AGC Digital, the creator division AGC Studios launched in October 2026, aims to begin production on its first projects by early 2027. Backed by AGC Studios’ infrastructure across film, television, financing, production, sales, and distribution, Jared Jacobs, the unit’s Senior Vice President, is partnering with creators to develop, finance, produce, and distribute original digital-first IP across genres and formats, including unscripted, scripted, feature films, and animation.

“[Creators] know their audience. They know what’s successful for them,” Jared says. “But I know what the buyers are looking for, and so do our features team and our scripted team.” AGC also supplies ad sales, marketing, and PR.

That pairing targets creators who already hold audiences and want to move into formats such as scripted, features, or animation. AGC, a Los Angeles studio founded in 2018, has made more than 50 film and television productions, according to the company. Jared arrives from consulting for Warner Bros. Unscripted Television on digital strategy and development and, before that, from Night Studios, where he developed premium projects with creators including MrBeast and Kai Cenat. 

His account of why creator crossovers into premium often fall short defines what AGC Digital aims to avoid.

Creators Placed in Finished Formats Fail to Bring Their Audiences

A dating production company once asked Jared whether MrBeast would host a dating show for it. He saw no reason the format would suit MrBeast, who at the time was not doing the informal, personal content he posts now. “‘Beast Games’ did well because it’s exactly what he’s doing,” Jared says.

Audiences notice a mismatch, Jared says. When a creator hosts a show unrelated to their channel, their own viewers skip it, and the show’s viewers do not follow back to the channel. “They think they’re just taking the paycheck,” he says.

In Jared’s account, production companies often bring creators a finished format and use them as talent without asking them to shape it. Creators, he notes, know what their audience wants because digital shows them directly. “When you drop a video, you get the comments, and you can then change the next video to incorporate the comments,” Jared says.

Engagement and Audience Demand Behind the Follower Count

Those same comment sections are where Jared screens creators for AGC Digital. Some arrive with 10 million or 20 million followers but draw a couple thousand to hundreds of thousands of views, he says, so the follower figure outruns the engagement behind it.

He reads the comments for requests. “Are they saying, ‘Oh, I wish there was a premium version of this, or I wish this turned into a show?’” Jared says.

Jared evaluates creators based on consistent viewership, audience engagement, growth trajectory, originality, and creative potential. While historical performance provides useful benchmarks, he also considers whether a creator’s content and audience have the potential to support larger entertainment franchises.

For emerging creators who demonstrate growth, AGC Digital can take a flexible approach to financing, tailoring investments to the scale and potential of each opportunity. Smaller initial projects can serve as proof of concepts, with the potential for additional investment as the IP develops. 

Jared also looks for creators who are open to collaboration and understand that traditional film and television production can operate on different timelines than digital content.

Creators Review Every Draft While AGC Digital Handles Production

Once a creator clears that screen, the first meeting centers on goals, Jared says. His starting question is what a partner could contribute that the creator has not managed alone.

AGC Digital collaborates with creators to develop original concepts that reflect their creative vision and resonate with their audiences. Jared emphasizes that the goal is to “build genuine creative and business partnerships,” with ownership, financing, recoupment, and revenue participation negotiated based on each project and the contributions of its partners.

Production comes next, and Jared says it should not cost the creator channel time. “YouTube is their livelihood,” he says. “I’m not trying to take anything away from that.” He plans to hire a line producer and assemble the crew through AGC’s production services, taking those tasks off the creator’s plate.

While Jared leads the newly launched division with support from Joel Zimmer, President of AGC Unwritten, and the broader AGC team, AGC Digital draws on the studio’s existing infrastructure across film, scripted television, unscripted, kids and family, production, financing, and distribution.

Owning the IP and Choosing the Platform Can Outearn a Single Streamer Deal

With financing in place, where a finished project lives depends on the creator’s goals. According to Jared, it can start on the creator’s channel, move to a new channel built for the project, or run as a collaboration among several creators. A film could run as a pay-per-view special on a platform such as Patreon for a week before the rights revert and AGC licenses it to Tubi.

Licensing to Tubi, placing a series on airplane screens, or working with companies that program airport TVs can draw brand money, Jared says. “You could end up making way more than you ever would if you license that one show to Netflix,” he says.

Ownership is central to Jared’s strategy. While traditional streaming arrangements can sometimes require producers and creators to give up significant rights, AGC Digital aims to structure partnerships that allow the studio and its creator partners to retain ownership interests and participate in the long-term value of the IP they develop together, with terms varying by project.

Retaining IP ownership, Jared adds, can also create opportunities for international sales, local adaptations, merchandise, and licensing, allowing AGC and its creator partners to participate in the long-term value of the franchises they build together.

Jared Wants Creator Formats to Travel Abroad With Local Creators

AGC Digital takes a flexible, digital-first approach to building original IP. According to Jared, some projects may use digital as a launching pad for larger film and television franchises, while others may grow into successful entertainment properties entirely within the digital ecosystem.

The longer-term goal is a franchise that outgrows the original channel. An animated world launches digitally, Jared says, its characters each get their own series, and those build into scripted shows and feature films handled by AGC’s features team. He calls that path “the whole flywheel of AGC.”

Jared wants that flywheel to cross borders. “I want to be able to build franchises that can live digitally, that expand across the world digitally,” he says. “We could take that format globally, but use local talent and local creators to be doing it.”

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