It just became a lot easier to create AI-assisted how-to videos. A new plugin available on ChatGPT turns static images into multi-step instructional content.

The tool comes from Camtasia, a screen recording service first launched in 2002 by the software company TechSmith. For years, creators in the how-to category have used TechSmith products to record and edit first-person, on-screen demonstrations.

Machine learning has already been integrated into Camtasia’s Screentelligence product, and the ChatGPT plugin builds on that offering. After users share sequential images with ChatGPT, the plugin gets to work building a customizable storyboard and script. Contextual suggestions guide viewers through the demonstrations, making those instructional videos easier to follow.

“We know that creating AI-generated videos hasn’t been as iterative or flexible as working with text prompts,” said TechSmith Learning & Video Ambassador Matt Pierce in a statement. “That’s why we built the generative screencast workflow to give users control over every scene, from narration and titles to callouts and focus points, enabling them to easily refine their AI-generated content and deliver instructional videos that are as clear and effective as those created manually.”

The Camtasia plugin is being positioned as an innovation for ChatGPT users, but its arrival may say more about the future of YouTube than the future of generative AI. The association between YouTube and how-to content goes back decades. At one point, more than half of U.S. YouTube users said that they use the platform to learn new things. YouTube’s instructional library is so iconic that it’s even the subject of ample parodies.

In recent years, however, services like ChatGPT have become viable sources for how-to guides. The LLMs that power those bots have scraped instructional content from YouTube, and that has made them valuable for students. Last year, a Pew study found that about a quarter of surveyed students have turned to ChatGPT to get help with their schoolwork.

If products like the Camtasia plugin become commonplace, those usage figures will continue to rise. For now, the plugin is available for Camtasia and ChatGPT users.

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Buying goods from strangers on the internet is a crapshoot, and customers assume more risk as the value of the purchased item goes up. So as TikTok Shop becomes a hub for luxury goods, buyers are looking for an additional layer of trust — and they’re finding it on TikTok LIVE.

Countless sellers employ TikTok’s live streaming format to show off their wares, and those broadcasts have become especially important within the realm of luxury goods. At the inaugural Luxury Resale Summit in New York City, TikTok shared a telling stat regarding its higher-priced transactions: 94% of TikTok Shop’s luxury resale revenue in the U.S. comes from live broadcasts.

TikTok Shop’s Head of Category for U.S. Luxury Resale, Rainee Walker, explained how that percentage got so high. At a presentation during New York Fashion Week, Walker said that a shoppable live stream can serve as a “conversation” between a seller and a potential buyer — especially if the latter party has questions or reservations that can be cleared up through a showcase or demo.

“As the seller gets to engage with their audience, they’re able to bring what once was a static product description page to life,” Walker said. “You now have an individual, a subject matter expert, describing the condition and showing you the condition and how you can wear these items.”

That type of buyer-seller dynamic has helped Whatnot become a live shopping unicorn that blends commerce with entertainment through innovative streams. Like TikTok Shop, Whatnot is able to build the trust that leads to high-value purchases in categories like collectibles and apparel.

TikTok Shop didn’t always operate that way. When it first arrived in the West, it was associated with lower-priced Chinese exports from companies like Shein and Temu. But as luxury resale helped TikTok Shop post massive revenue figures, the platform catered to that type of seller. Kim Kardashian live streams, secondhand bags, and even fine art pieces have helped TikTok Shop increase its average purchase price.

TikTok Shop’s luxury resale ecosystem couldn’t exist anywhere. It requires the right balance of streaming infrastructure, in-demand inventory, and personable sellers. Those are all qualities that TikTok has in spades — and the effort to glamourize Shop is paying off.

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Amazon is about to find out whether TikTok users will bring common behaviors to Prime Video. The entertainment hub is now hosting short-form news clips that digest top headlines into bite-sized videos.

Prime Video’s short-form news content is collected in “curated playlists” that cover national and local stories. Users can find those selections by looking in the Trending Topics or Local News carousels on the Prime Video app. Amazon’s announcement indicates that the playlists will be populated with content from “multiple trusted news sources.” Outlets that are linked to the Prime Video homepage include ABC News Live, CBS News 24/7, LiveNOW from Fox, CNN Headlines, and NBC News NOW.

“Until now, customers coming to Prime Video for news could watch breaking news live or tune into full-length on-demand programs. But not everyone can catch breaking news the moment it happens,” said Prime Video Head of Global App Experience Brian Griffin in a statement. “With News Clips, customers have a quick and easy way to get caught up on the latest stories happening in their neighborhood and around the world. Combined with our extensive lineup of free 24/7 live news, Prime Video is becoming a truly comprehensive destination for news.”

Aping TikTok’s approach to news distribution is a wise move. Since the start of the 2020s, an increasing number of young people have started treating TikTok like a news source. By getting updates on current events from short-form creators, 18-to-24-year-olds are shifting the news landscape. The New York Times updated its app to incorporate a TikTok-style feed, and Amazon is now following suit, too.

For Amazon, there’s just one problem: The News Clips playlists won’t necessarily feature the sources those TikTok users turn to. Creators, not legacy publications, are delivering many of the headlines on the For You Page. Those traditional outlets struggle to get as many followers as independent, digital-native journalists.

As Amazon learned with its Inspire tab, aping TikTok isn’t as simple as copying the app’s design. If the News Clips playlists fare better, they could end up with a wider rollout, but for now, the feature is limited to U.S.-based users who watch Prime Video on their TV screens.

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The European Union is set to propose a sweeping new social media, chatbot, and gaming ban for kids under 15.

Reuters reports that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen ​and Henna Virkkunen, EVP of the European Commission for Technological Sovereignty, Security, and Democracy, will present the proposal Sept. 17, as part of their EU Kids Act.

According to a commission document seen by Reuters, the commission is proposing that the E.U.’s approach “should allow ​minors to benefit from the huge potential of digital services, while protecting them from abuse and exploitation.”

“[The Kids Act] needs ​to limit the access of tech companies to our children, and not the other way around,” the document said.

The proposal sets out a system of staggered access to social media platforms, video-sharing platforms, LLM chatbots, and online games. This system grants more access as kids get older.

• Kids under 3 would have no access to any services
• Kids 3-12 can have accounts, but only if those accounts are (1) on child-friendly services, (2) are fully controlled by parents, and (3) have stringent safety standards, like limited user-to-user contact and time limits
• Kids 13-14 can ask parents to open special introductory accounts on social media and video-sharing platforms, also with limited user-to-user contact and time limits

Once a child hit 15, they would be able to set up their own account with socmed platforms, chatbots, and gaming services. The only limits they’d face then are the usual ones restricting NSFW content from being accessed by minors.

Reuters reports the Kids Act asks affected companies to pay a “supervisory fee” that would fund regulators’ enforcement efforts and post-implementation supervision, to ensure the Act is being followed. The proposal apparently also requires companies to axe things like addictive feeds, and will require age verification to open new accounts and download video games.

To be clear, the terms laid out here are just a draft. Over the next few months, the commission will go through more drafts with individual EU member countries and the European Parliament, until everyone agrees on final terms.

As you likely know, this proposal is just the latest in a global crackdown over child safety. Countries like Australia have already limited kids’ access to social media (or at least attempted to), destinations like Roblox and Discord have implemented age verification practices, virtually every platform has added more parental controls, and lawmakers regularly question platforms about potential negative effects–not just on kids, but on users of all ages.

Digital rights advocates have expressed concerns about how increasingly rigorous regulations might be weaponized to target marginalized populations and adult creators and consumers of NSFW content. Unfortunately, digital platforms can be prime hunting grounds for predators, and in some cases fail to enforce their own TOS to protect young users. If parents and platforms apparently can’t handle controlling kids’ internet access, what else is there for regulators to do?

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Welcome to our rundown of the most-watched branded YouTube videos of the week.

We’re publishing this snippet of a larger Gospel Stats Weekly Brand Report in order to analyze sponsorship trends in the creator economy. Any video launched in tandem with an official brand partner is eligible for the ranking.

And – as the name up above would imply – all the data comes from Gospel Stats. If you’re interested in learning more about Gospel – and which brands are sponsoring what creators on YouTube – click here. You can also download our YouTube 2025 Sponsorship Landscape Report here.

MrBeast is a bona fide fugitive and Dude Perfect heads back to high school in this week’s Gospel Stats Brand Report.

Like last week’s top 5, this week’s is populated by some of the biggest creators on YouTube. But it’s not all big dogs: we have a wildcard video in spot #4 and a trip to BookTube for our bonus.

Check it all out below:

#1 Escape 100 Cops, Win $500,000
Channel: MrBeast
Brand: Call of Duty Mobile
Views: 104,169,846

After clinching spots #1 and #2 last week, MrBeast has landed another double-header.

And considering the (quite literally) bombastic opening to this video–and its overall eye-catching premise–we’re not surprised it ended up at the top. MrBeast and pals have run from the feds before, but this time, it’s 100 cops on their tail. If they can successfully evade the boys in blue for 12 hours, they get $500,000.

Keeping with the theme, this 20-minute upload is sponsored by first-person shooter Call of Duty Mobile, which paid for a handful of videos this week but is very likely considering the 104 million views it racked up here as its crown jewel.

#2 How Many States Can You Visit in 24 Hours?
Channel: MrBeast 2
Brand: Jack Link’s
Views: 23,032,812

Meanwhile, over on MrBeast‘s secondary channel, members of his team undertake a jerky journey across the U.S., seeing how many states they can drive through (and eat sponsor Jack Link’s jerky in) in 24 hours.

As you may know, Jack Link’s has an ongoing partnership with Jimmy Beast that puts his hallmark blue-and-pink on bags in major retailers. Their partnership mostly involves existing Jack Link’s products being reskinned to advertise them as MrBeast’s faves, and gives him a foothold in retail beyond the sweets aisle (his, Logan Paul, and KSI‘s collab brand Lunchly aside). It also gives Jack Link’s a line in to one of YouTube’s largest viewer bases–a viewer base that recently made MrBeast a New York Times bestseller.

#3 School Stereotypes
Channel: Dude Perfect
Brand: BODYARMOR
Views: 12,402,563

If it’s been decades since you were 18 but you still have nightmares about being trapped in a high school time loop, this video is not for you.

Sponsored by sports drink BODYARMOR, the dudes of Dude Perfect head back to school in this 17-minute upload that blends shout-heavy skit content with their usual trickshots. Each dude takes on a stereotypical high school persona to populate this throwback academy. We’ve got goths, nerds, bullies, and–perhaps unsurprisingly–jocks. (The implied message is that no matter which table you sit at, BODYARMOR is super for sippin’.)

According to the lads, this concept is “the #1 REQUESTED VIDEO in Dude Perfect history”–and its viewcount reflects that demand.

#4 POV: you surprise your toddler with what hes been asking for ??
Channel: Jesse Moncur
Brand: Strider Bikes
Views: 11,025,413

This video is a little slice of Christmas morning. Dadtuber Jesse Moncur tapped sponsor Strider Bikes to fulfill a request from his kiddo. This quick Short takes viewers through his son’s joy at discovering a new bike boxed up outside his front door and the first ride on new wheels.

We imagine this is a sweet bite of nostalgia for many parents, but even for us non-parents, Moncur’s son’s enthusiasm is infectious and a little vicarious. Oh to experience simple magic again…

BONUS #3,398 Im a full-time BookTuber… here is every. single. hour. of my workday!
Channel: JustAli
Brand: Nail Reformation, Books-A-Million
Views: 54,380

Last up we have a BookTuber logging a full workday in front of the camera. Industrial/day-in-the-life work vlogs have become quite a sizable category since COVID, and while most of them focus on blue collar jobs like ranching and construction, some spotlight cushier jobs. JustAli posts lots of content about her latest reads, but this video gives viewers a peek into more pages of her life.

She’s got a double sponsor to help her do it. First, press-on company Nail Reformation, which helps her hands get camera-ready, and then retailer Books-A-Million, because, well, of course.

BookTube remains an enormous segment of Google’s video platform, and it’s interesting to see brands you might not associate with reading–like Nail Reformation–reach out to creators who love spreading literacy.

…and there’s a lot more data where that came from. If you like our Weekly Top 5, you’ll love everything else Gospel has to offer. Start with our newly released YouTube 2025 Sponsorship Landscape Report, which you can download right here.

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When Steven Bartlett landed an eight-figure investment last year, his backers valued his company at $425 million. That price tag makes Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO one of the most lucrative podcasts in its field, and the business creator is now looking to pay it forward. Alongside billionaire Jamie Salter, Bartlett is launching OBSN, a venture that will look to invest $400 million in creator-led companies.

OBSN (pronounced like “obsession”) will leverage the expertise of its two leaders. Since establishing himself as a creator to watch, Bartlett has spent his time establishing and scaling creator economy businesses while also backing other notable podcasters, including Maggie Sellers Reum of Hot Smart Rich fame. Salter, meanwhile, is the founder of Authentic Brands, which has helped brands like Reebok scale up while also reimagining the IP of celebrities like Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe.

Working together, Bartlett and Salter will set their sights on creators who are building consumer-facing brands, expanding their media businesses, and globalizing their reach. To explain the sort of project OBSN might hone in on, Bartlett referred to his company’s previous investment in Sellers Reum.

“Now, the question is, would you buy Hot Smart Rich fragrance? Would you buy Hot Smart Rich apparel?” Bartlett told Inc. “What does it look like? Does it look like Gucci? Does it look like Prada?”

Bartlett is not the only person asking those questions. In recent years, several firms have popped up to invest directly in creator-led businesses. Talent firm Night made a $70 million bet in that area, while CAA and its equity partner TPG are planning to deploy $250 million of their own. Slow Ventures, which has invested in Bartlett’s business, is on the hunt for aspiring creator-entrepreneurs in high-value verticals.

Compared to those ventures, OBSN won’t necessarily reinvent the wheel, but it will approach creator investments with a powerful arsenal of resources. Bartlett’s brand-building expertise and social media know-how will come in handy, while Authentic Brands will use product, licensing, and distribution services to supercharge creator businesses. More information about OBSN can be found on its website.

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A new virtual coach is roaming the proverbial sidelines on Twitch. The Amazon-owned hub has utilized generative AI to build Stream Coach, a virtual assistant that offers personalized advice for live broadcasters.

Users who have access to Stream Coach will receive feedback whenever they end a live Twitch session. The insights will be delivered through the platform’s Creator Dashboard. Stream Coach emails will also summarize the bot’s suggestions.

“Stream Coach is a feature in the Creator Dashboard that gives you personalized feedback after every stream based on your broadcast,” reads a Twitch help page. “It highlights what’s working, where viewers engaged most, and what to try next.”

As the live streaming economy booms, the platforms hosting those streams are trying to convince creators to turn their cameras on and go live. For streaming newbies, however, that’s a daunting ask. It takes both courage and hosting chops to be a streamer, and not everyone is cut out for that lifestyle — at least, not at firsst.

To ease those transitions and help new streamers build confidence, YouTube debuted a Practice Mode for its Vertical Live format. TikTok’s Creator’s Cut newsletter offers a different type of advice by imbuing creators with best practices for TikTok LIVE.

It doesn’t come as too much of a surprise that generative AI informs Twitch’s take on streamer advice. The platform has rolled out a host of AI features and policies, much to the chagrin of many users. Can Stream Coach win over those skeptics?

“Just to be clear, Stream Coach is entirely optional,” reads a tweet from the Twitch Support account. “Eligible streamers can opt out if they don’t want to receive coaching, and are always in control of whether or not they use any of the feedback it provides.”

For now, only a small group of streamers can access Twitch’s AI coach. If those test subjects like the advice they’re given, Twitch could expand Stream Coach in the future, but in that case, the feature will remain as an opt-in choice for the foreseeable future.

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Before Taskmaster episodes arrived on YouTube, few Americans were familiar with the British panel show. After producer Avalon started sharing entire Taskmaster seasons online for free, the show’s popularity exploded.

Now, Taskmaster is capitalizing on the success of its internet-age distribution strategy. To raise money for the Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), the stars of Taskmaster took to Twitch, where they invited some well-known creators to play a special version of their game.

In place of typical host Greg Davies, comedian Jake Bhardwaj took over as Taskmaster‘s host for its Twitch debut. He was joined by Davies’ usual sideman, Taskmaster executive producer Alex Horne. Davies also made a guest appearance during the stream.

In a typical Taskmaster episode, Davies and Horne challenge a panel of comedians to come up with creative solutions to silly tasks. The Twitch version replaced traditional funnypeople with creators like MatPat, TommyInnit, and Stephen Tries, who paired up with friends to vanquish tasks across a four-hour stream. Additional stars from the YouTube community, including Tom Scott and Dan and Phil, made guest appearances.

The fundraiser for GOSH — a U.K.-based organization that provides support for pediatric cancer patients — is ongoing. At the time of this post, the drive has collected £281,379 (~$380,000), with involved parties like Twitch chipping in.

“We’re hugely grateful to everyone involved in the livestream, from Alex and the Taskmaster team, to the creators who took on the challenges and the viewers who supported them. It was amazing to watch the energy, humour and friendly competition unfold throughout the event,” said GOSH Charity Deputy Director of Relationship Fundraising Sarah Bissell in a statement. “The funds raised will play a vital role in helping to build the new Children’s Cancer Centre at GOSH and we’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone involved.”

Taskmaster arrived on Twitch during a pivotal moment in the U.K. creator economy. A proposed rule would favor legacy broadcasters like the BBC on platforms like YouTube, though both YouTube itself and the White House have urged British lawmakers to forgo the controversial policy.

Amid that tension, the Taskmaster team is showing that more harmonious relationships are possible. Legacy broadcasters don’t have to bend the rules to outdo creators; instead, they can work those creators into their programming while benefiting a good cause in the process. If I were in Jake Bhardwaj’s seat, I would award that particular strategy the maximum allotment of points.

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Brace yourself: YouTube and Netflix are working together.

Mom and Dad have temporarily set aside their content creator custody battle to unite as founding members of Streaming Access and Choice Alliance (SACA). They’re joined by fellow streamer/tech giant Amazon as well as TechNet, which describes itself as a “national, bipartisan network of tech CEOs & senior executives that promotes American innovation.”

SACA is a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group that says its focus is “promot[ing] high-quality and high-value entertainment experiences for consumers.”

What that really means is it’ll chat up Capitol Hill and try to convince U.S. lawmakers that streaming services have the right to sign exclusive air deals with major sports leagues.

As you may know, YouTube, Netflix, Amazon, and other streamers have signed increasingly larger deals to distribute live sports content. Among the biggest are YouTube’s seven-year lockdown of NFL Sunday Ticket, Netflix’s $5 billion deal for 10 years of WWE Raw, and Amazon’s 11-year NBA agreement.

Each streamer has also signed smaller exclusive streaming deals for individual matches or handfuls of games, and they’re all planning to put in for World Cup 2030 and 2034 streaming rights.

As these streaming sports deals have gotten larger, they’ve also come under more intense scrutiny from U.S. regulators.

In April, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) introduced a bill “to stop professional sports leagues from blacking out games for fans, end the complicated web of streaming services and cut costs for viewers across the country.”

The bill’s ultimate goal: mandating that leagues provide local fans with free access to all of their teams’ games in one single location, on streaming or on a traditional TV network.

In her supporting evidence, Baldwin said her Wisconsin constituents would need to shell out over $1,500, spread across multiple channels and streaming services, to watch all Packers, Brewers, and Bucks games in a single season.

“The bill comes after the Packers’ playoff game in January against the Bears was solely available on Amazon Prime for five of Wisconsin’s seven media markets,” Baldwin’s office said in a statement. “This bill also comes as more than 400,000 Green Bay Packers fans in 13 Wisconsin counties are assigned to an out-of-state local TV market, which means these Wisconsin households could get Minnesota Vikings or Detroit Lions games, not Packers games, when those teams are playing at the same time.”

Two months later, the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee began probing the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, which makes sports leagues exempt from antitrust laws when selling media rights.

The committee’s report said that the current state of sports streaming rights is “a special-interest antitrust exemption gone awry.”

SACA, of course, believes no such thing.

“Americans want more content choices and flexibility in how and where they watch their favorite programming, including sports and other live events,” Mike Ward, TechNet’s Senior VP of Federal Policy and Government Relations, said in a statement.

“Streaming and digital entertainment companies offer audiences better features and value for their money,” he added. “The industry and its customers deserve a dedicated voice in Washington, D.C., advocating for policies that enable innovation and address the needs of today’s consumers.”

This quandary goes beyond sports rights. Streaming services that once seemed like the promised land for cord-cutters are now collectively more expensive than cable, with rights to movies and TV shows constantly changing hands (when’s the last time you logged on to Netflix, or Peacock, or Paramount+, or Disney+, or HBO Max, and didn’t see a “Leaving soon” label on at least one title?).

The end result is that the vast majority of consumers are paying for at least one streaming service a month, with many paying for three or more. This is annoying but not catastrophic for things like movies and TV shows, which are licensed in their entirety to once service. For live sports, though? Baldwin makes a good point. Sports fans are famously dedicated, and that dedication now comes at a steep price with streamers securing more and more exclusive deals.

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[Editor’s Note: Tubefilter Charts is a weekly rankings column from Tubefilter with data provided by GospelStats. It’s exactly what it sounds like; a top number ranking of YouTube channels based on statistics collected within a given time frame. Check out all of our Tubefilter Charts with new installments every week right here.]th

Scroll down for this week’s Tubefilter Chart.

Last week, Lucan Pevidor scored a Global Sub Top 50 hat trick by leading our YouTube subscriber ranking for the third week in a row. During the second week of September, the Brazilian creator made it four in a row. He easily outpaced the competition by adding 1.7 million weekly subscribers. The next two channels in the chart added a mere one million weekly subscribers.

There are many content categories represented throughout the Global Sub Top 50. Family and gaming content remain universal, but Shorts has opened up wide opportunities for creators who may have previously struggled to reach tens of millions of fans (who doesn’t?) Let’s go ahead and dive into one of those categories: Travel documentaries.

Unusual circumstances aided Ruhi Cenet’s rise on YouTube

For years, Ruhi Cenet ran a YouTube channel filled with curious documentaries. My first encounter with him came when I watched his video about Oymyakon, Russia, one of the coldest and most remote settlements in the world.

Cenet was already a well-known creator when he boarded the ship MV Hondius earlier this year. That trip would ultimately make him a notable figure outside of the YouTube world. The Hondius became the epicenter of a highly publicized hantavirus outbreak, and Cenet became one of the primary sources who was quoted about the experience.

Five months after speaking publicly about the hantavirus, Cenet is thriving like never before on YouTube. His primary channel reached tenth place in the Global Sub Top 50 during the second week of September, when he added 400,000 weekly subscribers.

Cenet’s long-form documentaries still draw in millions of views, but he has also added in some popular Shorts as well. Some short-form clips uploaded within the past year have reached nine-digit view counts on their own — with YouTube’s language dubbing tools providing an assist.

Cenet is not the only travel vlogger enjoying a sudden surge of popularity. Drew Binsky, one of the most prominent globetrotting voices in the United States, recently landed a high-profile deal with Netflix.

Here’s one potential theory about the success of these world-spanning individuals: The YouTube audience’s desire for extremes is driving those creators toward unique experiences. Cenet’s far-reaching travels brought him aboard the Hondius, and that tribulation helped him expand his reach.

We’re seeing a similar phenomenon at work on the channel Dali Higa. Its micro-documentaries tell the most extreme travel stories in YouTube history, and viewers are eating that content up. Dali Higa finished in 30th place in the most recent Global Sub Top 50, and the channel’s viewership also recently hit a high-water mark.

Data via Gospel Stats

YouTube’s collective wanderlust will continue to drive creators toward novel experiences and extreme locations. At the same time, those viewers will reward travelers by watching their videos and subscribing to their channels.

Let’s hope that creators can stay safe as they tell their adventurous yarns. For Cenet, one brush with the hantavirus is enough, even if it was an extreme tale to top all his other stories.

Channel Distribution

Here’s a breakdown of the Top 50 Most Viewed channels this week in terms of their countries of origin:

• India: 10
• Mexico and United States: 9
• Japan and United Kingdom: 3
• Colombia: 2
• Argentina, Brazil, China, Indonesia, Israel, Pakistan, The Philippines, Singapore, Spain, Turkiye, and Vietnam: 1

This week, 37 channels in the Top 50 are primarily active on YouTube Shorts.

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After the box office successes of Iron Lung, Backrooms, and Obsession, Hollywood is hoping it can cash in with creator-led horror films and internet-first horror IPs.

The latest deal in this vein was announced in a Deadline exclusive Sept. 11. A24, it reported, will partner with Spooky Pictures and Image Nation Studios to release a film adaptation of the beloved long-running community storytelling project SCP Foundation.

There’s just one problem.

No one from the SCP Foundation is involved.

Shortly after Deadline‘s story went live, the writers and staff who run the official SCP Foundation wiki released a statement saying they “were not consulted or contacted regarding this film.”

“We have been attempting to contact the filmmakers but haven’t yet been successful,” they added. “To be clear: we have not had any communication with the filmmakers, producers, or distributors for this project, despite our best efforts, and to the best of our knowledge they have not made any efforts to contact us.”

They went on to explain that “A24 does not and cannot have any exclusive rights to anything related to the SCP Foundation, including any films that Spooky Pictures or anyone else may choose to create.”

See, the issue is licensing. The SCP Foundation project started way back in 2007, on 4chan’s x/paranormal forum. The very first post, from user Moto42, contained a photo of a real sculpture by Izumi Katō along with a fictional written “file” that referred to the sculpture as “SCP-173,” detailing how it’s immobile while being watched, but when unobserved, will move rapidly and with homicidal intent.

Other users, inspired by the SCP-173 story, began making up their own SCPs and contributing lore to the Foundation’s overall universe. In 2008, all of this community-created content was logged on a Wikidot wiki, a type of website that comes standard with a CC BY-SA 3.0 license.

In case you’re not familiar with CC BY-SA 3.0, a project with that license allows anyone to add their own material to it, and also allows anyone to distribute material that other people added to it–even on a commercial basis.

The catch is that anytime someone distributes something to do with the project, whether it’s their original SCP-themed material or someone else’s material, that distribution must also be licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

So, basically, A24, Spooky Pictures, and Image Nation Studios are welcome to make an SCP Foundation movie. They’re welcome to put it in theaters and charge people to see it.

But they would not be allowed to claim any kind of exclusive ownership/copyright over it, and would not be able to gatekeep its distribution or usage. As the SCP Foundation writers explain, “Just as anyone who follows the license can redistribute and create derivative works based on the SCP Foundation articles on our wiki, anyone will be able to do the same with their film. For example, anyone could upload a copy to YouTube; similarly, any commercial streaming service would be free to stream the film without payment to anyone.”

The writers added that they “would expect to see the film on YouTube on its [theater] premiere date (if not before!).”

It is, of course, vastly unlikely that A24 (or any other legacy studio) would agree to those terms. In fact, the writers specifically say those terms have prevented other SCP films from being made “despite prior interest.”

“We’d love to sit down with A24, Spooky Pictures, and other involved parties to discuss options for how they could make and distribute a film while complying with CC BY-SA,” they said. “We chose to release our project under a Creative Commons license to allow fans to tell their own stories as well as adapt ours. We chose the ShareAlike license to ensure that everyone who enjoyed those fan works would have the same rights as the people who created them. We hope that the filmmakers will follow their legal obligations under our license.”

It’s still not clear what A24’s greenlight process looked like here, and A24 has yet to respond to the SCP Foundation writers and staff’s concerns. Deadline reported that the SCP film will be part of the ongoing V/H/S horror anthology film series.

Roy Lee and Steven Schneider, co-founders of Image Nation Studios and Spooky Pictures, made it clear they’re chasing fandom dollars.

“Internet lore is quickly rising as a compelling source of new stories for the horror genre, bringing with it built-in, highly devoted audiences. As fans increasingly seek out fresh scares, we’re focused on tapping into the most compelling online worlds in which talent already live, such as the vast SCP universe, and helping them make the leap to the big screen,” they said in a shared statement.

However it shakes out, this situation is a reminder that just because Hollywood’s rushing our industry with pans at the ready, gold isn’t free for the taking.

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[Editor’s Note: Tubefilter Charts is a weekly rankings column from Tubefilter with data provided by GospelStats. It’s exactly what it sounds like; a top number ranking of YouTube channels based on statistics collected within a given time frame. Check out all of our Tubefilter Charts with new installments every week right here.]

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T-Series is having an exceptionally strong showing in September 2026. YouTube’s new policy for counting views seems to be benefiting the channel with the most views of all time, as T-Series just keeps getting richer. The Indian record label’s primary YouTube hub collected 929.8 million weekly views during the second full week of September, bringing its lifetime total above 355 billion.

India continues to be the most represented country in the Global Top 50. Other Asian nations, like Indonesia, Vietnam, and China, are well represented as well. That’s a lot of creators climbing the charts in East, South, and Southeast Asia, and some fascinating trends are popping up as a result.

Not all geckos on the internet sell insurance

Some of them, in fact, have never ever heard of Geico.

Geckos live on each of the world’s continents except for Antarctica. They are fascinating, adaptable creatures, and their most captivating features are on full display on YouTube.

In particular, I’m talking about a Vietnam-based channel called Tắc Kè Cao Bằng. That name translates to Cao Bằng gecko — the first two words refer to a Vietnamese region that borders China.

We’ve seen a lot of misleading YouTube channel titles in the Global Top 50 over the years, but there’s nothing deceptive about this hub. It is filled, true to its name, with videos featuring geckos. They climb, crawl, and dazzle viewers with the colorful patterns on their scales. Meanwhile, a faceless narrator shares his love of the reptilian critters (in Vietnamese, of course).

So why geckos? If you’re used to the usual YouTube repertoire of cat and dog content, the sudden shift to scaly crawlers may seem jarring. The simplest explanation for the sudden fascination with geckos is the rise of Asian countries within the Global Top 50. Viewers in those regions are already drawing attention to unique cultural phenomena like the uncontacted Sentinelese islanders. If cultural awareness is the name of the game, then why not spotlight Vietnam and its colorful array of geckos?

Videos about tropical and coastal fauna are not unique to East Asian creators. Even some Americans are getting in on the fun. Zack D. Films is a content aggregator we’ve discussed before in this space. While his short-form content spans many different categories, he has recently included some clips filled with interesting animal facts.

Those videos have become some of the biggest Zack D. Films hits, sparking a renaissance for the channel. In recent weeks, the short-form hub has posted some of its highest viewership totals of the year. Its most recent seven-day tally totaled 675.5 million weekly views, good for a sixth-place finish in the Global Top 50.

Data via Gospel Stats

Informational videos about exotic species are nothing new — in fact, those videos represent one of YouTube’s oldest genres. Ze Frank was dishing out fun facts about funny-looking creatures before Zack D. Films ever launched his channel.

As more of YouTube’s audience shifts to biodiverse regions like Southeast Asia, there is an opportunity to dust off this time-honored content category. Fun nature videos don’t have to stop with the geckos — by visiting the island of Borneo, which is partially controlled by the YouTube-loving country of Indonesia, creators could learn about thousands of species before passing along their findings to millions of subscribers.

Channel Distribution

Here’s a breakdown of the Top 50 Most Viewed channels this week in terms of their countries of origin:

• India: 23
• United States: 9
• Canada and Pakistan: 3
• Indonesia and Vietnam: 2
• Australia, Bangladesh, Colombia, China, Germany, Russia, and South Korea: 1

This week, 38 channels in the Top 50 are primarily active on YouTube Shorts.

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