Welcome to Deadline’s International Disruptors, where we shine a spotlight on key executives and companies outside of the U.S. shaking up the offshore marketplace. This week we’re talking to Adam Harris at London-headquartered Gaggl. As the TV biz grapples with how to align with the creator economy, he tells us about making TV for the Fortnite generation.
What happens when you take an evergreen format like Family Feud or The Price Is Right and hand it over to a new-school streamer or creator? Gaggl hopes you get a Boomer-meets-Gen-Z experience and that ‘creator-hosted TV’ will attract audiences and advertisers while handing TV distributors a fresh way to monetize their libraries.
It’s the brainchild of Adam Harris, Greg Miall and James Duffield. Harris and Duffield were formerly at Amazon-owned live-streaming platform Twitch and the former describes Gaggl as the upcycling of TV into a new format.
Linear TV is mostly the preserve of an older crowd while Millennials have shifted to on-demand services, which leaves room for another category of would-be TV viewer, Harris says. “When I was at Twitch, I saw consumption behaviors are transforming into a third group. Young people are in far more gamified environments. Everything they do in life is gamified from buying a coffee in Starbucks to spending time in real-time environments, like Roblox or Fortnite. They’ve grown up with smartphones and interactive technology and they expect to be able to be part of the narrative. There’s a new potential opportunity for TV in this space. It doesn’t have to be that lean-back experience that first two generations were.”
Gaggl’s solution is to provide a platform for verified creators and streamers. It is filled with TV shows that they can then stream to their fans, who can comment, join in debates and play along. Gameshows are tailor-made for the experience and reality and unscripted also work well, Harris reports. The likes of Deadliest Catch and Ghost Hunters sit on the platform alongside quiz and gameshow such as Supermarket Sweep and Taskmaster.
The Evidence: Depp Vs. Heard
The Gaggl team point to an unlikely watershed moment for this kind of creator-hosted fare: the Depp Vs. Heard trial. Creators live-streamed in droves, commenting and discussing on the trial in real time. “That’s where the idea came from,” Harris says. “We realized, not only do people want to watch with others, they want to be part of it. If it’s presented by people they know, in the language they know, there is a whole new social TV viewing experience.”
Legality is a key point. Creators have streamed shows like MasterChef and gotten decent traction, but because they were effectively pirating the content, no-one could legitimately monetize that engagement and content gets taken down. It’s safe bet that most creators are not well-versed in TV distribution, and in this case they don’t need to be as shows on the Gaggl are cleared. The financial model is a revenue share between the platform, creator and the owner of the IP, in most cases a distributor.
“We provide content to creators legally so they have a license to watch and broadcast it on their social platforms,” Harris explains. “We started with Twitch, but this will move on to YouTube, TikTok, wherever a creator has built a community. We enable them to host the show and allow their viewership to participate. That could be playing along to a gameshow or having a debate about a reality TV show.
“The content owners get a young audience and get to keep their IP alive. They also have the ability to monetize that content in a new way.”
TV Distribution Goes Social?
The Gaggl founders have bootstrapped the business and secured additional angel funding. It went live in the second quarter of 2024 with one episode of The Price Is Right and five creators, and has scaled up since. In terms of distributors, the company is working with the like of Avalon, Fremantle, PBS, Lionsgate, and Sony.
“There seems to be a realization from the ones that we work with that digital distribution doesn’t have to be a one-stop-shop, there are different monetization options. So, you could have videos on YouTube and a TikTok strategy… and we could be part of a wider and emerging social strategy. The ones that have jumped on board are realizing that there are new routes and formats that their content can take; it doesn’t have to stay within this structured 30-minute format with a certain number of ad breaks.”
With the TV distributors trying to find ways into the creator economy and the major markets such as MIPCOM increasingly refocusing on this area, Gaggl is part of an emerging zeitgeist in international TV.
“We’re trying to tap into the fact that this young audience doesn’t relate to channels anymore,” says Harris. “Ask anyone under the age of 25 what MTV is and they are very unlikely to have a clue. Whereas, if you ask who Mr. Beast is, then 100% of people will know.”
For the actual streamers and creators, it’s readymade content. “If you get approved, you could be streaming within seconds to your community,” Harris says. “You log-in via Twitch, or it could be YouTube, and it reaches the community in your account.
“People often stream for seven hours a day, five days a week, and this gives them the ability to have content they don’t need to plan. It allows them to build their community and monetize. They get paid to watch TV.”
English (US) ·