Type Subsidiary Key people Andrew Sugerman Founded 2009 Acquisition date March 24, 2014 | Industry Entertainment Website www.makerstudios.com CEO Ynon Kreiz (May 2013–) Parent organization The Walt Disney Company | |
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Headquarters Los Angeles, California, United States Founders Shay Carl, Kassem G, Philip DeFranco, Lisa Donovan, Danny Zappin, Ben Donovan, Scott Katz, Derek S. Jones Profiles | ||
Maker Studios, Inc. is an American multi-channel network co-founded by Lisa Donovan, former chief executive officer Danny Zappin, Scott Katz, Kassem G, Shay Carl (SHAYTARDS), Ben Donovan, and Philip DeFranco. Shane Dawson was also involved with Lisa Donovan and Shay Carl during their collaboration on The Station.
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Outside of the US, Maker has significant audiences in the UK, Brazil and Australia, and aims to expand its Asian operations, where it currently has 700 million monthly unique views. Run by Rene Rechtman, President for International, Maker is building a headquarters in London for its commercial, production and marketing activities outside of the US. An Asian hub has been established in Singapore, offering limited commercial and marketing support until the business is larger.
In December 2015, the company became a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. Since becoming a subsidiary, the company has suffered multiple rounds of layoffs, executive shuffling, and partners cut-offs.
History
In June 2012, Maker Studios announced that the over 1,000 channels signed under the network received an accumulated over 1.1 billion views for the month of June 2012. YouTube channels under Maker Studios have also collectively earned over 90 million subscribers. In October 2012, Maker Studios surpassed Machinima to become the number one independent YouTube network. However, since that time, according to comScore, in December 2012, Fullscreen passed Maker to become the top ranked YouTube-based network. In December 2012, shortly after the Ray William Johnson controversy, Maker announced that it had closed a $36 million round of financing led by Time Warner Investments. The most popular Maker production is Epic Rap Battles of History, which averages 30 million views an episode. Maker's most successful channel was PewDiePie, the most subscribed user on YouTube, who signed under the Maker sub-network Polaris and later RevelMode, until February 13th, 2017, when Maker dropped him after he was accused of making "several antisemitic jokes".
On March 24, 2014, Maker Studios, Inc. agreed to sell itself to The Walt Disney Company for $500 million, rising to $950 million if financial milestones were met. On April 14, 2014, Relativity Media submitted a competing bid of up to $1.1 billion, but Maker denied the bid. In December 2015, the company became a subsidiary of Disney Consumer Products and the Disney Interactive division of The Walt Disney Company.
In February 2017, Maker Studios had around 60,000 YouTube partnerships, but announced that it intends to reduce this to about 1,000. Many partnered YouTubers had been unhappy with the terms of their contracts, including difficulty with ending contracts.
Key personnel
Courtney Holt was the Chief Strategy Officer of Maker Studios. Due to Danny Zappin stepping down as the company's CEO, Ynon Kreiz, former CEO and Chairman of Endemol became the CEO of Maker Studios in May 2013. Prior to Kreiz becoming the CEO of Maker, he was the company's chairman. Ryan Lissack is the current CTO of Maker Studios. In December 2015, Courtney Holt replaced Ynon Kreiz as CEO, coming a year after Disney's acquisition of the group.
Content
Maker Studios produces videos for channels on YouTube, including Consider the Source, Tessa Violet, Bart Baker, Yves Bole, KassemG, Timothy DeLaGhetto, Peter Shukoff and Lloyd Ahlquist's Epic Rap Battles of History, KingManProds, Sam Macaroni, along with several others that have almost as many viewers as Nickelodeon. Maker's first three channels produced for YouTube included Maker Music Network, Tutele, and The Mom's View, with both Maker Music Network and Tutele channels shutting down within six months of their launch. In April 2014 Maker Studios partnered with Blastphamoushd Gaming. Maker Studios have also signed celebrities such as famous rapper Snoop Dogg and his YouTube channel WestFestTV, actor Robert De Niro's Tribeca Enterprises, and Kevin Smith. Felix Kjellberg (known as "PewDiePie") was also signed under the Maker sub-network Polaris, until Maker dropped him due to controversy from anti-semitic jokes made on his channel.
Criticism
Maker Studios formerly produced Ray William Johnson's Equals Three and Your Favorite Martian. In October 2012, Johnson announced he would be leaving Maker Studios in an episode of Equals Three. Johnson had also formed his own production studio, Runaway Machine (formerly Runaway Planet). Johnson has stated online that he left Maker Studios due to the pressure the company put on him into signing a contract which gave Maker a 40% share of his channel's AdSense revenue and 50% of his show's intellectual property rights. Johnson stated that they were using "thuggish tactics" to pressure him into signing the contract, one of which was allegedly leveraging his AdSense account for the intellectual property rights to YourFavoriteMartian. He also claimed that Maker Studios CEO, Danny Zappin, is a convicted felon, which he was not made aware of, when teaming up with Maker Studios. Zappin later publicly admitted to this claim.
On March 10, 2017, YouTuber Cr1tikal, a former partner of Maker, posted a video entitled "Maker Studios PSA", wherein he provided criticism of Maker and their business practices.