Creator Media Business: How WME Is Building the Machine

The creator business has spent years telling you to become a media company.

Small catch: media companies have producers, sales teams, distribution people and someone who remembers where the contracts are. Most creators have three browser windows and a stressed editor called Ben.

WME builds the machine

Talent giant WME has launched Creator Labs, an internal team designed to turn creator-led channels into larger media businesses.

The group sits inside WME's Digital Division and covers the unglamorous machinery behind a channel: early concept work, production, publishing, distribution and sponsorship sales. WME has hired 11 people across Creator Labs and its related Creator Sales operation.

Its early test cases sit at opposite ends of the audience scale. Manchester City striker Erling Haaland's YouTube channel¹ passed 4.5 million subscribers by early October. Comedian Julian Shapiro-Barnum used the operation while launching Outside Tonight, an outdoor late-night show funded partly through embedded deals with Amazon and Chase.

WME also invested in video operations company Astra Media, which has worked on projects involving Khloé Kardashian and Kevin Hart. Translation: the agency isn't merely negotiating campaigns. It wants production infrastructure under the hood.

The channel is the asset

This move isn't happening because Hollywood suddenly discovered thumbnails. The money has become impossible to ignore.

IAB estimates U.S. creator advertising will reach about $44 billion in 2026², more than triple its 2021 level. CAA and UTA already offer creator representation, sales and business development. Newer firms are bundling management with studios and production crews too.

Meanwhile, YouTube keeps creeping onto television's lawn. More than half of its top 100 creators now get their largest share of viewing from TVs, according to YouTube³. During the 2026 World Cup, videos from YouTube's selected creator group generated over 2.5 billion views.

That changes the job. A reliable long-form series can carry ads, sponsors, licensing, clips and spin-offs. One shoot. Several shelves in the shop.

The danger? Renting an impressive team before you've built a format worth scaling. Big operations can make mediocre ideas more expensive. They cannot make viewers care.

Keep your hands on the wheel

First, write down what you actually need. Brand sales? Production? Distribution? Don't surrender a percentage of everything because someone offered to upload the videos.

Second, protect ownership. Your channel, audience data, raw footage, format and future spin-offs matter more than a shiny launch campaign.

Third, prove the show manually. Publish enough episodes to understand the hook, retention and workload before adding eleven people and a catering table.

And if an agency calls, good. Take the meeting. Just remember: infrastructure should make your business less dependent, not quietly make you dependent on new people.