Fox Wants to Finance Your Next Show | Billy Parks, Head of Fox Creator Studios Joins | Ed Davidson from Cannes Lions Talks Creators 2026

0:00Welcome to Creator Upload, your Creator Economy podcast. I'm Lauren Schnipper. And I am Joshua Cohen. Joshua, today we are bringing the folks a very special episode. A special episode indeed. We have not one but two amazing interviews. Number one, Billy Parks, EVP head of Fox Creator Studios at Fox Entertainment, is coming on to make massive announcements about new partnerships they have and really breaks down like what they're doing, why he's there, what their sort of goal is. I personally found it really fascinating and could have kept talking to him all day because he knows Billy Park. So obviously.

0:33Obviously. We also had Ed Davidson, chief growth officer for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, which is happening next week in France. Josh is already steaming out his linen shirts for such an occasion and pants, let's be real. And he's buffing his white sneakers. Very excited for these two interviews, Josh. Thank you for blowing up my wardrobe spot, Yeah, Lauren, I'm going to look fly, though. Yeah. No, it's amazing. Josh's favorite thing to do is send me pictures of him, like, smoking cigs by the beach wearing all linen. It's not my favorite thing to do. It's not even in the top 20.

1:07Don't agree with that. So we have so many great interviews. We just kind of want to get right to it today. So we're going to kick off with Billy Parks. Welcome, Billy Parks, head of Fox Creator Studios. Thank you for being on Creator Upload. Thank you, guys. First time you've been on the podcast in any podcast in this capacity, in this role. Am I correct in saying as such? You are correct in saying as such. Let's go. Let's get all the info out there. It feels right. So everybody's dying to talk to you. Everybody wants to know what is up. You going there is super exciting for everybody in the space, too, just knowing who you are and what you bring to the table.

1:44So before we get into a lot of exciting announcements, you guys are moving quickly. Want to sort of get a high level of why you're there. What were you brought in to do very specifically? Give me the log line, buddy. Great. Thanks for having me. You guys are rad. It's fun to be talking to you guys about this. I think the short of it is we want to invest in creator IP. So I think we all know the creator economy and people making content on their platforms has been an amazing way to find audiences. And we want to partner on those great ideas that creators have and then help with our our ad sales team and our distribution team to help those things monetize.

2:24So, you know, Fox has a hundred years of history, uh, helping creators, you know, with that, we were called creatives then, right. It's writers, it's directors, it's stars, you know, they would select them and make deals with them. And sometimes they would live on the lot. And sometimes they, you know, as we got closer to the future, they would just pitch ideas and they would go to the development and they would make the shows. And so we're kind of rebuilding that model for create, for the creator economy. So we're partnering on IP. So we finance it, put it on that. Like the creators are coming to us with ideas.

2:56We're not coming to them with ideas. Um, we listen to what they want to make and why they want to make it. And a lot of them come into us with like data backed ideas. They're like, Hey, this has worked on my channel before this has worked on my channel before. I want to do a longer format of this. I use, I've done this in this video and that video, and I want to do 10 episodes, 20 episodes of it, or I want to start a net new channel with this new idea. or and it's short form and it's long form. And we say, great, go make it. No development. No, hey, what if you change this character? What, you know, like, let's go through this for several months.

3:29Like, here's the capital. Go make it. We'll split the IP together. Our ad sales team will help monetize it. You know, our distribution team will help monetize the tape. And much in the way they make shows that go on broadcast, our team that's built around Fox helps monetize the content. So is the, and again, before we get to the specific deals, I just want to understand, is the goal to always start with the digital first IPC? Is it a creator coming to you saying, I want to make a TV show? And you're like, we got to start with like digital first and then build it from there. Or is it like bespoke?

3:58If you want to make a TV show, there's a hundred people down the hall that make TV shows and I'm happy to introduce them. But I don't make TV shows and we don't make them at the Fox Creator Studio. We make stuff on the internet. On the internet. It can be behind a paywall. It could be right on YouTube. It can be on TikTok. talk. It could be on any of the micro drama platforms. It could be on Instagram, but, um, but generally it's creators who are like wanting to maintain that direct to consumer relationship with their rights. By the way, they can also have a show on another platform or on TV or those kinds of things.

4:34It's not mutually exclusive. And I think like a lot of questions I've got have been like, well, uh, well, whose strategy is best to like work with creator economy? And I'm like, everybody's like and you know for creators like they should try all of it like if they're gonna say we're building the planet as we're flying it kids so yeah yeah it's either or like you know we did this deal with tom sagura he's got touring that's insane he's got specials on netflix he's got tv shows on netflix he's got independent movies he's making and with with us we're making a bunch of direct-to-consumer shows with him um so um do it all you know creators get out there and do it all, you know?

5:11So do you, what does success look like in like three to five years? Is it like, you know, again, it's not, so it doesn't sound like it's like, oh, this IP is built and we're going to go, you know, sell it to a streamer or something like that. Maybe that's a version of it. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think success looks like continuing to identify great talent and making money on the internet with them, right? So it's like we create a show that has 20 episodes or 10 episodes and it goes on a creator channel and it becomes a really big show either on their channel or maybe somewhere else one day.

5:41All of those things are fine. But that just like the ad sales team sells into broadcast and just like the distribution team takes shows that we make and puts them on different platforms and moves them around. And those are all, that's all IP that has been making capital, right? And so now we're just building a way to do it where we can do it with creators on their channels. And are you building up like production capabilities like in-house? Are you like sort of like giving, it's more like you're financing it. You mentioned other like ad sales and other of those kind of capabilities. Are you leaving the sort of production piece to sort of the creators?

6:13Yeah. By and large, the creators are running their own productions and we like seek out creators that produce themselves. Got it. Sometimes, you know, maybe sometimes creators will come to us with an idea that they're like, I can't quite handle this by myself. It's an idea that's beyond like the capabilities I have. Do you can you help us figure out how to make this? And we and then we will. You know, I have, you know, a bit of a background in production and obviously we do here at Fox as well. So, yes, we will support that. But it's not our we're not producing these projects. Generally, these are projects that creators want to produce.

6:48Because that was sort of my question. It's like, how do you not all of a sudden get these budgets inflated? But it sounds like because you guys aren't doing their production, it's like you're still in that they're the digital first mindset. So you're really sticking with that. So that makes sense. We're looking for creators that want to execute their vision on their platforms. And generally, they know how to do it. You know, like I said, every once in a while, they'll say, hey, this idea is bigger than I can handle. And we'll like work with them to get them a producer. But generally, they're YouTube endemic producers.

7:15Yep. Yep. So then, OK, and let's get to creator selection and then we'll get to the who. So what are you looking at? Is Josh going to talk too? Oh, he will. No, I don't. No, it's fine. It's better. Oh, when I tell, when I give him the permission. I've got a few more questions and then we'll get to him. You've got the unmute button. Yeah, no. Cool. So just like in terms of evaluating a creator, like it seems like it's not just the biggest creators in the world necessarily. Like give me some sort of touch points as to like what is a creator that you want to work with? Yeah. Like I think you'll see with this first slate, I think it's really telling of what we wanted to do, both what we did with Tom Segura and then this new slate that we're announcing today.

7:51Um, there is short form creators, um, that are, that have tried IP and we're like, oh, that's really cool. Do you want to do more of those? Can we, can we help that? Um, there's short, there's short form creators that are trying net, that are basically launching net new ideas on, uh, short form channels. Um, there is scripted, there's unscripted, there's, uh, creators that have 25 million TikTok followers that are, that have built, um, you know, comedy. There are creators that have 2 million, 3 million subscribers on their YouTube channels that are building formats. So it's formag agnostic. It's platform agnostic.

8:30It's just great ideas that they are really passionate about making and they think will work for their audience or they think they can build a net new audience with. Amazing. Josh, permission to speak. Oh, thank you. Thank you, Lauren. You're holding my breath the whole time. Billy, great to have you on the podcast. Thank you so much for being back here. So you're working with Josh Richards, Amelia Hartford, Speedco, Sorted Food, My Healthy Dish, Christina Richardson, and Mad Realities. What's the through line throughout all this? Is it that they have this format that they think has done really well with their audiences that they just want to pour more gasoline on that fire now?

9:07Yeah. I mean, I think the through line is it's all IP that we're excited to get behind. That's the short thing. It's like they're making shows that we're super interested in. They are all shows that are their ideas. They're all shores that they're really passionate about things that they have like tested out, tried, want to do more of think will think think will be a big success. And like, so those are the things that we're all getting. That's kind of the through line of them all. um but like i said they're all different platforms all different times christina's amazing she's a um you know she's a she's a she's an ad she produces she um decided um several uh you know several months ago that she wanted to create a show called besties which was like a relationship drama show um and she just made it on a net new instagram and gained like 20 000 followers it's a great show.

9:56It's like the characters are great. It's shot beautifully. It's great story. It's funny. It's, it's a great, it's a great, um, it's a great show. And we met her. I got introduced to her, uh, through somebody said, Hey, you should look at this. I looked at it. I met her. She's super talented, uh, really driven, just went out and got her own money together and put her own project together. And I was like, can we help with the subsequent seasons? And she said, yes. And so we, um, are funding the subsequent seasons and we'll see if we can support from a PR marketing kind of like helper growth standpoint, but it's really on her to like continue to make great story.

10:32Um, so there are stories like that. Um, and then Josh, Josh was really interesting. Same kind of thing. You think of him, he's just big TikTok star. Everybody knows him. Yeah. Like beautiful and cool. And you know, he's like, you know, you know, like your, your, your big kind of like TikTok personality. but you guys know like he wants to make stuff you know he wants to like tell stories and like he wants to do comedy and so he on his own with his own capital made first season of a great uh sketch comedy show and called read the room and we saw it and we're like this is rad like look can we help you make more of it and he said yes and so we partnered we partnered to kind of move it forward.

11:12Um, and then there's some net new shows, um, that were by our, by our creators who just came to us like Amelia Hartford. She came to us with a bunch of ideas. I met Amelia in my, in my old life and my old jobs. I thought she was always cool and smart and building something interesting, super driven. Um, and she's like, I've got these great shows I'd like to make. And I said, great. We heard him. We're like that one. Can we make that one with you? She said, yes. Um, and it's called hot laps. It's a, it's a, it's an interview format, uh, where she is interviewing people while she's like bombing around a racetrack.

11:45You know, she's a race car driver. Um, you know, she's running Pike's peak right now. Uh, she is, it's terrifying to be in a car with her. Uh, imagine if we were doing this interview going like 90 miles an hour through like a hairpin turn. So, uh, it's a fun, it's a fun interview format that I think both people who are wanting to talk about their new projects and, uh, people who want to be interviewed, it gives them a fun a fun way to do it that they're uh that maybe not used to um so yeah those are those those are some of them we connected with alice small have you guys ever talked to alice small yes i have yes yeah so alice is like trying all these super smart yeah super smart understands build audience has a really interesting way to kind of like test and learn and iterate and you know uh take feedback loops from the audience and decide what's working and we're testing a bunch of different formats with her that she's come up with.

12:33She's super smart. Um, and, uh, and then the sorted food guys who are, uh, food creators, uh, along with Maya Wen, uh, who is also a food creator, uh, both had formats that were really interesting. Maya is, um, has two daughters that are going off to college and she wants them to know how to feed themselves properly when she goes. She, she's been teaching the internet about how to cook healthy, um, for themselves for years. And she, she made a format where she's doing 20 episodes, teaching her daughters, uh, how to be prepared, uh, both with like, uh, uh, for, uh, with both with foods that are like culturally relevant to like her family and also just like healthy, healthy dining stuff.

13:12So when they go to college, they know what they're doing. They know how to cook a good meal. And then the sort of guys have a really funny format where they're going to put all these different ingredients and foods and people are going to have to try them. Uh, and one person is going to have a really nasty ingredient, a really salty ingredient, a really spicy ingredient, and then they can't signal to the rest of the contestants that it's a different dish. So anyways, they have a really fun format as well. So these are all concepts that these creators wanted to make, and they felt met audience goals for them.

13:41This is super interesting, and it's great to hear the just heterogeneity of all of this and the different types of formats and the different types of places this will live. Thank you for using the word heterogeneity. Thank you. You're so welcome. We really appreciate that. That was on lots of people's bingo cards for this week. So I'm just trying to hit the Cal shoe markets for my friends out there. So, Billy, from a creator's POV, like there are lots of companies that are trying to do this with creators these days. So they're trying to go and build these ambitious projects or these pet projects that these creators have that are outside their normal kind of purview of what they upload to their channel daily, weekly, monthly, whatever.

14:19Why are these creators working with Fox? Like what's the competitive advantage you bring besides of the, besides the Billy parks X factor here, what does Fox bring to the table? Yeah. I mean, listen, I think the, first of all, I think creators should try all of them. Like I don't, I'm in, I'm in no way saying that they should do one platform or the other. I think as you guys know, like back to the Tom Segura thing, right? Like he's got standup specials, he's got touring, he's got stuff he's doing direct to consumer. um he has uh movies that he's making and i think creators should be doing all of it with any platform that makes sense for what they're doing like uh so i think the product we're offering is very hyper focused on them doing stuff for their channels and then monetizing those so as creators if creators are hyper so and some creators don't want to split in the ip and that's not a good that doesn't work for us because we need to partner and do this and and benefit together so some creators don't want to work with us because they want to like 100 % own all their IP on their platform.

15:20And that's totally okay, too. I think we're hyper focused on partnering with creators in ways that we can all make money together, making stuff on their platform. So if they want to, if they're very focused on making stuff that like lives on their channels, it's a good, it's a good place to work. And if they're also wanting somebody who can help them to connect to the hundreds of ad salespeople we have, and the, you know, billions of dollars that are spent on ads across the Fox network. Like those teams are looking at our projects in the same way they're looking at Baywatch and the same way they're looking at, um, you know, all the programming that's on the Fox network.

15:54And they're looking at the same ad teams that are going to buyers and saying, Hey, this is an ocean new show we're making. We're just making it on the internet. Um, and then the distribution team has taken that tape and has the ability to help monetize that as well. I think that's really interesting. That choice to have the creators put it on their channels, it just creates a lot of like downstream effects that are questions that are now more easily answered. Like, of course, you're not going to give them lots of notes. Of course, you're not going to have like a network exec telling them what to do or how to change the script or anything else if it's on their platform and they're talking to their people.

16:25No, no. I mean, listen, we, yeah, they know what works on their channel. They pitch their great ideas to us. We get behind it. Now, if they are making something that we can help them with, like I said that you know we got we've had really great success over the last 100 years of Fox with game shows and they want to sit with our game show producers and sit with four or five of them and have a hundred hours you know a hundred years of knowledge that's been putting things on the air that work and and things that haven't worked and uh you know when I when I talk to Rob about some show a creator wants to make they're like oh yeah it's a little bit of this and it's a little of that and that worked in the UK and Canada used to have a format like that and this worked in Ireland and like, they should look at this.

17:06It's like, it's just like a wealth of knowledge. Now we're not, again, we're not here to give notes and approve edits or, or give them notes before they make it and things like that. Um, but there is some knowledge here, uh, you know, across, across genres. It's a, it's a, there's a very smart group of people here who can, who can support if they want it. And quite frankly, like when I first got, uh, when I started talking about this role with Rob, I was like, man, no creator wants to talk to anybody at any studio. That was like my first instinct. And the more and more I got to know them, and quite frankly, the more and more I got to talk to creators about the role, I was like, oh, like a lot of creators actually like do a great job with their relationship with their audience, but there's parts of the business and parts of the development of formats that are beyond YouTube that like they would like to talk to somebody else about.

17:52So this is, this is like my whole thesis is like, there is, there is room for call it traditional and creator to work together because sort of creators to your point, you keep talking about the audience kind of connection that is sort of so uniquely it's really important to the creator so there's yeah it's more they do it better than sort of any historically anybody in the entertainment industry but like developing ip and recognizing when they have developed you know created ip is a traditional traditional is really i think good at so like building that sort of bridge i would be remiss if i didn't dig a little bit more into the sort of business model of it all you mentioned partnering with creators you know on their ip but like what What happens if it's like an existing show and you said you're doing like the next seasons of it?

18:31Are you getting into the weeds a little bit? Are you kind of like taking a piece of just the entire show? Like, you know, as we know, creators are very precious about their ad sense. But when you're investing in it, I would imagine you want some. Or maybe you're just taking maybe you're just trying to get brand dollars behind it. Like, can you give us a little bit of like a high level of what an example of a deal could kind of look like? Yeah. Yeah. I think if they you know, I think they're all the short of it is they're all different because all creators have different things that are third rails for them, so to speak.

18:58So generally, generally, we split the IP together. There's previous seasons, the arrangements are different for each people, each creator. So sometimes they're like, they want us to help them monetize those seasons. Sometimes they already have a deal for those seasons, or sometimes they've made them on their own. And they just want to, you know, they don't, they don't, they don't want to partner with them. And sometimes they're like, yes, make this a package. So you can help sell against it. And you can help, you know, get the tape to make more money. So the deals are super custom. The one important thing to us is, and I always tell creators when I first start talking to them or agents and managers is like, please don't pitch me an idea that you're unwilling to like partner on the IP and split the IP together.

19:41Because for us, like, you know, we have to really partner together. and like you're not you're not a you're not like a these aren't grants are giving i mean you're you're trying to yeah it's a business yeah yeah and i i think we add enough value to be worth it besides financing it like you know like helping monetize it so um so the deals are really custom so each creator and that that's another thing that is like i thought i thought working at a big studio was gonna be really hard with our business affairs and like kind of like building new models that were different from like tv models and like we've been really malleable as far as like how we figure these things out, which makes it, which, which makes challenges to say like, hey, every deal is going to be its own snowflake.

20:22But I think we're getting to a place with this first slate and then like the next one where we can say, okay, here's the deal that we're going to offer kind of like point, you know, like kind of, this is what we will offer. And like, you know, there can be obviously movement around the edges, but it really is custom to, it really is custom to the creator. On that note. So you have a bad, just in a final question. I think, look, if I'm not mistaken, you have about seven deals that you're announcing this week. Are we to expect more before the end of the year? Or like, are you guys going to chill for a minute and like, see how this goes?

20:52No, no, no. We're excited. I mean, a lot of these are already shooting. I'm in, I'm in Austin right now on a shoot. Um, we have a couple that started shooting this week. So, uh, we're Fox has really leaned in. So we're moving really quickly. Um, I mean, we're moving carefully, but we're moving, we're moving quickly. Um, I think a lot of the things that we wanted to get going quickly were because we wanted to see what broke. You know, like, hey, what's not going to work here? What's not going to work for creators here? What's not going to work for Fox here? Like, how do we build this in a good way?

21:21So we wanted to get after it early. But yeah, I mean, we have lots of other projects that were the deals weren't quite ready for this slate announcement that will be announced ongoing. And we will have a lot more. Yeah, over the next 12 months, like we will be making lots of this stuff. Amazing, dude. Billy Parks, always a pleasure. Welcome. I could talk to you about this for hours. I like, there's so many things. Anytime. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. Yeah. Where should the kids find you on LinkedIn? Is that the best place to learn about what you're doing? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Hit me on LinkedIn or see, people have been, I mean, everybody has my number.

21:58Everybody. People have been texting. Could you like change? It's enough already. Stop giving your, it's a little thirsty. Everybody can reach me and I'm happy about it. And I will say that, like, I love the time I spend in the community and I'm almost ready to get back to everybody. It's been a sprint. This is his way of saying he has not read your text. He's not planning on it. I haven't seen my kids. Like, it's been busy. It's been really busy. It's been a really exciting time. Love it. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Thanks, Billy. All right. All right, guys. Billy, thank you so much for coming on.

22:36excited to have you on again to talk about sort of the next phase. I was sort of like, is that it for this year? Because it's a lot. And he's like, hell no, there's like way more coming. So I am super intrigued, very excited to see like kind of what comes of all these partnerships. I love the whole vibe there too with Billy. He's like, yo, this is who we are. This is what you're doing. You want to come work with us? Here's the deal. Yeah. Let's get something going. No, I think it's 100 % true because I think that, you know, but what that also does in addition to obviously giving Fox an upside in the whole game as well is like figuring out the creators that want to collaborate.

23:06You know what I mean? Collaboration, I've said many times, is the key to longevity, but not all creators are great at it because they've started everything on their own. And so if you're not willing to give up a little bit, if you're going to get an investment from somebody like Fox and an organization like Fox, then you're probably not right for them, regardless of the financial implications of it. Totally. It seems like they have a strong filter that allows them to have a lot of breadth and scope in this ecosystem. Exactly. All right. Well, Well, next up, you know him, you love him, Ed Davidson.

23:35He came on last year to talk about what was happening with Cannes. We kind of got him on again to talk about like what's next, what has changed, what has not changed. So let's get to that interview. Ed Davidson, thank you so much for coming back onto the Creator Upload podcast. We're stoked to have you here. I'm really glad to be back. Thank you so much. So, Ed, you are the chief growth officer at Cannes Lions, the international festival of creativity that is happening next week. It's fast approaching. You probably have a countdown clock somewhere on some screen that's ticking down the minutes until we get started.