Why Spotter Says ‘Creator TV’ Deserves a Seat at the Upfront Table
Does the advertising industry has a data problem when it comes to creators? Brands want to shift budgets into long-form creator content consumed on connected TVs, but they lack the intelligence to validate where audiences are actually paying attention.
That gap is what one company believes it can fill by packaging creator video not as influencer marketing but as something that “looks like television, feels like television, is consumed on television.” The pitch: creator content has earned the trust that traditional TV programming increasingly struggles to command.
“Holding up the shift of the budgets from the upfront to Creator TV is really about the data and intelligence behind what is Creator TV,” said Nic Paul, co-founder and president, Spotter, in this video interview with Beet.TV at IAB’s Annual Leadership Meeting.
A billion dollars buys a lot of data
Spotter’s position in the market stems from an unusual business model. The company licenses creator content by predicting future revenue and viewership, giving creators capital to grow their businesses. That approach has put roughly $1 billion into creator pockets and given Spotter access to private data most advertisers never see.
“We see this ecosystem of 5,000 creators, 10 million videos and many billions of ad impressions a month,” Paul said. “All that data and the reason why we were licensing the content was driven by average view duration and watch time.”
The result is what Spotter calls Creator TV: aggregated long-form, episodic content running 22 minutes or longer, with the majority of viewership happening on connected televisions. According to the company’s own research, its creator network generates 136 billion annual U.S. views and 26 billion hours watched, with 52% of consumption on CTV.
Turning integrations into scalable media
The challenge with creator content has always been scale. Deep brand integrations work, but they are labor-intensive and hard to repeat. Paul described a system that attempts to solve this by repurposing custom content into standard ad units.
“We can actually cut down those brand integrations and custom content to 30-second ads, 15-second ads, 6-second bumpers, serve them as skippable, non-skip media at scale, but in the environment that that creator is most well known for,” he said.
The company also uses its data to map audience behavior across creators. “If they’re watching a creator like a Pearson, we also know that they watch 80 other channels and they have over affinity indexes on those channels, and we can actually build that world to make sure the media goes there to amplify it,” Paul said.
Watch time as the new currency
Paul argued that video ad completion rates rise dramatically when ads run against content with high watch time. He cited internal data showing that a skippable 30-second ad performs differently against a video with two minutes of watch time versus one with 15 or 20 minutes.
“If we can put your ad on content that is getting watched a minimum of 10 minutes, that is going to have a much higher VCR, which is going to have a much better upper-funnel brand lift, but it’s going to lead to lower-funnel consideration,” he said.
For measurement, Spotter uses third-party studies from DISQO and tracks outcomes like in-store visits for quick-service restaurant clients. “We can append all that tracking to our media, and it actually shows that when you’re serving ads in front of an audience that has very high watch time, you get a more effective outcome,” Paul said.
Attention over reach
The broader market appears to be moving in the direction Paul describes. The IAB’s November 2025 Creator Economy report projected U.S. creator economy ad spend reaching $37 billion in 2025 and $44 billion in 2026, with 48% of buyers now considering creators a “must buy.” Meanwhile, Nielsen’s May 2026 Gauge data showed YouTube commanding 13.8% of total TV watch time, making it the largest television distributor by viewing share.
Paul said the company’s focus for the year ahead is making the case that attention, not just viewership, should drive media planning. “The fact that we allow media buyers to buy attention and not just viewership, that is a big, big thing that we are so excited about,” he said.
“Views are kind of abundant and reach is easy, but it’s really what’s scarce and it’s that attention,” Paul said. “Where are people congregating for long periods of time? I want to make sure my brand shows up in those environments.”
Does the advertising industry has a data problem when it comes to creators? Brands want to shift budgets into long-form creator content consumed on connected TVs, but they lack the intelligence to validate where audiences are actually paying attention.
That gap is what one company believes it can fill by packaging creator video not as influencer marketing but as something that “looks like television, feels like television, is consumed on television.” The pitch: creator content has earned the trust that traditional TV programming increasingly struggles to command.
“Holding up the shift of the budgets from the upfront to Creator TV is really about the data and intelligence behind what is Creator TV,” said Nic Paul, co-founder and president, Spotter, in this video interview with Beet.TV at IAB’s Annual Leadership Meeting.
A billion dollars buys a lot of data
Spotter’s position in the market stems from an unusual business model. The company licenses creator content by predicting future revenue and viewership, giving creators capital to grow their businesses. That approach has put roughly $1 billion into creator pockets and given Spotter access to private data most advertisers never see.
“We see this ecosystem of 5,000 creators, 10 million videos and many billions of ad impressions a month,” Paul said. “All that data and the reason why we were licensing the content was driven by average view duration and watch time.”
The result is what Spotter calls Creator TV: aggregated long-form, episodic content running 22 minutes or longer, with the majority of viewership happening on connected televisions. According to the company’s own research, its creator network generates 136 billion annual U.S. views and 26 billion hours watched, with 52% of consumption on CTV.
Turning integrations into scalable media
The challenge with creator content has always been scale. Deep brand integrations work, but they are labor-intensive and hard to repeat. Paul described a system that attempts to solve this by repurposing custom content into standard ad units.
“We can actually cut down those brand integrations and custom content to 30-second ads, 15-second ads, 6-second bumpers, serve them as skippable, non-skip media at scale, but in the environment that that creator is most well known for,” he said.
The company also uses its data to map audience behavior across creators. “If they’re watching a creator like a Pearson, we also know that they watch 80 other channels and they have over affinity indexes on those channels, and we can actually build that world to make sure the media goes there to amplify it,” Paul said.
Watch time as the new currency
Paul argued that video ad completion rates rise dramatically when ads run against content with high watch time. He cited internal data showing that a skippable 30-second ad performs differently against a video with two minutes of watch time versus one with 15 or 20 minutes.
“If we can put your ad on content that is getting watched a minimum of 10 minutes, that is going to have a much higher VCR, which is going to have a much better upper-funnel brand lift, but it’s going to lead to lower-funnel consideration,” he said.
For measurement, Spotter uses third-party studies from DISQO and tracks outcomes like in-store visits for quick-service restaurant clients. “We can append all that tracking to our media, and it actually shows that when you’re serving ads in front of an audience that has very high watch time, you get a more effective outcome,” Paul said.
Attention over reach
The broader market appears to be moving in the direction Paul describes. The IAB’s November 2025 Creator Economy report projected U.S. creator economy ad spend reaching $37 billion in 2025 and $44 billion in 2026, with 48% of buyers now considering creators a “must buy.” Meanwhile, Nielsen’s May 2026 Gauge data showed YouTube commanding 13.8% of total TV watch time, making it the largest television distributor by viewing share.
Paul said the company’s focus for the year ahead is making the case that attention, not just viewership, should drive media planning. “The fact that we allow media buyers to buy attention and not just viewership, that is a big, big thing that we are so excited about,” he said.
“Views are kind of abundant and reach is easy, but it’s really what’s scarce and it’s that attention,” Paul said. “Where are people congregating for long periods of time? I want to make sure my brand shows up in those environments.”
