped the entire production. Unlike traditional branded campaigns, the project was not driven by short-term performance KPIs or conversion targets. According to Meinberger, the focus was always on building a series with genuine entertainment value, trusting that audience engagement and long-term brand relevance would follow naturally.

Why Authenticity Became the Real Strategy

One of the biggest creative challenges was balancing brand interests with authentic storytelling. According to Meinberger, BRABUS initially approached the production with a more traditional brand mindset, wanting to present the company in a polished and controlled way. But Meinberger actively pushed for openness, arguing that audiences connect far more deeply with imperfections, tensions and emotionally honest moments. “The interesting moments are the imperfect ones,” Meinberger says. “That’s what audiences connect with.”

Over time, that trust developed and became one of the project’s defining strengths. The series ultimately followed not only the luxury lifestyle associated with BRABUS, but also internal pressures, relationship dynamics and moments of failure that most brands would typically avoid showing publicly.

During filming in Dubai, one moment perfectly captured that philosophy. One of BRABUS’ luxury off-road vehicles became stuck in deep desert sand due to user error. Instead of cutting the scene, the team kept it in the series. For Meinberger, moments like that were essential because audiences no longer respond to overly controlled brand messaging disguised as entertainment.

The Audience Stayed For the People

The series ultimately reached Amazon’s Top 10 and climbed to number one in the documentary category. But perhaps the most revealing insight came from audience reactions. According to Meinberger, viewers became far more invested in the personalities, tensions and relationships behind the company than in the cars themselves. “The brand became the entry point,” he explains, “but the human stories became the reason people kept watching.”

That insight may also explain why producers are increasingly paying attention to Branded Entertainment again.

Why the Industry is Watching Closely

As traditional commissioning slows and financing models become more difficult across the television industry, producers are increasingly exploring alternative partnerships and development structures.

For Meinberger, projects like BRABUS: One Second Wow demonstrate how brands can evolve beyond sponsors and become genuine long-term partners in financing, development and audience building – provided the storytelling itself remains strong enough to stand independently as entertainment.

For producers, this creates entirely new creative and commercial possibilities. But he also warns that success in this space requires a very different mindset from traditional advertising-led content. “Good content will always work,” Meinberger says. “But producers need to rethink everything around it.” They need to think beyond campaign logic and start considering platform strategy, audience behaviour, long-term brand value and entertainment quality simultaneously.

For the television industry, BRABUS: One Second Wow is less a branded series success story than a sign of where things are heading: brands, platforms and premium entertainment increasingly converging.

Behind Brand Entertainment is a series of interviews with producers, studios, distributors and brand leaders exploring how brands and the entertainment industry are collaborating to develop, fund and scale premium content.

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“Creators are the idea, the talent and the distribution.”

It’s a simple line – but it explains why so much Branded Entertainment still struggles to deliver real impact. In my conversation with Gautham Narayanan, Managing Director of VIRTUE Europe – VICE’s creative agency – and Brad Reilly, Chief Creative Officer, what stood out was how fundamentally different their approach is.

While much of the industry still thinks in campaigns or one-off formats, VICE is building systems – where brands, creators and platforms are designed to work together from the start. The result is entertainment that audiences actively choose to engage with, while carrying the brand within it.

From Content to Culture

For VICE, the shift starts with a new take on Branded Entertainment, rooted in a simple truth: entertainment is culture. “Music, podcasts, shows – that’s how people engage with culture today,” Reilly explained. “That’s the fabric of it.”

“It’s less about telling stories about a brand,” he continued, “and more about letting the brand be part of a story, part of a community.” That distinction matters. Instead of interrupting culture, brands are embedded within it – often through collaborations with artists and creators who already have credibility and reach.

F1 and the Rise of Entertainment Ecosystems

A strong example is Formula 1. No longer just a sport, it has evolved into a full-scale entertainment franchise – spanning film, music and live experiences. VICE tapped into that through music, collaborating with artists like Ed Sheeran, Burna Boy and Doja Cat to create content tied to Apple’s F1 film – extending the story beyond the screen.

But the real shift is how far that storytelling extends. “If you went to the Miami Grand Prix, you would see a fictitious team show up,” Reily explained – blurring the line between fiction and reality. Content becomes a world, not a deliverable.

For Narayanan, this “entertainment mindset” drives very tangible business outcomes. It starts by “broadening the church” – moving beyond a core fanbase to reach more casual audiences. From there, brands can cross-pollinate into new categories, attracting different types of sponsors and partners.

The impact goes further. As audiences expand, so does the value of distribution. “Your ability to charge for broadcast rights massively changes,” he noted.

The end goal is clear: build IP that generates value in its own right. “The ambition is to create something that becomes a revenue driver, not a cost centre.”

YouTube and the Creator Advantage

The same thinking applies on YouTube, where VICE is developing original formats built around creators rather than traditional talent.

In Shanked, a scripted comedy set in a golf club, creators didn’t just appear on screen – they helped shape the format and brought built-in distribution. “They came in with 60–70 million followers,” Reilly noted. Creators are no longer just talent; they are part of the development process and the distribution model from day one.

This is where many traditional players fall short. “They think about the content,” Narayanan said, “but not the ecosystem around it.”

Worst Country Club In America | S1 trailer

The Framework, Not the Format

Rather than building ideas around a single piece of IP or a specific creator, VICE focuses on frameworks – flexible branded structures that can evolve over time.

“Create the frame, and let creators play within it,” Reilly said. This allows talent to bring their voice and audience, while the brand remains central and consistent.

The advantage is both creative and commercial: it reduces dependency on individual talent. “If your idea depends on one creator, it’s very risky,” Narayanan said. Instead, frameworks enable multiple collaborations over time, compounding brand equity rather than fragmenting it.

A Different Way of Thinking About Value

Underpinning all of this is a mindset shift that feels almost blunt: “The consumer doesn’t care”, Narayanan said. Which means attention has to be earned – through entertainment that people would actively choose to watch. “If people wouldn’t pay to engage with it,” Reilly continues, “it’s not entertainment.”

And the commercial upside is significant. By thinking like entertainment companies, brands can expand beyond core audiences, attract new partners, and unlock additional revenue streams. For Narayanan, the formula is simple: reach drives fame, and fame drives sales. But before that, every idea must pass three tests: Is the brand essential to the story? Would people choose to watch – or even pay for it? And will it deliver reach at scale? Only then does Branded Entertainment start to work.

Which brings it back to the shift VICE is building around: creators are no longer just talent. They are part of a system where story, talent and distribution are designed together from the start.

A conversation with Greg Dray of Animaj – by Jo Redfern

Kids content is YouTube’s second biggest category, yet it earns less than 2% of the platform’s ad revenue. That gap is hurting the business, it is a structural failure and is pushing premium children’s media towards collapse.

Greg Dray has experienced that tension more than most. As co-founder of Animaj, the Paris and London-based next-generation kids media company, he has spent the past three years building a digital-first franchise model that spans YouTube, TikTok, Spotify and Roblox. Animaj channels have accumulated 85 billion views and 150 million followers. The company raised $85 million in 2025 and is profitable. In early 2026, Google’s AI Futures Fund invested in the business and Disney took them into its 2025 Accelerator.

But none of that fixes the underlying problem the industry faces.

« If we continue like this, we won’t have money to invest into content creation, » Greg told me. « As a community and as an industry, we’re doomed. »

He is not being dramatic. Kids content accounts for around 15% of all YouTube viewership, comparable to music but it only generates around 2% of YouTube’s $40 billion in annual ad revenue. That is not a gap that closes on its own. That gap between consumption and monetisation is pushing premium creators and producers out of the industry and leaving the world’s youngest audiences at risk of being surrounded by sub-par content with no incentive nor business model to fund anything better.

Reaching profitability at Animaj doesn’t represent a fix to the industry issue. In our conversation, Greg was blunt about the scale of the crisis. Less than 20% of kids content views on YouTube are currently monetised, compared to higher rates in other categories. The word « kids » has almost become a toxic label in the creator economy, synonymous with a broken business model, I too have heard it said in other quarters. Being associated with making kids content means the odds are stacked against you in terms of making money. Anecdotally, creators are avoiding tagging content as « Made for Kids » to preserve their ability to earn. Investment is drying up. Premium storytelling is on the verge of disappearing.

The reality is that the funding structures that built the modern kids media economy are no longer able to sustain it. So, what replaces them? Animaj is actively looking at how.

The root cause is both regulatory and technical. COPPA compliance requires contextual-only advertising against kids content, meaning no user data can be used for targeting. YouTube’s auction model depends on data-driven targeting to generate high CPMs. Without that capability, the platform’s pricing mechanism undervalues kids inventory by default – and when the rest of media is increasingly ad driven, data and the ability to value audiences at scale is what the media system functions on.

YouTube’s response has been muted according to Greg, and I see why. When their hands are tied by law and the rest of their platform is making billions in revenue there is little incentive to fix things. I’m not saying it’s right, but I can see why it is the case. As a result, the platform has no kids advertising sales team and although the total global kids advertising market is worth around $4 billion – split roughly evenly between the US and international markets – when compared to YouTube’s $40 billion annual ad revenue, the figure isn’t a sufficient motivator to platform leadership.

Greg described YouTube’s position on the health of the kids content business in blunt terms: « It’s not our problem to resolve. »

Indeed, as advertising and media analyst Ian Whittaker has said, if YouTube persuades TV companies and advertisers that YouTube is the future then the former start to panic and seek to compromise, and YouTube gets to secure their new definition as TV. And advertisers follow, they are switching budgets to the platform. Ian contends that the scariest part is not the speed of change, but how reluctant the industry still is to look it in the eye.

Meanwhile, YouTube continues to benefit from a steady supply of premium children’s content uploaded to its platform for free. The BBC has entered a partnership with YouTube, but in the UK has no commercial expectations from its content presence due to its public service funding. Other traditional media and premium content owners are also adding to the platform, to reach social-first audiences and add to their coffers, but in turn they are aiding the platform’s growth and retention and, in a sense, making the “YouTube is TV” argument self-fulfilling.

ANIMAJ AND HASBRO’S LUMEE

Animaj’s solve for the kids monetisation problem is Lumee, a joint venture with Hasbro that aggregates combined annual YouTube views across a portfolio spanning preschool (Peppa Pig, PJ Masks, Pocoyo, Maya the Bee) through to the harder-to-reach 6-12 demographic (Power Rangers, Transformers, Dungeons and Dragons, Rabbids) and family co-viewing content.

The model breaks with YouTube’s standard approach. Lumee sells ‘reservation media’ only, with no auction-based buying. Advertisers get video-by-video transparency, meaning they know exactly where their ads will run. Contextual targeting allows brands to place ads against specific content types, Nike against sports episodes for example, and the environment provides brand safety guarantees.

But Greg is clear that Lumee alone cannot solve the problem. The ambition is bigger than one company’s commercial success. Partnerships, collaboration, innovation and openness will all be key to kids media’s survival.

Another key to survival is better measurement. There is currently no standardised way to prove co-viewing, despite it being the primary consumption pattern for kids content. A parent watching Peppa Pig with a three-year-old represents a household with purchasing power, but no measurement system captures that value for advertisers. The under-13 audience remains a black box for media buyers. Without measurement, advertisers cannot compare kids content performance against other categories, and without that comparison, budget allocation will continue to flow elsewhere.

« I’m not fighting for the success of my organisation, » Greg said. « I’m fighting for the survival of kids media. » As a result, he wants to build a coalition across Moonbug, Pocket.watch and other major players to create collective pressure for change.

INSIDE THE AI STUDIO

Google’s investment in Animaj through its AI Futures Fund signals that the YouTube’s parent company does see value in AI-accelerated kids content production. Although Greg was keen to point out that doesn’t mean slop. Not from them.

We discussed what the investment means and what’s happening on the studio floor with regards to AI. He describes Google’s engineers coming into the creative process not to dictate, but to listen, to understand what it means to create original, high-quality content and how technology can support that endeavour. “One of our missions is to try to create a symbiotic relationship between the engineer and the artist”, he said. The tools being built and applied to storyboarding, in-betweening and the production pipeline are designed to eliminate administrative and repetitive tasks, not creative ones. He was keen to point out that the front-end creative work remains entirely human-led. The goal is not to replace the spark of creation, but to ensure that artists spend their time on art, not on processes that machines can handle faster.

But with all that, it doesn’t fully solve the kids problem. If a platform doesn’t allow for effective monetisation of kids content, does cheaper production really help? Only partially. For companies like Animaj lower costs do improve margin, but they do not move the CPM. They do not change YouTube’s auction model, nor the regulations that are designed to protect kids, but which also strangle business models. They do not persuade advertisers that the under-13 audience is worth paying to reach. In a market where the core problem is revenue, AI efficiency is not a magic bullet.

So, the argument is not that AI solves the monetisation gap directly but that it buys time and optionality. If you can maintain content quality at a reduced cost, you stay in the game long enough for the commercial infrastructure, coalition-building and measurement standards, to catch up – and it means you don’t go bust waiting for the industry to fix itself. AI-accelerated production works as a survival strategy but only if we fix the revenue side of things. If it does not, cheaper content is still unprofitable content. The clock runs slower, but it still runs.

AND THE CLOCK IS TICKING

The ambition Greg has set is to narrow the gap between kids content’s share of YouTube viewership (15%) and its share of ad revenue (under 2%). Even reaching 10% of ad revenue would represent a transformation for the kids media business.

But the timeline is compressed. Regulatory solutions move slowly and the industry cannot wait seven years for legislative fixes to work through the system. The alternative, if premium content continues to decline, is a kids media ecosystem defined by the cheapest content that algorithms will promote.

Whether Animaj addresses the monetisation crisis or simply accelerates the volume of content on a still-broken model is the question the issue the industry needs to get moving on. What Animaj is betting is that enough people inside the system now care enough to fix it. Kids media cannot afford for that bet to be wrong. The stakes are high, so I hope they succeed.

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Behind Brand Entertainment is a series of interviews with producers, studios, distributors and brand leaders exploring how brands and the entertainment industry are collaborating to develop, fund and scale premium content.

This week, we feature Adam Puchalsky, President of the Brand Studio at Blink49 Studios.

“Entertainment can solve business challenges in ways traditional advertising often can’t.”

For Adam Puchalsky, President of the Brand Studio at Blink49 Studios, that’s where much of the industry still gets Branded Entertainment wrong.

As producers, broadcasters and streamers increasingly turn to brands as potential funding partners, the conversation often centres on integration – where a product fits within a show, or how visible a brand can be on screen. But according to Puchalsky, that approach misses the point.

“What I’ve often seen is that brand integrations increase awareness but don’t necessarily address the brand’s underlying business challenge,” he says. “People think about adjacency rather than asking what message needs to be communicated and what outcome they are trying to achieve.”

From Visibility to Value

While Branded Entertainment is often framed as a new opportunity, Puchalsky argues it is better understood as an evolution.

“Brands have been funding entertainment since the beginning of entertainment itself,” he says. “The difference today is that brands are looking for ways to communicate in a fragmented media landscape where audiences have more choice than ever.”

In that environment, visibility alone is no longer enough. Instead, brands are looking for content that can shift perception, change behaviour or address a specific communication challenge.

For producers, that requires a fundamental shift in thinking – from pitching formats to solving problems.

The Difference a Strategy Makes

Puchalsky points to a project developed during his agency years to illustrate the gap between traditional campaigns and strategic storytelling.

At the height of the pandemic, research suggested a significant rise in mental health issues. The challenge was not simply to raise awareness, but to encourage people to talk more openly.

“The communication problem was that people understand how long it takes to heal a physical injury,” he explains. “But when it comes to your brain, people don’t know how long recovery might take, so they often stay silent.”

Instead of launching a conventional campaign, the team created a comedy documentary called Group Therapy featuring comedians sharing their experiences in a group therapy setting.

The result was both critically and commercially successful, winning two Gold Lions and a Silver Lion at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

“The film moved the conversation forward,” Puchalsky says. “And because it was real entertainment, it could also live across marketing and social channels.”

A Gap between Producers and Brands

Despite the growing interest in brand-funded content, Puchalsky believes there is still a disconnect between how producers approach projects and how brands think.

“Producers often call brands, but they don’t necessarily understand how those organisations operate,” he says. “You need people who understand both the language of marketing and the language of entertainment.”

That gap can lead to missed opportunities – particularly in a market where traditional commissioning is under pressure and alternative funding models are becoming more important.

For producers, the implication is clear: Success in Branded Entertainment depends less on the format itself and more on understanding the strategic objectives behind it.

Rethinking the Role of Brands

At Blink49 Studios, this thinking shapes how projects are developed. Some originate from the studio’s slate, while others begin with a brand challenge – but in both cases, the goal is the same.

“We start by creating entertainment that audiences want to seek out,” Puchalsky says. “If a brand’s objective fits naturally within that, then we explore how it can add value.”

As the role of brands in the industry continues to evolve, Puchalsky believes the ambition should go far beyond funding.

“I want the work we do to win the biggest awards in entertainment,” he says. “Oscars, Emmys, Grammys, Tonys – and for the brand involved to be proud to stand behind them.”

Behind Brand Entertainment is a series of interviews with producers, studios, distributors and brand leaders exploring how brands and the entertainment industry are collaborating to develop, fund and scale premium content.

This week, we feature Carlotta Rossi-Spencer, Global Head of Branded Entertainment Business Development at Banijay Entertainment.

“If it looks like a long ad, it won’t travel.”

That’s how Carlotta Rossi Spencer, Global Head of Branded Entertainment Business Development at Banijay Entertainment, describes the biggest challenge facing brand-funded shows with international ambitions.

In a market where tightening commissioning budgets are pushing producers and broadcasters toward alternative financing models, the real question is no longer whether brands can fund content, but whether that content can become genuine, travelable IP. For Rossi Spencer, the answer is yes. But only if Branded Entertainment is developed with the same format discipline as any other global franchise.

Travel Starts with Format DNA

At Banijay Entertainment, branded projects are assessed through the same lens as any other non-scripted format. “We are entertainers, we’re not in the advertising business,” Rossi Spencer says. “Regardless of the fact it’s in collaboration with a brand; the format still needs to work.”

One example is Hairstyle – The Talent Show with Alfaparf – a hairstyling competition originating in Spain that expanded into five territories. Its scalability had less to do with sponsorship and everything to do with clear competition beats and repeatable structure.

The same logic applies to branded extensions of established IP. In Germany, a Twitch-streamed, creator edition of Big Brother – Big Brother Knossi Edition – worked because the underlying format mechanics were already globally proven.

In Italy, Maître Chocolatier, a chocolate-creation competition developed with Lindt follows familiar talent show rhythms, as does Mistura Beirão – a mixology competition format created in partnership with premium Portuguese liqueur Licor Beirão.

And in the UK, the revival of Secret Life of 5 Year Olds demonstrated how a catalogue format can re-emerge with brand-backing without losing its format integrity.

“These are the ones that work best,” Rossi Spencer explains, pointing to factual entertainment, cooking competitions, and transformation formats. Universal skills. Clear jeopardy. Repeatable beats. Her advice is simple: “Stick to the format. Stick to very recognisable beats.”

What Stops a Branded Format from Travelling?

If scalability starts with format DNA, it can just as easily be undermined by integration choices. “If it’s too much brand, too much product placement, if it looks like a long ad, then it won’t travel,” Rossi Spencer says. International buyers need flexibility. If a format cannot be reversioned without a specific sponsor, its export value drops dramatically.

Over-localisation presents another barrier. “If it’s a documentary about a very local story, then you can’t really push it to other territories.” Travelable IP requires modularity – the ability to adapt casting, tone and cultural nuance while preserving core mechanics. “This is something we have unrivalled success in, with 30 formats produced in 3+ territories – from MasterChef to Big Brother”, Rossi Spencer adds. In short, the show must survive without the original brand attached. If removing the sponsor breaks the format, it was never true IP.

Rights and Catalogue Strategy

From a protection standpoint, branded formats are treated like any other format within Banijay Entertainment’s ecosystem. “For us, it’s the same as the protection of a format,” Rossi Spencer notes. Once aired, the show enters the IP and catalogue structure.

While brands may negotiate certain rights, Banijay Entertainment does not relinquish 100% of the IP. Retaining catalogue inclusion strengthens long-term value, especially when looking at secondary territories and windowing strategies.

For distributors, that alignment is key: a branded show that sits comfortably within a broader format portfolio is far easier to position internationally.

The Strategic Shift

Perhaps the most significant evolution is strategic rather than creative. Brands increasingly understand that long-form entertainment functions differently from a 30-second campaign.

“The complete impact will be visible after a year”, Rossi Spencer says, describing the long-tail impact of series-based collaborations. That longevity makes repeatable formats more attractive than one-off branded specials.

For the industry, the implication is clear: Branded Entertainment becomes travelable IP when it is developed with format logic first, sponsor logic second. As Rossi Spencer puts it: “It’s always about the format at the end of the day.” And in a global market built on adaptable ideas, that principle remains unchanged – regardless of who is funding the show.

At MIPCOM, Jasmine Dawson, Senior Vice President, Digital at BBC Studios, highlighted during the YouTube keynote that they now have social-first sales teams. That may sound operational. In reality, it signals a structural shift: social distribution is no longer just marketing. It is becoming a revenue stream.

And companies operating in this space are already adjusting to that reality. “The boundaries between TV and digital no longer exist,” says Yiğit Doğan Çelik, CEO of Merzigo, which manages and monetises TV IP on YouTube and AVOD platforms.

He argues that platforms such as YouTube and Facebook now dominate the global media ecosystem, particularly on the TV screen, creating new distribution opportunities for premium content owners.

For producers and distributors, that is not a philosophical statement. It is a commercial one. If audiences are consuming premium content on connected TVs via YouTube, then AVOD becomes part of the formal windowing conversation.

Discoverability Is the New Battleground

The scale of competition is unprecedented, though. “The biggest challenge today is discoverability with millions of videos uploaded every hour,” Çelik notes. “In order to be successful in building reach, awareness and ultimately revenue, a smart optimisation and monetisation strategy is required.”

In other words, just uploading your content is no longer enough.

Historically, many broadcasters treated YouTube as a promotional outlet – clips, short-form highlights, occasional catch-up episodes. But managing full libraries at scale requires something closer to broadcast discipline.

Merzigo describes its approach as treating YouTube “as a true broadcaster.” That means planning weekly programming schedules, optimising for watch time and adapting formats across multiple languages.

“We upload over 6000 unique videos a day from our library of partner content totalling over 400,000 hours,” Çelik says. “We want to make the complex simple and predictable for our partners.”, pointing to a combination of proprietary technology and a 24/7 global team managing over 5,000 channels across territories.

For broadcasters and distributors, the relevance lies less in the volume itself and more in what that scale enables: consistent programming, data-led optimisation and structured monetisation. If AVOD is now a defined revenue window, it requires editorial, commercial and technical specialisation.

Originals Signal a Primary Window

That logic is no longer limited to library exploitation. Increasingly, premium content is being developed with YouTube as the primary distribution environment rather than a secondary outlet.

Merzigo’s report on Qesma W Naseeb – a popular Arabic Reality TV show and social experiment focused on dating, produced exclusively for YouTube – illustrates how premium episodic content is being commissioned specifically for YouTube, with roll-out strategy and monetisation designed for the platform from day one.

For producers and Branded Entertainment teams, that shift affects how projects are commissioned, financed and integrated with sponsors. Structured publishing models, audience data and built-in monetisation allow brand integrations to sit within long-form series rather than as one-off activations.

The Market Is Moving

Recent developments across the industry reinforce this trend. For example, ITV has expanded its YouTube sales roster with Banijay Rights and Banijay UK, adding titles including Peaky Blinders, MasterChef and Would I Lie to You? to its commercial offering.

Meanwhile, Amazon made the first season of Fallout available for free on YouTube ahead of its next instalment, using AVOD as a sampling window to expand audience reach. These are structured commercial decisions, not experiments.

Çelik argues that rights holders who embrace a structured approach can unlock additional value from their libraries. “Our end-to-end service ecosystem, from channel management and content production to localisation, and rights protection gives a full service to broadcasters and distributors wanting to embrace AVOD,” he says. “We optimise every piece of content to unlock its full revenue potential delivering measurable results for our partners as the fight for attention increases.”

The Strategic Question for the Market

As broadcasters formalise social-first sales teams and integrate YouTube inventory into premium advertising conversations, AVOD is becoming embedded in the revenue infrastructure of TV IP.

For producers, distributors and Branded Entertainment teams, the question is no longer whether YouTube matters. It is whether AVOD is being treated with the same strategic discipline as linear and streaming – and whether the capability to operate it at scale exists internally or needs to be built through specialist partners.

The regulatory wave is coming, and it’s picking up speed. Australia has banned social media for under-16s. France is eyeing September 2026 for enforcement. Denmark is watching closely. The US state of Virginia proposed a one-hour social media limit for minors. And last month, Disney was slapped with fines for violating children’s privacy laws on YouTube in the US.

If you make or manage kids content, you’d be forgiven for reading that list and feeling the walls close in.

It’s difficult to argue against regulation when discussing kids’ safety online. Many will imply that your motivation is somehow nefarious, too commercial or that you simply don’t care enough about children. But in regulating bad content and access to it out of the way of kids, we’re creating conditions that could drive producers, creators and investors out of the kids market altogether. And when that happens, we won’t get a safer internet for children. We get a content void. Market failure.

It’s not just governmental policy bringing disincentives to the industry. Platform pressure, however overdue, carries its own risks. YouTube’s recent test illustrates a tension. They rolled out AI moderation software that is intended for child protection, but it can morph into creator punishment.

YouTube’s AI determines whether users are under 18 based on their activity. Sounds reasonable, right? Protect kids even if they lie about their age?  Except there’s a problem: if YouTube’s AI decides your audience skews young (even if you never tagged your content as Made for Kids) your revenue gets throttled automatically. Non-personalised ads. Algorithmic restriction. The MFK treatment, whether you opted in or not.

For creators already navigating the world’s most opaque algorithm, this is existential. You can’t strategise against criteria you can’t see and you’re essentially playing roulette with your livelihood, and creators will increasingly avoid making anything that could even unintentionally appeal to kids. When creators can’t understand the rules, they can’t adapt. And making a living on YouTube was already hard before AI started making revenue decisions for them.

The Economics are breaking further.

Let’s be crystal clear about the business reality. Kids content on YouTube operates under COPPA restrictions that slash ad revenue by up to 95%. CPMs are so low as to be largely immaterial unless at significant scale. Now layer on platform bans. Add AI systems that can effectively recategorise your content and the question is obvious, why would anyone rational still be making kids content?

The unintended consequence is that independent creators decide kids content is too high-risk for too little reward.

We saw this with COPPA’s initial impact. The creators who could pivot did. The ones who couldn’t either accepted poverty-level returns or quit. What remained were the scaled operations like Moonbug, who could weather low CPMs through sheer volume, and even then investors get twitchy.

So who’s left? The legacy players who are already in defensive mode. Paramount, laying off Nickelodeon staff. Sky Kids, which ceased commissioning originals in 2025. They aren’t positioned to fill the gap; they’re already trying to survive their own structural challenges.

Same goes for public broadcasters: The BBC, the ABC, PBS are commissioning less kids content whilst arguing their own value proposition with their respective governments. Most of them are broke, and the idea that regulation will naturally create opportunities for legacy or public media assumes resources and mandates that largely no longer exist.

A Market Failure scenario – we must consider it.

Regulation tightens. Platforms de-risk by restricting kids content. Independent creators exit because the economics don’t work. Legacy players are cutting budgets. Public broadcasters aren’t able to scale to meet demand.

What fills the void?

The best case is a handful of well-funded producers make content that satisfies the regulatory checkboxes but at the cost of creative. We get content that nobody loves but nobody gets sued over.

If we’re more realistic: a fragmented landscape of VPN’s, age-verification workarounds, kids hiding in internet corners, content sharing on closed social platforms. The exact opposite of what regulation intended to achieve.

None of this is an argument against protecting children online. The exploitative content, the attention-hacking tricks, the data harvesting – all of it needs addressing. But there’s a difference between smart regulation that creates guardrails and blunt regulation that burns down the ecosystem.

Right now I believe that we’re heading toward the latter. We’re creating a regulatory environment where the safest business decision is simply not to make kids content at all. The low barriers to entry that had democratised content creation will be rebuilt, higher than ever.

What happens next?

We’re at an inflection point. The permissive era of YouTube-first strategies and low-barrier content creation is ending. That’s probably inevitable and not entirely bad. But if we’re not careful, we’ll regulate ourselves into a market failure where kids content becomes economically unviable for everyone except the organisations least equipped to innovate.

The regulatory reckoning is here and there’s no doubt we need it. But are we protecting children by improving content, or protecting them by ensuring there’s barely any content left to consume?

Welcome to 2026, where the challenge isn’t creating great kids media. It’s whether anyone will still find it worth creating at all.

FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV) is rapidly becoming a core part of Europe’s streaming landscape, reshaping content distribution, monetisation models and audience reach. As platforms scale and strategies evolve, understanding the FAST ecosystem is now essential for content owners, buyers and distributors.

Produced by the FAST4EU consortium, the FAST in Europe white paper provides a clear overview of the European FAST market, exploring growth drivers, platform strategies, monetisation approaches and territory-specific dynamics. Designed as a practical industry resource, it offers data-led insights to support decision-making in an increasingly competitive ad-supported environment.

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