Legacy TV Turns to Creators to Reclaim Viewership

INDUSTRY BRIEF Media & Entertainment  ·  Creator Economy  ·  U.S. Television

Legacy TV Turns to Creators to Reclaim Viewership

How ESPN, CBS News, CNN, and NBCUniversal are embedding digital creators into their content pipelines as YouTube dominates U.S. TV viewing share

Legacy broadcasters are recruiting creators as on-air talent and promotional partners in an industry-wide pivot that signals a structural shift in how television content is produced and distributed.

Facing an unprecedented erosion of younger audiences to YouTube and TikTok, traditional TV networks are no longer treating creator partnerships as experimental marketing tactics. Instead, ESPN, CBS News, CNN, and NBCUniversal have formalized creator strategies in recent months, integrating digital-native talent directly into their content pipelines and building systematic bridges between social media audiences and live broadcast viewership.

The competitive landscape for audience attention has fundamentally shifted. Networks are engaged in an escalating race to recapture younger demographics who have abandoned linear television in favor of creator-driven platforms. The convergence of legacy media and the creator economy is no longer an option; it has become a survival imperative.

This transition reflects a deeper structural change: the media industry's traditional value chain, where networks controlled content production, distribution, and audience access, is being disaggregated. Creators now command the trust, attention, and engagement that networks need but can no longer generate independently.

By the Numbers

YouTube overtook legacy networks in total U.S. TV usage in February 2025 with an 11.6% share, according to Nielsen's The Gauge. It has maintained that lead for 11 consecutive months, capturing 12.7% of all TV viewing in December 2025, ahead of Disney (10.7%), Paramount (8.6%), NBCUniversal (8.2%), Fox (7.0%), and Warner Bros. Discovery. Notably, these figures exclude YouTube TV, meaning YouTube's actual footprint in the living room is even larger than the data suggests.

Source: Nielsen's The Gauge, Jan 2024 - Dec 2025 monthly data. YouTube TV viewing not included.

U.S. TV Viewing Share by Distributor, December 2025

Data: Nielsen's The Gauge (December 2025) | Excludes YouTube TV | Chart: Axios Visuals

State of Play: Network-by-Network Creator Strategies

Networks have established official creator strategies and new partnerships in recent months, moving beyond ad hoc collaborations toward institutionalized programs. The following outlines each major broadcaster's approach.

ESPN: Creators as On-Air Talent

ESPN hired Sportsish founder Lily Shimbashi to cover marquee events including the NFL Honors awards show, as part of a broader creator strategy shaped in large part by Omar Raja. The network also brought on Katie Feeney last year not only to create social media content but to appear on its studio shows. This represents a significant escalation: creators are being elevated from external promotional partners to credentialed on-air talent integrated into ESPN's editorial operation.

CBS News: Podcasters and Independent Writers Join the Newsroom

CBS News last month hired a slate of new contributors who are predominantly podcasters and independent writers on Substack, including health podcaster Andrew Huberman, New York chef Clare de Boer, and youth trend journalist Casey Lewis. The move signals a strategic pivot: legacy news organizations are actively incorporating digital-native creators' subject-matter expertise and built-in fan bases into their editorial frameworks.

CNN: A Multiplatform Creator Initiative

CNN announced "CNN Creators" last fall as both a new show and a broader multiplatform initiative featuring digital-native journalists covering technology, sports, culture, and more. The program serves as a bridge between CNN's traditional broadcast infrastructure and its growing digital distribution channels, reflecting the network's acknowledgment that audience discovery increasingly begins on social platforms.

NBCUniversal: The Creator Collective Model

NBCUniversal launched its Creator Collective program ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics, partnering with platforms to bring creators like Kai Cenat, Haley Kalil, and Livvy Dunne to the Summer Games. The program has continued across its Legendary February coverage this month, establishing itself as NBCUniversal's flagship creator collaboration model. Crucially, the Creator Collective is not a one-off campaign but an institutionalized program designed to scale across major sporting events and tentpole programming.

Source: Axios Media Trends / NBCUniversal Creator Collective (Paris Olympics 2024 - present)

Deep Dive: Inside NBCUniversal's Creator Strategy

Three senior NBCUniversal executives spoke with Axios about the strategic rationale behind the Creator Collective, revealing a sophisticated understanding of how social media engagement translates into broadcast viewership and advertising revenue.

The Flywheel Thesis. Geo Karapetyan, Senior Vice President of Global Platform Partnerships at NBCUniversal, described the program's core objective as building a bridge between social media and television to drive audiences to live coverage. The underlying logic is a flywheel mechanism: creators generate social conversation, which amplifies excitement, which drives tune-in to NBC's broadcasts, which in turn generates more social conversation.

Creators as Megaphones. Lyndsay Signor, NBC Sports' Senior Vice President of Consumer Engagement, articulated a complementary framing: creators serve as "megaphones" that extend NBCUniversal's reach into communities the network cannot access through its own distribution. The fandom and trust creators have cultivated become force multipliers for NBCUniversal's programming.

Follow the Money: The Brand-Creator-Broadcaster Triangle

The creator strategy is also reshaping the advertising revenue model. Karen Kovacs, NBCUniversal's President of Advertising and Partnerships, confirmed that creators have become integral to brand campaigns. In a notable example, Visa partnered with NBCUniversal to bring creator Allison Kuch and her husband, former NFL player Isaac Rochell, to both the Super Bowl and Olympics-related campaigns.

This represents an evolution from the traditional linear model (broadcaster to viewer to advertiser) toward a triangular structure where creators sit at the nexus of advertiser investment, broadcast distribution, and audience engagement. Creators are no longer peripheral marketing tools; they are central nodes in the media value chain.

Source: Karen Kovacs, President of Advertising & Partnerships, NBCUniversal (Axios interview) / Case: Visa x NBCUniversal x Allison Kuch & Isaac Rochell

The Big Picture: A New Audience Ecosystem

Creators have built their own communities and possess unique influence to direct followers, who might otherwise never watch television, to tune in to broadcast programming. In an increasingly fragmented media landscape, creators maintain the authentic, personal connections with audiences that legacy networks have struggled to sustain. Their ability to function as trusted intermediaries between content and consumers represents a structural competitive advantage that traditional media cannot replicate internally.

Signor confirmed that NBCUniversal plans to continue and expand the Creator Collective initiative for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The strategy of combining global tentpole events with creator fan bases is expected to remain a core model going forward, with potential applications extending beyond sports to entertainment, news, and branded content verticals.

Industry Analysis

Strategic Implications for the Global Media Industry and the Korean Content Sector

K-EnterTech Hub Assessment

1. Structural Shift: Creators Enter the Media Value Chain

The most significant development captured in the Axios report is the migration of creators from external collaborators to internal content producers within legacy media organizations. When ESPN elevates creators to on-air talent and CBS News recruits Substack writers as official contributors, the boundaries between professional media and the creator economy are dissolving.

This is not a temporary promotional tactic. It reflects the recognition that creators possess three strategic assets that legacy networks cannot easily replicate: loyal audiences cultivated through years of direct engagement, platform algorithm optimization expertise that drives discoverability, and authenticity-based trust capital that traditional media brands have struggled to maintain in an era of institutional skepticism.

2. Business Model Evolution: The Flywheel and the Revenue Triangle

NBCUniversal's Creator Collective provides a prototype for a new revenue circulation model. The flywheel mechanism Karapetyan described operates as follows:

Creator social media activity → Buzz and conversation amplification → TV broadcast tune-in → Ratings uplift driving higher ad rates → Brand partnership expansion → Creator reinvestment

Visa's deployment of creator Allison Kuch across both the Super Bowl and Olympics campaigns demonstrates that creators now function as triangular hubs connecting advertisers, broadcasters, and audiences. This represents a shift from the traditional linear model (broadcaster → viewer → advertiser) toward a network-based revenue structure with creators at its center.

3. Strategic Implications for the Korean Content Sector

The U.S. legacy media's creator pivot carries three direct implications for the Korean media industry.

FAST Channels and Creator Integration. The global FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV) market is projected to grow from $5.8 billion in 2025 to $10.6 billion by 2030 (Digital TV Research). As K-content distribution through FAST channels accelerates globally, partnerships with local creators in target markets, particularly the United States, Southeast Asia, and Europe, can simultaneously build channel awareness and drive viewer acquisition. For K-FAST channels, local creators with existing K-content fan bases represent a critical variable in the ad-supported revenue model.

Market data: Digital TV Research, Global FAST Market Forecast 2025-2030

Building a Global Creator Network. Just as NBCUniversal organized its Creator Collective around the Olympics as a global tentpole event, Korean broadcasters and content companies should design systematic creator network programs for K-content's global expansion. Existing infrastructure, including BCWW (Broadcast Worldwide), KOCCA's global initiatives, and various K-content markets, can be extended into creator collaboration platforms. The opportunity is to move beyond ad hoc influencer campaigns toward institutionalized, scalable creator partnerships.

Reference: BCWW (Broadcast Worldwide), KOCCA (Korea Creative Content Agency) global programs

The 2028 LA Olympics: A Strategic Window. With NBCUniversal confirming plans to scale the Creator Collective to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, this represents a significant window of opportunity for K-content enterprises. Los Angeles is one of the global epicenters of Korean cultural influence. The convergence of worldwide media attention during the Olympics with K-content and creator-driven campaigns could yield outsized impact. Korean companies should begin developing LA Olympics creator collaboration strategies now, including initiating partnership discussions with NBCUniversal and other U.S. media groups.

Source: Lyndsay Signor (NBC Sports SVP) confirmed LA 2028 expansion plans (Axios interview)

4. Market Outlook and Risk Factors

The convergence of creators and legacy media will accelerate, but several risk factors warrant attention. The high dependence on individual creator brands creates reputational risk that requires robust management frameworks. Rising creator acquisition costs demand more sophisticated ROI measurement methodologies. Additionally, there is a persistent tension between creator authenticity and corporate systematization: the very quality that makes creators valuable, their perceived independence, may be diluted when they operate within institutional frameworks.

Nevertheless, in a market where YouTube commands the largest share of U.S. TV viewing, creator strategy has transitioned from optional to essential for legacy media. This structural shift extends beyond the United States to define the trajectory of the global media industry. The Korean media sector must respond proactively to this transformation, leveraging its world-class content assets and global cultural influence to build creator-integrated distribution strategies for the next era of media competition.

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