The YouTube Animation Revolution is Upon Us

The Information has reported that as streamers like AMZN, AAPL, NFLX & Hulu compete for audience share among families and children, these services are paying 2x for animated shows as traditional networks.

However, this new Golden Age of animation extends beyond the premium streamers to YouTube. Historically, original animation struggled on the UGC platform, largely due to the high costs of producing animated content on a weekly basis, but this trend is starting to shift. Over the past 6+ months, my Content Strategy team at Viacom Velocity has been seeing overwhelming success among a few channels and shows on YouTube, and growing, which feature less production intensive animated series like TheOdd1sOut and Domics. The winning animated formats on the platform are short form, lo-fi and easy to produce at a rate that enables success on YouTube's content hungry algorithm. This includes animated vlogs, draw-my-life videos and personal anecdotes, which stand in contrast to the fictional narratives being produced for streaming and linear.

As a long-time fan of MTV's Liquid Television in the 90's through Adult Swim in the '10's, I'm excited to see the next Beavis & Butthead that emerges from this nascent DIY animation scene.