Creators are leveraging CTV channels as added value for sponsorship deals
By Alexander Lee • September 8, 2025 •
As more creators sign CTV licensing deals, they are using their newfound television presence as a bargaining chip in negotiations with potential advertisers.
In recent months, CTV channel operators from Samsung TV Plus to Tubi have significantly expanded their creator offerings, standing up dedicated FAST and AVOD channels to serve creators’ videos. In addition to splitting ad revenue from the channels with the operators, creators are looking to profit from their CTV partnerships in more creative ways. Four creators and creator talent managers that had recently signed CTV licensing deals told Digiday that they were planning to leverage their expansion onto TV to charge higher rates for sponsored content.
“It allows you to talk to more premium brands,” said Courtney Hirsch, the CEO of the creator collective Jomboy Media, which signed a licensing deal with Tubi in August. The CTV presence has come up in renewal conversations and “is a value-add that we talk about to lock in these premium, one-year or multi-year sponsorships.”
Hirsch pointed to Jomboy Media sponsors such as T-Mobile and Corona, which have already shown up alongside Jomboy Media on CTV channels via the licensing of Jomboy shows like “Talkin’ Yanks.” The standard practice for creators’ CTV deals is for the creators to license the rights to their older, backlogged content while retaining the right to initially broadcast new content on their owned social channels.
“‘Talkin’ Yanks’ is on YouTube, on social, on Tubi, on linear — they want to be there, too,” she said.
Licensing content backlogs is not a new revenue stream for creators. The creator services company Spotter, for example, has been licensing YouTubers’ back catalogs for years, paying them an up-front lump sum in exchange for the ad revenue generated by those videos over a certain time frame, rather than an ongoing revenue split. CTV licensing deals are not mutually exclusive with Spotter’s creator licensing deals, according to Spotter president Nic Paul. In 2025, creators’ growing interest in CTV deals extends beyond licensing revenue, with creators particularly interested in reaching new audiences via television.
“These televisions are distributed globally, and while YouTube is a global platform, having a separate channel that is still branded with the talent is only going to grow their audience, but also help new audiences migrate to their YouTube channel,” said Bennett Sherman, an agent at WME whose work focuses on digital creators. “It’s a marketing play, if you will. Yes, there’s revenue included, which is great — but at the end of the day, it’s about continuing to grow.”
One example of the added reach that creators or creator collectives can achieve via content licensing is Mirage Digital’s recent partnership with Team Liquid, the esports organization and creator collective. Between August 12 and 24, Mirage licensed a video series about Team Liquid’s championship run at this year’s Esports World Cup to audiences on Roku, garnering 1.3 million minutes watched and 480,000 unique viewers during the period, according to figures shared by the company.
“The value extends well beyond revenue opportunities,” said Mirage Digital COO Robin Bigge. “Brand awareness represents a significant benefit, offering long-term impact that isn’t immediately quantifiable but meaningfully expands a partner’s presence into new, untapped audiences.”
Team Liquid president and COO Claire Hungate said that her company’s CTV presence “enhances the value we deliver to sponsors, who can now connect with both core digital fans and traditional TV viewers.”
“For us, it’s about growing fandom while strengthening partnerships as well as diversifying our revenue streams,” she said.
The flow of creator content onto CTV channels is continuing to pick up speed going into the end of the year. On Sept. 4, the creator CTV channel Creator Television announced another expansion of its roster, with creators such as Lenarr Young and Daphnique Springs signing deals to serve their content on the platform. Viewership of Creator TV’s creator channels has grown by 300 percent year-over-year across platforms, according to numbers shared by a representative of the company.
“Having content on CTV gives me the ability to offer brands something more premium and not just social buzz,” said YouTuber and Creator TV licensee Jenny Lorenzo, who told Digiday that she plans to increase her sponsorship rates as a result of showing up on CTV devices. “It’s a chance to live alongside shows people are watching on TV. That kind of placement naturally raises the value of a campaign.”
Currently, most advertisers don’t find the performance data of creator-led CTV to be noticeably different than that of other CTV categories, with CTV generally having lower performance than more direct forms of creator inventory, according to Ogilvy executive director of connections and media Mack Leahy.
“Most brands are seeing standard video completion rates that are not vastly different from traditional CTV content,” Leahy said. “The economics work in the short term because the inventory is cheap, but the value proposition starts to fall apart when brands realize they’re not getting creator performance.”
For brands interested in reaching creators’ audiences through TVs, partnering directly with creators could present a more attractive option than advertising alongside creator-led CTV channels, at least for now. Sponsorship deals with creators whose content is served on both social and CTV channels allows advertisers to reach both audiences without doubling their spend.
“CTV is going to fuel the future of brand partnerships because it softens the wall between social and TV. Our creators have already begun thinking about how their content can live on CTV, which reshapes how both creators and brands approach campaigns,” said Ted Raad, the CEO of influencer management and marketing agency Trend. “When creators plan with CTV in mind, they give brands what they’ve wanted for years: one campaign that runs across living rooms and social feeds.”
