Creator Economy Consolidation at Center of Media M&A in 2025

Fox Corporation bought Red Seat Ventures, a creator economy business, earlier this month as it builds up its “direct-to-consumer media operations.” Around the same time, Axios reported that Slow Ventures raised $60 million for a fund that will focus on creators.

And Jay Kirsch, an investment banker at Oaklins DeSilva+Phillips who leads the digital media team, said that 80% of the deals he’ll work on this year will involve the creator economy.

It’s no surprise that companies are chasing creators. Consumers of media are turning away from traditional sources of information and to individuals who reach them directly via social media, newsletters and more. The creator economy is worth an estimated $104 billion in 2025, according to WPBeginner, a team of WordPress experts that cites among their sources Hubspot, Goldman Sachs and Forbes. That is expected to double in two years.   

Consumer attention and, eventually advertising dollars are moving away from traditional digital media and to creator content in a way “so dramatic that it’s pulling investor attention along with it,” Kirsch told AMO. Advertisers are lagging in part because there are no big companies ruling the space and helping them reach masses, “and so consolidation will help by being able to have some companies that have enough scale to really bring the mega brands into the market.” 

Buyers

Slow Ventures will focus on individuals who have become authorities in niche areas, like automotive or gardening, rather than on celebrities or athletes, Axios reported. It plans on taking 10% stakes in holding companies that provide creators with capital for expansion. Slow Ventures didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Red Seat Ventures produces audio and video podcasts for 17 creators including Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson and Dr. Phil, and will operate as a standalone entity within Fox’s Tubi Media Group.  

“The creator economy is one of the fastest growing media categories worldwide by measure of reach and influence, and consumers are increasingly looking to get their information, insights and entertainment directly from the voices and brands they trust across these platforms,” Paul Cheesbrough, CEO of Tubi Media Group, said in a statement in February. “We see tremendous opportunities to drive additional scale in genres such as sports, news and entertainment.”

Red Seat Ventures properties cumulatively drove over 200 million monthly active views in November. Fox declined to provide comment.

The frenzy is here, but buyer beware. Some 59% of creators still aren’t making money, according to WPBeginner. Only 2% of top creators take home more than $1 million a year, which requires at least 5 million followers. About 25% of creators earn $50,000 to $100,000 annually.

“The podcast market in particular, even more than the creator economy, is really front loaded to the biggest folks, like, if you’re not in the top half of 1% of creators, it’s a hobby,” Kirsch said. “It’s not a business that you can be anything other than a giant in.”

Still, brands may be afraid of missing out, and there are plenty of niche creators with a few million of followers. Kirsch expects to see Comcast, Warner Bros. and other legacy companies start buying creator economy assets in the next few years, though they are generally hampered by “the fact that their balance sheets are upside down.” 

Disney’s a possible acquirer, but it spent a boatload of money about a decade ago on Maker Studios, which had a network of tens of thousands of creators on YouTube. 

“Disney was famously burnt by the acquisition of Maker Studios, which did not go well at all,”  Kirsch said. But “the ecosystem in this sector has changed dramatically since that deal… it’s a very different economy now.” 

Other buyers could include private equity backed companies like Mythical Entertainment, Lunar X and Whalar. SpinCo, a cable spinoff of most of NBCUniversal cable networks, could eventually put up its hand in a bid for creator businesses, as could any other similar spin-offs, Kirsch said. 

“I would look for those companies to be buying digital networks that are growing more rapidly than their linear eyeballs are declining,” Kirsch said.