Indie Nutopia has launched a new digital first studio.
The new venture will take premium factual entertainment direct-to-consumer through “partnerships with A-list stars and blue-chip brands,” publishing to YouTube with talent sharing creative control and a stake in what their shows earn.
Nutopia Founder and CEO Jane Root set out the ambition in a live recording of the podcast The Town with Matthew Belloni at the Edinburgh TV Festival, saying: “We love working for Disney and we love working for Netflix. But everybody wants some skin in the game now, and that includes the stars. These are people who’ve spent their careers being hired to make other people’s things. The feeling that they don’t get to do quite what they want to do is a big deal for them, and that’s what we’re answering.”
Root announced that Youtopia’s slate includes Trevor Noah’s World Tour, a travelogue made in partnership with Noah and Day Zero Productions. YouTube featured the series as the centrepiece of its “YouTube is TV Now” Brandcast presentation earlier this year, hosted by Noah himself. Root also named Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum among the stars Youtopia is working in partnership with, with further series to be announced.
Simon Willgoss, Nutopia’s Chief Creative Officer, added: “The people we work with have enormous reach, but they also have real passions and stories they’ve never found the right home for. Meanwhile the audiences we know well are increasingly moving to YouTube – and watching in new ways, including on TV screens. We’re not trying to replicate what already works there, we’re building for its next stage – and putting those two things together feels like the obvious next move for us.”
Jon Creamer
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