Exclusive Interview: Maker Studios’ Ynon Kreiz

PREMIUM: World Screen talks with Ynon Kreiz, the CEO of Maker Studios, which is the largest content network on YouTube, representing 55,000 creators whose short-form videos attract some 11 billion views each month and more than 650 million subscribers.

WS: What appealed to you about joining Maker?
KREIZ: It was a combination of things. I saw the growth around short-form video content even while I was at Endemol. I could see how rapidly this industry was growing and I wanted to get into the space, initially as an investor. At the time I met most of the main players on YouTube and within what was quite a crowded environment at the time, Maker stood out as a company that in my mind represented the most exciting part of this space. It had a strong focus on quality content, with great creators, and that’s what I believed would be the most relevant and impactful way to get into this new medium.

WS: Is the content that Maker represents a complete departure from traditional long-form content? Some people think short-form is long-form but just shorter, or is it a different kind of content altogether?
KREIZ: It is a different medium and many people make the mistake and think it’s like long-form but shorter. It’s not a departure in terms of its strong focus on storytelling and quality content. That is still very much the same; you can’t get away from that. But it’s a different medium in the way you consume it, how you produce it, how you measure it, how you commercialize it, how you share it, how you market it. The closest way to think about it is the difference between movies and television; in the same way, short-form is as different a medium relative to other forms of video content.

WS: Would you give some examples of successful producing, monetizing and marketing of this short-form content?
KREIZ: I can point to many examples, but an easy one is Epic Rap Battles of History, one of our main franchises and one of the most successful online series. Today it has already generated north of 2 billion views with over 50 episodes. It’s a show we produce and is led by the two creators, our partners Nice Peter and Epic Lloyd, who have been doing such an amazing job in creating the show and performing in it. These two extremely creative guys have managed to build a franchise and make it a global hit. This is one prime example of how you turn great content into such a successful franchise.

WS: Is it easier to get a large-scale audience on the Internet than getting a high rating on a linear television channel?
KREIZ: It’s actually quite hard because the Internet is so crowded, but if you are successful and your content is appealing, then it becomes very achievable. You are not dependent on the decision of a network executive or a head of programming to decide if your content is good or not. It’s much more democratized and you can successfully reach an audience. In that sense, by the way, there are no shortcuts. You can’t fake it and you can’t reach a lot of people if your content is not good, because it is completely disintermediated and people either like your content or they don’t. You can’t just promote it if there is no merit. But if it is successful, reaching a vast audience is much more achievable and more dependent on the quality of the content. It’s important to point out that the content has to be organic. It has to be authentic. It has to be endemic and that is why it is so unique and special and requires this special skill set.

WS: What is the ratio between people who want to be represented by Maker and those who are selected, and how do you make the selection?
KREIZ: We get between 10,000 and 15,000 new creators a day that come to our site to initiate the whole onboarding process. By the end of the day we select about 100. Initially the selection is more algorithmic and it’s more a process driven by technology, where we look at copyright and other issues just to create an initial filter. In the end it’s an editorial decision. We look for people we believe have a high potential for success and fit our editorial framework and those get onto the network and we have them maximize their reach and monetization to the highest degree.

WS: Speaking of monetization, how are the CPMs that you are seeing on the channels Maker represents, and on other YouTube channels, compared to CPMs in television?
KREIZ: It varies. It’s not really comparable, although obviously being a commercial enterprise we are very focused on monetization. So at Maker it’s a combination of CPMs and also reach. Whereas in television the audience is defined and more finite, here you see a continuous growth of monetization. And we’ve been pretty good at it and we continue to grow economically. We always want more. But we’re pretty happy with the growth so far.

WS: Why was the deal with Disney important and how will Disney and Maker benefit from it?
KREIZ: The deal with Disney was transformational not just for Maker but for the short-form industry because this is the first time that such a large media company entered YouTube through the front door. For us it gave Maker access to the best content, the best IP and the best franchises in the universe. No one company comes close to Disney when it comes to the strength of their content and programming. That in itself was key because, as I said earlier, we are very focused on quality content and consumer experience, and there is no better partner than Disney to help us facilitate that. For Disney we provide expertise, unique technology with access to data and analytics to expand their existing businesses into short-form. Disney is already successful in everything they do and now they can expand into this new medium. It was a great fit and as different as the two companies are, they are both focused on quality programming and consumer experience.

WS: You have plans to offer the best of Maker Studios as branded blocks to pay-TV and free-TV outlets. How would that work?
KREIZ: We are looking to extend our reach into all outlets where we can find people. Not everybody is on YouTube, and not everybody is online all the time. So we have announced an arrangement with Dish whereby we extend our offering to Dish’s new OTT service, Sling TV. Likewise we are looking at other opportunities to extend our content into more traditional distribution media, but always leveraging our expertise in the millennial market category and leveraging our online talent.

WS: How do you see Millennials’ tastes and viewing habits influencing the way content is produced, monetized, marketed and consumed as we go forward? Will they have a big impact on the industry?
KREIZ: Huge impact. Millennials’ behavior is not what we were used to when we grew up. When you look at their content, it’s being consumed and shared and selected in different ways. It’s a very difficult audience category to reach and engage. All the research shows that they look at traditional media differently and they spend their time online, so you have to be a very proactive player in the online space to be successful with this demographic.

WS: They also seem to not to want to pay for anything. The older Millennials grew up with the idea that if something is on the Internet, it’s free. Do you see that mindset changing?
KREIZ: Pay services are a different proposition from ad-supported services, not just in the way you charge, but the entire offering has a different DNA. It’s yet to be proven that Millennials would be willing to pay for that. There are different services that have tried [to charge for content]. It remains to be seen if they will be successful.