Soon, some of TikTok’s biggest personalities are going to be launching new streaming series on Tubi.
Today, Tubi and TikTok announced that they are working together to launch a new Creatorverse Incubator that will help content creators produce long form original series for the Fox-owned streaming service. Once selected for the program, a group of Tiktokkers will work with Tubi to develop a variety of scripted and unscripted (think competition / dating / game shows) projects covering a number of different genres. In a statement about the initiative, Tubi said that it plans to announce its first cohort of participants some time later this summer. TikTok’s global head of entertainment partnerships Dawn Yang also stressed that the company sees the incubator as another way of “empowering creators on our platform and throughout their career journey.”
”Our creators have built deeply engaged audiences on TikTok, and our partnership with Tubi will give the next generation of entertainers more opportunities to expand their audiences, tell bigger stories, and turn their creativity into lasting impact,” Yang said.
The Creatorverse Incubator sounds a bit like Tubi’s Stubios initiative, which gave up-and-coming filmmakers an opportunity to develop new streaming projects whose funding was contingent on hitting certain fan engagement metrics. While the Stubios program has featured social media stars, the Creatorverse Incubator seems like it’s going to be much more focused on directly capitalizing on its participants’ previous success on TikTok.
That makes some sense in a media environment where more studios are beginning to invest in TikTok-inspired vertical videos. But Tubi’s emphasis on the incubator being meant for long form content raises some obvious questions like whether people are actually interested in watching TikTokkers speak at length. The brevity of TikTok’s content compared to traditional series is a core part of its appeal, and if Tubi wants this incubator to work, it has to figure out how to get people excited about a related, but very different kind of medium.