The Creator Economy Just Got a Seat at Every Table That Matters

Film festivals, Washington lobbying, trade conferences, and the C-suite all made room for creator-native business this week, each in its own way.

Today at a GlanceYouTube at the festivals: Five creator-led shows premiered at Venice and Toronto in the same September, a first for the platform.Streamers team up in DC: Netflix, Amazon and YouTube formed the Streaming Access and Choice Alliance to defend sports streaming against a growing political backlash over cost and access.Paramount-Warner talks progress: Settlement terms with California's attorney general are starting to leak, though not every state AG is on board yet.MIPCOM widens its net: The October trade show is building out entire tracks for vertical series and generative AI alongside its traditional TV business.Also this week: Disney names its first-ever chief technology officer, pulling him straight out of Character.AI.YouTube spent this September doing something it's never done before: putting its own creators on the same stage as studio premieres, twice, at two of the world's most prestigious film festivals. That alone would be a solid story. But it landed in a week crowded with other signals about where power in media is actually sitting right now. Netflix, Amazon and YouTube quietly formed a joint lobbying group in Washington to defend the sports paywalls that ha...