Aaron Debevoise: Last News

Prime Video has handed a series order to reality competition series Beast Games from YouTube personality MrBeast (né Jimmy Donaldson) and Amazon MGM Studios, with a $5 million grand prize – the biggest payout in TV history. As we reported in January, MrBeast was nearing a deal with Amazon for an unscripted competition series, but details were not revealed.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Spotter, a digital media company that pays YouTube creators cash for the rights to monetize their video libraries and helps them grow their fanbases, hired Paul Bakaus as executive VP, product and creator tools. At Spotter, Bakaus will focus on developing products and tools to serve creators and deliver on Spotter’s mission to provide value and resources to YouTubers in addition to capital. Bakaus will dual-report to Spotter CEO and founder Aaron DeBevoise and chief strategy officer Rob Gabel. Bakaus most recently served as head of creators at Koji, ecommerce platform designed for for social media sellers. Prior to joining Koji in April 2022, he spent more than eight years at Google, most recently as head of creator relations where he launched and led the “Google for Creators” program. Before Google, Bakaus worked at games company Zynga. He also is the creator of jQuery UI, a widget and interaction library that has been used by millions of websites to build interactive web applications.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorSpotter, a startup that pays YouTube creators cash for the right to monetize their video libraries, hired Galvea Kelly as its first chief marketing officer.Kelly most recently served as CMO for Collective, an online concierge back-office platform for self-employed workers in the U.S. The award-winning marketing exec has also held global leadership positions for brands including L’Oreal, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton and Chobani.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorSpotter, a startup that pays YouTube creators cash up front for monetization rights to their video libraries, has hired digital media veteran Damon Berger as executive VP of business development and operations.Berger most recently was chief marketing officer at kids and family entertainment company WildBrain. Prior to that, he served as VP, head of digital engagement for toy giant Mattel, and worked at now-defunct YouTube creator network Fullscreen (then owned by AT&T/WarnerMedia) as VP of global strategic partnerships.In 2010, Berger and Shira Lazar co-founded What’s Trending, a news network hosted by Lazar covering YouTube trends and personalities.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorSpotter, a two-year-old startup that acquires rights to the video catalogs of YouTubers, announced $200 million in new funding led by Japan’s SoftBank. Spotter said that gives it a valuation of $1.7 billion — and will let the company invest $1 billion with YouTube creators.The Series D in financing from SoftBank Vision Fund 2 follows the $555 million in funding Spotter raised across three previously undisclosed rounds of financing.