🔫 Are creators becoming the arms dealers of the new media economy?

In Hollywood, there’s a familiar analogy: Some media companies act as “arms dealers.” They produce content but don’t own their own streaming platform, like Sony, Lionsgate, or A24. They create content and license it out to whoever is buying.

“Arms buyers” are platforms like Netflix, Disney, Peacock, or Hulu, who own distribution platforms in addition to producing their own content.

Lately, I’ve been wondering if creators can start becoming “arms dealers”?

Ted Sarandos, Netflix co-CEO, recently said Netflix offers creators better monetization than YouTube. But Sarandos is talking about risk. Netflix shares the risk with creators by paying them for content upfront.

YouTube offers no guarantees. It lets you build the house and then charges you rent once you’re successful.

Is this a sign that Netflix is going to start licensing more content from creators?

At the same time, Vimeo just announced Vimeo Streaming, a product that allows creators to spin up their own streaming platforms on top of Vimeo’s infrastructure.

That’s huge. Most creators don’t have the technical capacity to build their own media platforms but are constantly looking for ways to diversify off-platform. Vimeo is stepping in to provide the rails .

So now we have two emerging creator pathways:
-Sell content to platforms like Netflix — act as an arms dealer.
-Own the distribution using Vimeo or similar tools — become your own network.

Either way, creators are starting to behave like studios. They’re becoming more like IP owners, with catalogs, formats, and licensing strategies.

Creators are increasingly aware of the limits of platform dependence:
-Algorithms are unpredictable
-Discovery is fragile
-Audience relationships aren’t truly owned
-Monetization is volatile and controlled by others

So creators are not only going direct-to-fan but starting to act like studios, organizations who treat their content as inventory, not just output.

If I were at NBC or Hulu right now, I’d be actively licensing creator-led formats. Mr. Beast’s Beast Games is the obvious example, but there’s still a growing long tail of creators that will build out a content pipeline.

At PWR House, we’re helping creators develop IP and working with brands who want to act like media companies. We’re building storytelling systems designed for both ownership and scale.