Launching a TV channel typically starts with zeroing in on a specific target audience or a genre to program around. Figuring out how to sell ads against that programming comes later – you know, once there’s inventory to pitch.
But for Creator TV, a free ad-supported TV (FAST) streaming channel that went live in January, things happened the other way around.
Parent company Sabio Holdings already owns CTV ad platform Sabio and App Science, a measurement company with a household graph that claims to represent 70% of all US streaming households.
What’s been missing from this equation, according to Sabio CEO and Co-Founder Aziz Rahimtoola, is content from “diverse creators.” As a minority-owned company focused on reaching diverse audiences, Sabio is in a good position to monetize this type of content, he told AdExchanger.
Creator TV was first soft launched in October 2023 as “SabioTV,” an Android app that’s still technically available to download.
Since then, it rebranded and struck distribution deals with FAST services, including Plex and Sling TV. The programming is primarily repackaged, older YouTube content from creators who first achieved success on other social video platforms.
But Sabio says it’s confident Creator TV will eventually become a home for quality, original content that viewers – and perhaps more importantly brands – will find appealing.
The platform
Sabio, which means “wise man” in Spanish, was founded in 2014 with the goal of connecting advertisers with underrepresented audiences.
Rather than partnering with an existing demand-side platform, Sabio decided to build its own, something Rahimtoola says he was initially criticized for but felt was necessary to properly reach diverse consumers.
In 2017, Sabio launched its own dedicated analytics arm, App Science, which developed a cross-platform measurement system based on mobile IDs and CTV viewer data.
Most of Sabio’s clients are large agencies and Fortune 500 advertisers, said EVP of Product Simon Wong, but the company is also hoping to entice smaller brands with access to its household graph through App Science.
“We have clients who will buy all audiences from us,” said Liz Blacker, Sabio’s EVP of strategy and business development. “They’ll buy general market, Hispanic, Asian and African American [audiences] from us, or they’ll cherry pick depending on their KPIs.”
That Sabio can perform analytics and validate these audiences is what will set Creator TV apart from other FAST channels and independent content providers, Rahimtoola said.
“We’re in the process of providing content and we’re also monetizing and providing insights,” he added. “No one today is doing all three.”
The brand
To flesh out the concept for what would become Creator TV, Rahimtoola reached out to two former colleagues with experience in TV production, Joe Ochoa and Charlie Ibarra.
Ochoa, now a co-founder and VP at Creator TV, worked with Rahimtoola at NBC News and once co-owned a production company with him over a decade ago. Meanwhile, Ibarra, who serves as head of content and is also a co-founder, previously worked in ad tech at Celtra and Flashtalking. He and Rahimtoola happened to work in the same building at one point, before he eventually moved on to screenwriting and unscripted show development.
Both Ochoa and Ibarra were excited by Sabio’s mission statement of connecting brands with diverse audiences, as well as the potential of blending user-generated, creator-owned content with traditional TV story structure.
From that starting point, the pair began developing the channel’s brand identity, drawing on Ochoa’s early experience as an associate producer at MTV in the mid 2000s. They gravitated toward creators who specialize in comedy and entertainment with a positive message, meaning none of the mean-spirited pranks or angry “gamer bro” content one often finds on YouTube.
“The full promise of working with creators is not only are there efficiencies in production because they wear so many hats, but there’s also built-in promotion,” said Ibarra, adding that their criteria for choosing creator partners goes beyond who has the most followers.
They look at the quality of the content, he said, and whether it will “stand up to a television experience.”
The content
Ibarra and Ochoa told AdExchanger that the Creator TV team is actively working on creating original shows for the channel with support from creative partners, including Izzie Pick Ibarra, executive producer of “Dancing with the Stars” and “Masked Singer.” (She also happens to be Charlie Ibarra’s wife.)
For now, though, the content available on Creator TV is licensed from creators and edited into 30-minute episodes based on common themes. The videos are formatted both horizontally and vertically.
“Latinos Be Like,” for example, is a clip show of sketches about Cuban American life created by Jenny Lorenzo, one of the co-founders of BuzzFeed’s “Pero Like.” “Blinded By The White,” meanwhile, is licensed from stand-up performer and former Vine star Trey Kennedy, who, as the show title denotes, is himself white. And then there’s “The Uncle Roger Show” starring Malaysian comedian Nigel Ng, who teams up with celebrity chefs and reviews viral food content in the guise of a middle-aged, Cantonese-accented character.
The appeal is obvious to the creators themselves, said Rahimtoola. Turning their existing work into glorified reruns helps them diversify their revenue, and they can also generate more granular insights about their content than they’re able to get from YouTube, Instagram or TikTok, he said.
But what about the viewing experience?
It might not even occur to fans of Jenny Lorenzo or Trey Kennedy to look for their content elsewhere when they can just watch it directly on YouTube – especially now that TV has officially surpassed mobile and desktop as the No. 1 device for YouTube viewing, as CEO Neal Mohan revealed earlier this year.
There’s also no getting around the fact that, right now at least, watching YouTube on a TV is a far better user experience than on Plex. Although live TV channels on Plex are easily searchable via desktop browser, on a television set it’s not possible to find Creator TV without scrolling through at least a hundred other channels first. There’s also no way to pause the feed, no way to turn on closed captions and only one series – “The Uncle Roger Show” – is available on demand.
Still, there’s hope for improvement, especially as Sabio begins to license its channels to other FAST streaming services with different interfaces. And once original content is available, there’ll also be more incentive for fans to cross over from YouTube – as well as more monetization options beyond traditional ad formats, such as product placement and sponsorships.
Until then, though, the novelty of Creator TV might help Sabio get its foot further in the door when talking to their real target market: advertisers.
After all, Blacker said, “when you’re in sales and marketing, you always want new things to talk about.”
