Whalar Group, a growing player in talent representation for the creator economy, is taking a big swing at building a network TV-like weekly schedule of creator-led series.
The company has launched Lighthouse Studios as an entertainment production arm to complement the Lighthouse content development and creation hubs that Whalar has established in Brooklyn and the Venice area of Los Angeles. Akshay Mehta, an alum of Bron Ventures, CAA Media Finance and Good Universe, will serve as CEO of Lighthouse Studios and will be based in Los Angeles.
Lighthouse Studios’ first major effort is a partnership with director and creator Cole Bennett’s Lyrical Lemonade digital media venture that has more than 24 million YouTube followers. The deal calls for Lighthouse Studios to provide “capital, production infrastructure, and strategic support” to allow Lyrical Lemonade to build out a video network based on its eclectic mix of music, culture and lifestyle programming. Bennett is a top music video helmer known for his work with Eminem, Jack Harlow and Lil Yachty.
Mehta has ambition to do similar deals with large-sale digital creators to assemble a slate of recurring series that drop new episodes around the same time each week. He hopes to deliver a range of formats and programs running five minutes to an hour.
“Through Lighthouse Studios, we’re building our version of network television channels that are led by YouTube creators that already have audience and trust in the space, be it music or lifestyle or any sort of genres,” Mehta told Variety. “We give them operating capital and operating infrastructure to build a level of primetime programming that we feel is the right scale. We’re seeking to produce two episodes of new content a day, seven days a week for 48 weeks of the year across a fairly recognizable programming grid, which we’ve seen work for TV for 70 years,” Mehta says. “We understand that consumers today find their programming when they find their programming, and so we want to make sure that we’re in the feed with consistency.”
Mehta wants shows that become a daily or weekly habit for viewers. “We don’t need to make 24 hours of programming a day. We can really focus on two or three pieces of content a day that are really meaningful to the audiences that are connected to our networks,” Mehta said.
Lighthouse Studios will play across as wide a canvas as the marketplace will allow. But at the moment there is no question that YouTube is the crossroads-of-the-world cornerstone of distribution for longform digital video content.
“The stickiness of YouTube as a platform is so strong now that if we’re going to build this sort of scale, we think we need to create one space to come to. We will distribute shorts across TikTok and across Snap and Instagram, but for the long form content and for the primetime programming, YouTube is going to be our first landing spot,” he said.
The pact with Lyrical Lemonade represents a new-ish model for creators to team with a partner that brings capital, production infrastructure and distribution expertise. Mehta says there are more such partnerships in the works. Lighthouse’s ultimate goal is to nurture talent and to bundle the advertising inventory in all of these shows to sell across digital ad networks.
“We have more coming down the pipeline, but obviously we’re keen to make sure that every brand gets their own moment in the light,” Mehta said. Our intention is to be at a certain scale by 2027.”
Lighthouse Studios’ partners will retain their own brand names and YouTube channels. The parent company will bundle and drive the network’s distribution and ad sale from behind the scenes.
“They’ll all still be their own businesses and in their own joint ventures under Lighthouse,” Mehta said.
To prepare for the expansion of Lyrical Lemonade’s content, the company has set a leadership team under Bennett’s direction with Joseph Rocha as CEO, Elliot Montanez as Head of Content & Programming, and Jake Millan as Head of Talent & Artist Relations. Sara Kolli serves as Network Producer and Sam McGrath as Content Associate.
Bennett will serve as executive producer across all Lyrical Lemonade programming, functioning as the creative showrunner and guiding the network’s editorial vision.
“Lyrical Lemonade is built on a foundation of consistent output. Expanding into a network has always been the long-term vision, and now is the clear and intentional next step in our evolution,” Bennett said. “We will be able to explore diverse interests with a cohesive through line from show to show. Lyrical Lemonade TV will crack the code in a way that hasn’t been done before with YouTube- driven networks.”
James Street and Neil Waller, co-founder and co-CEOs of Whalar Group, heralded the launch of Lighthouse Studios as a move that they’ve been ready to make for some time.
“Neil and I moved to Los Angeles nine years ago with the belief that Creators were going to play a central role in the future of entertainment and storytelling. The launch of Lighthouse Studios is the ultimate realization of that belief and is a continuation of our commitment to back creative visionaries like Cole Bennett and the LLTV team with the capital and resources they need to shape the future of entertainment,” Street and Waller said.
Another appointment for Lighthouse Studios is Ray Brown, who helped bring Lyrical Lemonade into the company. Brown will serve as chief partnerships officer.
“Lyrical Lemonade TV represents exactly the kind of creator-led network Lighthouse Studios was built to support,” Brown said. “Cole and the Lyrical Lemonade TV team have already proven their ability to shape culture and launch artists, and our partnership is about giving that vision the infrastructure, investment and strategic partnerships needed to scale into a full entertainment network.”
Whalar Group’s bet on creator content comes at an opportune time. Mehta points to the stunning box office opening in January of the DIY horror film “Iron Lung” from YouTuber Markiplier. He sees a parallel to the boom that emerged in the gaming business about 10 years ago.
“Obviously, Markiplier’s ‘Iron Lung’ is a big conversation piece right now. I think about 2016 when independent video game studios did the same thing and created huge moments of creative and commercial feats,” Mehta said. “Now we’re in a zone where a lot of YouTube talent and content creators are thinking about their next stage, because they’ve done a decade of this. Now they’re thinking, ‘How do I now leverage my great, trusted relationship with audiences?’ I like to think that the thing I’m good at is working with talent and creators to unpack the commercial and creative opportunities and how to build that for long-term success.”
