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Alon Shtruzman Individual Creators, Not Networks, Will Lead Future Of Entertainment (1)

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Alon Shtruzman: Individual Creators, Not Networks, Will Lead Future of Entertainment 

After more than three decades in Television with roles at Viacom, Nat Geo, Fox, Hot Telecom, and Keshet International, Alon Shtruzman sees digital creators, not networks, leading the future of entertainment. As Co-CEO of production and talent management at 5X Media, which has offices in both LA and Madrid, Alon is spearheading a business focused on what he describes as “the fourth revolution” in the electronic media and television industry.

From Traditional Media to the Creator Economy

Before joining 5X Media in October 2023, Alon led Keshet International, home of popular programs such as “Homeland” and “La Brea.” However, a change in viewing habits together with a decline in Hollywood’s content investments called for a shift.

“What we see is a massive crisis in Hollywood on the one hand, and an explosion of social media talent and content on the other,” Alon notes. “There are much fewer productions of movies, and TV shows and producers need to find new channels for content creation and monetization. Digital creators and influencers have been dominating the Internet for years, but now it’s time for Hollywood producers to reinvent themselves in that space.”

Alon believes this shift opened possibilities for a different approach to entertainment. “If we used to say in the past that content is king, now we’re saying talent is king,” he explains.

“More and more great content really comes directly from the talent. The talent IS the content in many cases. I know so many actors and storytellers that now make a living just from social media and some of them make more money than they ever made because they’re cutting the middleman and the gatekeeper. They can launch their own channels, they can make their own brand deals, and they take a bigger piece of the revenues,” Alon continues.

A New Chapter in Television History

Alon describes today’s transformation through television’s historical progression. “The first revolution was the beginning of network television in the 50s when ABC, NBC, and CBS started. The second was cable TV, which came in the 80s when networks like CNN, MTV, and Nickelodeon launched niche television around specific themes and target audiences. The third was VOD and streaming. And now we’re facing the fourth, which is the influencer and digital creators revolution.”

This latest development transforms entertainment fundamentals and content as we know it. “The influencers came and showed that they can gain a big and loyal audience just by dancing or lip-syncing or doing short comedies,” Alon notes. “In a way, they kind of broke the paradigm of storytelling. What the creators industry showed us is that you don’t need traditional storytelling in order to create successful content.”

The Factors Driving Change

Alon notes that the influencer market has reached a total spend of approximately $250 billion, an amount that has approached the scale of traditional TV and film spending. “That’s massive money,” Alon emphasizes. “It’s almost as much as the world spends on TV and films. And that means a lot because content producers obviously follow the money.”

This financial reality, according to Alon, reshapes the entertainment industry. “With so much money going into influencers and creators and shorts from content, obviously that becomes attractive not only for young influencers but also for professionals,” Alon explains. “We producers are asking ourselves, how do we become part of it? How do we create content that would fit this medium and be attractive to advertisers?”

The transformation appears clearly in audience behavior, especially among younger viewers. “Young audiences are much more used to short form. It’s very hard today to sit kids in front of anything longer than five minutes,” he observes. “This generation, Gen Z and Gen Alpha, when they grow up, I don’t think they would watch television as we do. They’re going to keep the appetite for short-form content, for very condensed content.”

Celebrity creation and monetization have also shifted. “2024 was like a really big year for influencers because influencers started to gain the same status as TV stars,” Alon notes. “I was amazed to see how many cover magazines featured influencers. Suddenly, you see GQ, TMZ, and Forbes featuring influencers. So, if the traditional place to create celebrities was mainly TV and film, now social media has become the new hotbed for celebrities.”

5X Media’s Strategic Response

5X Media approaches the creator economy with a distinctive strategy, viewing influencers as the new cable channels, each representing a specific content niche and audience demographic.

“We’re looking to build a broad roster of influencers that cover a variety of themes and subjects,” explains Alon. “For us, each of them is a cable channel – someone with a theme, following base, fan base. We want to have everything from beauty influencers to travel. Some influencers focus on gaming; some influencers focus on social matters. 

He adds, “If you’re a beauty influencer with even a million followers, you have more eyeballs than many cable channels. Many cable channels in America struggle to get a million pairs of eyeballs in an evening while some influencers are getting x10, x20, or x30.”

5X Media recently appointed entertainment executive, film producer, and entrepreneur Michael Morriatti as head of talent acquisition. “Michael has an amazing talent for signing talent,” Alon shares. “He’s responsible for signing some of the biggest names and celebrities for WME. We identified Michael as someone with a great eye for talent and a way to engage and sign clients and grow and build careers.”


Michael Morriatti

In assessing talent, Morriatti and the 5X Media team consider multiple factors beyond follower counts. “We look at quality and quantity,” Alon explains. “It’s a combination of getting to know the influencers, their taste, their mentality, their audience, their motivation to work and create content, grow their business. On the other hand, we look at analytics on all levels – numbers, demographics, effectiveness, and engagement. Remember, it’s not only about the quantity but also about engagement. We want to see that the audience actually engages with the content.”

Alon notes that “in a relatively short time, [Michael] managed to build a large roster of mega influencers.”

Beyond Management: Creating Professional Content

5X Media extends beyond traditional talent management by investing in content development. “We also fund pilots for them,” Alon reveals. “We’re big believers in investing in high-quality professional content. So we work with some of our clients to create pilots for web series. We shoot the pilot and then look for sponsors for that pilot.”

The company takes an all-around approach to brand partnerships. “Brands are becoming more and more sophisticated when it comes to brand deals and influencers,” Alon notes. “If you really want to win a significant brand deal, it’s not only about the number of followers but also about the creativity. We try to work with our influencers on creating campaigns, and when we talk with brands, we pitch not only the influencer/creator but also a specific creative idea for the brand.”

“We work with our managers very closely,” he adds. “We have weekly meetings where we talk about every client, specifically about opportunities. We talk about brand deals. We monitor closely every influencer and manager, and we make sure we’re providing maximum resources and support to our clients on a daily and weekly basis. We also meet with them frequently to brainstorm and think about opportunities and new directions.”

The Future of Entertainment

Alon anticipates an increasing connection between traditional media and creator content. “MrBeast’s success on Amazon is great news for the industry,” he notes. “His new show is trending really high on Amazon, leading in more than 80 countries. It’s proof that influencers can cross over.”

He expects more professional production values in creator content. “We’re going to see more and more crossovers, more and more content from the Internet and influencers going to television,” predicts Alon. “And we’re going to see the opposite – more and more professional TV shows on the Internet. This means influencers will go another step from creating spontaneous or short-form content and doing more expensive, complicated, high-end productions.”

However, Alon identifies areas for industry improvement. “I want to see more standardization of analytics and meters to be able to make a better comparison between influencers,” he explains. “Almost like Nielsen – in the TV space, we have Nielsen as the golden standard of rating. So, I want to see more Nielsen-standard analytics on the Internet. For us producers and advertisers, that can be an amazing change.”

“We’re super excited about this industry,” he concludes. “We think that digital creators are here to stay. We’re facing evolution in content, and we think the future is really bright.”

Cecilia Carloni, Interview Manager at Influence Weekly and writer for NetInfluencer. Coming from beautiful Argentina, Ceci has spent years chatting with big names in the influencer world, making friends and learning insider info along the way. When she’s not deep in interviews or writing, she's enjoying life with her two daughters. Ceci’s stories give a peek behind the curtain of influencer life, sharing the real and interesting tales from her many conversations with movers and shakers in the space.

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