YouTube Originals Comes To Africa

One of the biggest projects for creators on the biggest video platform in the world is launching soon

In January of 2022 The Verge reported that YouTube will stop making most original shows. The video platform started YouTube Originals in 2016 as a strategy to compete with the rising popularity of Netflix which houses mostly original content. The initial YouTube Originals projects included big names such as Pewdie-Pie, Katy Perry and the Sidemen who were all given very sizeable budgets to create sizeable projects for YouTube Originals.

The project was headed up by Susanne Daniels who left her role as Global Head of Original Content at YouTube in March of this year. The decision to scale back original content is partly due to Daniels’ exist. The other reason for scaling back original content by YouTube is because the released versions of YouTube Originals did not perform as expected in the market. YouTube will now focus on funding projects through the Black Voices Creator Fund and the YouTube Kids Fund.

The important thing to note with the January announcement is that YouTube would be scaling back YouTube Originals and not completely scrapping the project. Of course a scaling back means a significant decrease in the budget that can be allocate to each individual project. This may mean the company will opt to rather fund medium sized projects as opposed to large productions that include very expensive celebrities.

Ash Greenwood, the Creative Executive at YouTube Originals EMEA announced at the beginning of this month that a portion of the $100 Million Black Voices Fund has been allocated for YouTube Originals. Greenwood has called for creators, producers and production houses across Africa to bring their ideas to the YouTube Originals team for consideration. Considering the very strenuous process of getting an Originals idea from inception to production and release, we will likely only see the first Originals project from Africa in the next two years.

Before the scaling back of the Originals budget, an African original would have likely gone to either a music artist or a celebrity famous across the continent. In the past, YouTube did not have public calls for submissions for Originals projects. Given that there is a scale back in the budget and the public calls for idea submissions, it is likely that YouTube is looking for creators already on the platform as opposed to traditional celebrities for the Africa rollout of Originals.

Africa has recently had the second class of creators included in the YouTube Black Voices Creator Fund where the company will be giving both financial and other forms of support to creators who are in the fund. Creators are estimated to be getting between R250 000-R500 000 from the fund which will be an incredible benefit to get the channels of these creators to the next level. The addition of African Originals to the investment YouTube is making to the African market is an indicator that they have identified value that can be extracted from this market.

Both Black Voices Creator Fund and Originals comes at a time when the YouTube creator landscape is in desperate need of investment. As it currently stands, the only investment into the YouTube landscape happening in South Africa are creators using money earned from sponsored videos to upskill their equipment and production value. Not only will we be seeing infinitely better quality videos but there will also be a broadening in the kind of videos that creators can make without the limitation of a small budget.

Production houses and creators interested in pitching for a YouTube Original send an email to ytosubmissions@google.com