Nebula / Standard Broadcast LLC - A Creator-Owned Streaming Service

[The_Bladder_Splatter]

Yeah. He thinks all black conservatives are secret white supremacists and refers to them as "race traitors"

Damn i knew that the the far left ends up being unironically as racist as the right, but i never knew it ended up rounding up to hitlerian rethorics

 

[Georgio Cocklord]

I found somebody in the Nebula stable.

I see more people are hiring skutchdraws. Somebody should keep an eye on him, he's an old friend of hbomb and Shaun who used to do commissions for them in 2019, he's the one who drew shauns avatar, the background for the Harry Potter video and his current background. Also a friend of Caseyexplosion, the furry degenerate video game troon of the breadtube community. A lot of his work on twitter can be summarised as "anti white people fantasy work" because all of it is pictures of black and brown people doing magic surrounded by domes, minarets and other non white architecture. He was recently hired by Lindsay ellis for the John and Yoko thumbnail.

 

[Eventide]

Damn i knew that the the far left ends up being unironically as racist as the right, but i never knew it ended up rounding up to hitlerian rethorics

Alas, Horseshoe Theory is real (...or at least it is among Nebula's crop of braindead tankies).

I sh!t you not, Lindsay Ellis' most recent book (*which I summarized over on her thread a few days ago) literally ends with the main characters planning a "Day of the Rope" to overthrow the American government, because its actually being controlled by evil militant baby eating David Icke outer space reptoids that live underground & throughout history have secretly worked alongside Jewz in order destroy the goyim.

 

[Hirbowedge]

Yeah. He thinks all black conservatives are secret white supremacists and refers to them as "race traitors" (or in Candace Owen's case, a c00n. No, seriously - he calls her that).

Anyway, I got a kick out of that one time Tree of Logic read him to filth on Twitter:

View attachment 6273266

I don't regularly follow Tree of Logic, but whenever she pops up online, she's always great. I don't think I ever didn't like seeing her posts or videos.

 

[Ninon42]

This video by Wall Street Millennial's thesis is essentially that Nebula and Curiosity Stream initially partnered to increase the membership in both, but Nebula came out of it stronger. Nebula bits start around 7 minutes in. Basically CS paid $6M and bought 12% of a company that supplanted them in the market.

And here's Nebula doing some cheap marketing (article)

Spoiler: The Getaway BTS and Nebula shilling

The pitch is quick and to the point. Sam Denby—the creator behind Wendover Productions, an edutainment YouTube channel that has spun out several hit properties like travel competition series Jet Lag: The Game—is kicking off production for a secretive new show.
That show, The Getaway, begins filming in Las Vegas in seventy-two hours. Creator-owned streaming service Nebula, a company Sam co-founded, greenlit the project with a budget in the low six-figure range. The Nebula-exclusive premiere is set for July.

Did I want to come to Vegas and see the production up close?
Two days later, I hop on a flight and touch down in Sin City.
The next morning, Sam explains the premise of their reality competition show. Six contestants (all YouTube creators) have been dropped into a casino heist as they compete to win challenges—with a big twist.

It’s a pretty great set-up that I think viewers will enjoy. But for the purpose of my time in Vegas, I’m less interested to learn about the show itself, and more interested to hear from the folks behind the camera.

“Very, very different,” Sam says when I ask him to compare this production to a season of Jet Lag. That show mainly consists of him and his co-stars, Adam Chase and Ben Doyle, filming on iPhones and recording audio on simple lavalier mics. Post-production comprises the heaviest lift, as a high percentage of Jet Lag is visualized through motion graphics.

For The Getaway, “we have an eighteen-person crew,” Sam tells me. “We not only have Camera One, Camera Two, Camera Three, we have a grip truck and an audio [engineer]. It’s a completely different world for us. We’re packing up every single day, going to all these different sites and trying to do things with the same quality you get in studios.”

The first shoot of the day takes us to the “Neon Museum,” an eclectic spot full of retro neon signs on the outskirts of the Vegas strip. Everything from music videos to movies have been shot here (“Ice Cube is my favorite person who came by,” a representative from the museum tells me). Opening it up for a YouTube creator’s production is a first.

With a walkie-talkie in hand and an earpiece inserted, Sam bounces around the set, watching footage live in the truck and discussing shots with his director of photography, an experienced cinematographer named Valentina Vee. In Sam’s words, it’s a lot of “catching up to speed and pretending like I know what I’m doing.”
“Part of the intention of Nebula is to develop talent,” he tells me. “Nebula wants me to learn how to play the role of director and lead a big project…so that we can do more and more stuff like this.”
The phrase I hear often on set is “leveling up.” “If Step One is to build a successful YouTube channel, and Step Ten is to get a Netflix deal, where the hell are Steps Two through Nine?” Nebula CEO Dave Wiskus likes to say, referring to the current career progression for creators. “Whoever can build a bridge between what we call the ‘creator economy’ and traditional entertainment and media…that’s the winner. That’s what we’re trying to be.”

And the goal of building this talent development pipeline isn’t limited to just Sam. Adam Chase is quick to point out that the entire Wendover team—composed of roughly seven writers and producers—helped develop The Getaway. It’s most of the team’s first time on a formal set. Everything is a learning experience, from game design to hiring a stunt driver to even ensuring the catered Panera lunches arrive on time.

“The only reason for us to take on something new and something big is if it’s exciting to us,” Adam tells me. “Not to be a Nebula shill, but who else is gonna give a team that works primarily in YouTube this budget to do this concept, and have as much creative control over it as we’ve had?”
Is The Getaway—small crews, quick production timelines, and a built-in community of diehard Wendover fans from the jump—a glimpse into the future of Hollywood? To be honest, I’m not certain. Nebula charges five dollars a month, and claims to have over six hundred eighty-thousand paying subscribers. Still, there’s a likely scenario where all this effort (and investment) into premium, original content simply doesn’t resonate on a level that justifies its budget.

Yet what I found in the arid Vegas desert was a group of people willing to take a risk on this new infrastructure they’re laying, leading with conviction at a time when the feeling appears to be lacking around town.
“The future Oscar winners, Emmy winners…those future folks are on YouTube right now,” Trenton Waterson, the VP of Nebula Production, tells me. Trenton joined the company in 2022 after fifteen years working as a producer. His previous stops at Marvel Studios and Netflix lent him an up-close look at some of the most famous filmmakers in the world.

“I won’t be surprised when any of these creators are, you know, winning an Oscar in the next ten or fifteen years for the stories they’re telling,” he predicts.

And another article in which Wiskus admits they're going for an entrance into Hollywood via cronyism...just like every other LA scumbag. Funny how all these "disrupters" end up engaging in the exact same shady practices as their predecessors but believe that when they do it, it's somehow different. (article)

Spoiler: Nothing New Ever Happens

There’s a meta moment in Season 8 of “Jet Lag: The Game” when the stars of the unscripted travel competition series are seated on a plane behind a fan watching an episode of the show on the streaming platform Nebula. Catching a “Jet Lag” viewer in the wild would have been unthinkable when the series bowed in 2022. But not anymore.

Nebula is part of a wave of streamer startups that are owned by content creators and cater to niche audiences and passionate fandoms. The list also includes Dropout (formerly known as CollegeHumor) and Beacon, a tabletop roleplaying game-focused service that evolved from the YouTube channel Critical Role (which boasts 2.3 million subscribers).

These outlets bill themselves as vehicles for reaching the super fans of their niches, and they wear their independence like a badge: No venture capitalists or pesky parent companies to answer to.
Sam Reich, CEO of Dropout, draws a sharp distinction between his service and a broad-based player like Netflix. It’s the difference between “a brand play and a utility play,” he explains.

“Netflix is trying to be people’s answer to TV, which is not what we’re trying to be. We are trying to be a very specific brand that stands for something creatively, that folks are excited to subscribe to, to hear our voice,” Reich says.

Dropout, which costs $5.99 a month, is best known for the Reich-hosted game show “Game Changer” and the Dungeons & Dragons series “Dimension 20,” hosted by actor and game master Brennan Lee Mulligan. The fandom around “Dimension 20” is strong enough that a January 2025 live taping at Madison Square Garden sold out when tickets were released in April.

Reich says subscriber numbers for Dropout, which launched in 2018, are in the mid-to-high six figures, with viewership growing by 600% over the past three years. In April, hours watched reached nearly 8 million.

The powerful fandom of Dungeons & Dragons is fertile ground for subscription streamers. From the D&D-focused Critical Role team, Beacon launched in May priced at $5.99 per month. Critical Role co-founders Travis Willingham and Marisha Ray have not disclosed Beacon’s subscriber count, but they say the initial engagement has been “overwhelming” and reaffirms their choice to add another streamer to the market.

“We were going through YouTube or Twitch or Twitter — a third-party app or company that gets in between us and them,” Willingham says. A dedicated subscription platform allows them to “establish that intimacy, that thread.”

Adds Ray: “We’ve always had a really strong mantra that we want to allow our fans the flexibility to choose how they wish to support us, whether that be subscribing to Twitch or buying a T-shirt. All of that went into Beacon, where we looked at it like the bonus features you would have on a DVD back in the day.”

Like Dropout, Nebula (priced at $5 monthly) has surpassed the 500,000-subscriber mark since its 2019 launch, per CEO Dave Wiskus. Thanks to the success of “Jet Lag” and other originals, the service has more than tripled its customer count from last year, while maintaining a single-digit churn rate and profitability. In the past year alone, Nebula’s revenue has more than doubled, according to Wiskus, and the business sees about two-thirds of its subscribers signing up for annual memberships.

While initially launched as a streamer with a focus on content from YouTube stars, who own the platform, Nebula has rapidly expanded its brand over the past year: The team led by Wiskus and chief content officer Sam Denby (creator and host of “Jet Lag: The Game”) has launched a film studio, opened a news division in partnership with Morning Brew and struck a deal with Spotify.

What’s leading to the growth of small platforms like Dropout and Nebula is in large part their indie status, according to Wiskus.

“The great thing about not having millions and millions of dollars in cash on Day One is that we didn’t have that money to spend on Day One,” Wiskus says. “When we hire, it’s because revenue has grown enough for us to hire. When we go out and greenlight new Nebula originals, it’s because the budget is there.”

At the same time, Nebula and Dropout are eager to find ways to work with bigger names in entertainment. Dropout mounted an Emmys FYC campaign for its programs this year. Nebula is in talks with “Hollywood power players” for new projects, Wiskus says.

“We’ve made a concerted effort, as I think Dropout has, to reach for legitimacy. We acknowledge the importance of legitimacy,” Wiskus says. “There’s a Hollywood machine out there, and if we think that the solution for us is to load up a truck and pull up next to the bank, blow a hole in the wall and loot the vault — it doesn’t really work that way. What we’re doing is a heist, and that requires slow, methodical thinking and becoming friends with the right people.”

While Nebula, Dropout and Beacon forge distinct paths in a crowded mega-streaming landscape, other indie creators are entering with their own subscription-based models, including Watcher Entertainment and The Try Guys’ platform 2nd Try.

“The more folks in this space, the better, because it sends audiences the message that services like us ought to be a part of their new cable package,” Dropout’s Reich says. “I’m not interested in a world where Dropout is the only niche streaming service you subscribe to. I’m interested in a world where you have three or four or more of them.”

 

[The_Bladder_Splatter]

they're going for an entrace into Hollywood via cronyism

At this point why try?, Lindsay Ellis is not very well known by the wider mainstream crowd beyond being a who that writes sci fi, the group recently dealt with an L in the form of the Acolyte being cancelled (a show were Olly stared), and Hollywood is already on the process of slowly walking back on DEI and identity politics, if we are honest the only thing keeping this enterprise alive is Wiskus's insider knowledge and connections

 

[Ninon42]

At this point why try?, Lindsay Ellis is not very well known by the wider mainstream crowd beyond being a who that writes sci fi, the group recently dealt with an L in the form of the Acolyte being cancelled (a show were Olly stared), and Hollywood is already on the process of slowly walking back on DEI and identity politics, if we are honest the only thing keeping this enterprise alive is Wiskus's insider knowledge and connections

Ego. Lindsay and her ilk want their peers to be Scorsese and similar auteurs, not the Paul brothers. They crave legitimacy that no amount of YouTube (or Nebula) success will ever bring. It's old money vs new money and the illusion of class, being ashamed of your roots, and the desperate need to prove themselves to the people who mocked them in high school.

 

[Eventide]

At this point why try?, Lindsay Ellis is not very well known by the wider mainstream crowd beyond being a who that writes sci fi, the group recently dealt with an L in the form of the Acolyte being cancelled (a show were Olly stared), and Hollywood is already on the process of slowly walking back on DEI and identity politics, if we are honest the only thing keeping this enterprise alive is Wiskus's insider knowledge and connections

Are any of his connections linked to Qatar? Or Russia? Or the PRC?

...I'm joking, but not really. If Nebula isn't some nebulous (heh) glowie pet project, I can't help but wonder if there's some shady foreign cash behind it.

It seems as if nearly all the "educational" video essays on Nebula (or at least the ones I've seen) are poorly researched and extraordinarily inaccurate. For example, a recent Nebula video about left wing antisemitism literally argued that antisemitism & antizionism is sometimes justified, because Americans Jews & Israeli Jews *checks notes* refuse to view members of the Black Hebrew Israelites (you know, the black supremacist "we waz kings" violent hate group on the FBI watchlist & founded in Kansas in like, the '60's) as fellow Jews. Like, whut? I really hope Iran or whatever foreign country presumably handling these dumba$$ tankies wrote that script, or else RFK Jr. might be on to something when he started discussing brain worms.

Also, like I've 'sperged before, Lindsay Ellis' scifi book series is downright b#tshit. Her most recent book literally ends with the main character mentioning Waco, paraphrasing Timothy McVeigh, and than planning a day of the rope against the federal government because its been corrupted by evil militarists (the main character clearly means ZOG/baby eating David Icke lizard people aliens. That's right, David Icke baby eating lizard people are actual villains that show up in her scifi series.) Yeah...the only streamer I could imagine being interested in adapting Lindsay's series would be whoever is currently hosting catboi lover Nick Fuentes. Or perhaps Kanye/Ye would be interested in such a project? It sure seems like the sorta story that would be up his alley.

Edit:

So according to Tumblr, who mercilessly ripped dumba$$ Jessie Gender a new one for arguing that it's okay to be antisemitic and antizionist because American Jews are racist for not considering members of violent modern black supremacist hate group "The Black Hebrew Israelites" to be fellow Jews (...I'm sorry to repeat myself, it's just, I still can't get over how a leftist "education" streamer released a video arguing something you'd see on like, Stormfront or 4chan circa 2004) - last week Jessie Gender edited her Youtube video essay to remove said insane antisemitic statement (no idea if her Nebula video has also been edited. Probably not, considering the level of stupid that festers on said platform).

You know what's funny? Tumblr, despite being synonymous with hot tankie takes, absolutely despises the majority of Nebula creators and routinely calls out their bullsh!t/deconstructs their videos. They hate Lindsay for being a b!tchy wokescold Nazi (...which, I mean, considering the weird Candace Owens-level of antisemitism in her book series, that checks out) they also hate Hbomberguy, James Somerton, ToddintheShadows, uh...that presumably autistic creator who's obsessed with bikes and bikelanes to the point where he moved his entire family from Canada to Amsterdam because Canada is too car focused, Sarah Z, etc. If young woke chronically online Tumblr users are presumably Nebula's core intended audience, than I have a hard time imagining the platform succeeding in the long run.

....is it too early to start taking bets on which Nebula creator will turn conservative and end up on the Daily Wire once Nebula goes belly up?

 

[The_Bladder_Splatter]

Lindsay and her ilk want their peers to be Scorsese and similar auteurs, not the Paul brothers.

Still chasing that channel awesome dream eh?, Seems like old habits die hard

Are any of his connections linked to Qatar? Or Russia? Or the PRC?

Not quite the heavy hitters but what i personally theorize to be similarly ideologized people (we all know that Hollywood has been infested by lefties since the late 40s), investors who put money into "progressive media" to boost their DEI or whatever brownie point system of the moment and whoever Wiskus rizes up to keep the company afloat

 

[Eventide]

Not quite the heavy hitters

I wouldn't discredit the heavy hitters just yet. "Nebula spreads foreign disinformation" theory actually originates from Reddit's "Bad History" sub, it was originally discussed on there a few years back. Quite a few historian redditors were shaken by Nebula creators' dedication to spreading sus bullsh!t under the guise of "edutainment". I believe the theory was triggered by a Wendover video, of all things. Someone was like "wait a sec, why are we constantly riffing on Nebula creator content? What the heck is going on over there?" and it kinda snowballed

but what i personally theorize to be similarly ideologized people (we all know that Hollywood has been infested by lefties since the late 40s), investors who put money into "progressive media" to boost their DEI or whatever brownie point system of the moment and whoever Wiskus rizes up to keep company afloat

If the platform was meant to bilk woke/DEI brownie points from corporate investors, than why is it so painfully white? & for that matter, why do so many of its supposed "woke" creators hold weird Neo Nazi-ish views (which, presumably, would be a hinderance to attracting major corporate investors)? Is it just horseshoe theory in action, or something else?

I guess the truth will ultimately come out, if Trump wins (assuming Trump wasn't just posturing when he said he wanted to go after Qatar-funded propaganda influencing American schools/etc.) Either it collapses after losing its funding due to sanctions, or it was a legit streaming platform.

 

[Markass the Worst]

that presumably autistic creator who's obsessed with bikes and bikelanes to the point where he moved his entire family from Canada to Amsterdam because Canada is too car focused

Jason Slaughter of Not Just Bikes. If you have any examples of Tumblrites criticising him I'd love to see it posted in that thread.

 

[Eventide]

Jason Slaughter of Not Just Bikes. If you have any examples of Tumblrites criticizing him I'd love to see it posted in that thread.

I'll have to log into Tumblr, so it might take awhile to get screenshots. Also, not surprised to find out he has his own thread on the farms.

From what I remember, Tumblristas hated the weird bike guy because packing up and moving to another country due to a petty reason such as "better bike infrastructure" is an example of out-of touch autistic tankies flexing their rich white privilege; or something along those lines. Like, if he cares so much about bike accessibility, why did he not remain in Canada & work to make Canada a better country for bicyclists? Poor Canadian bike-tards are left to suffer, while he's rich enough to just move to wherever on the globe currently has the best paved bike lanes.

Alas, the true downfall of Nebula's crop of breadtubers: despite pretending to be proletariats, they're all just out-of touch capitalist bourgeoise (for example, Lindsay's continued whining about barely affording her kids/student loans, despite earning 50+ grand a month from Patreon paypigs & being married to an aerospace engineer).

...so anyway, once Nebula goes belly up, I bet Sarah Z will be the first Nebula essayist to turn conservative grifter. She has a very Fox News-esque resting bitchface. Also, didn't she make a video essay vigorously defending Once Upon a Time's creepy Rumpelstiltskin/Belle major age gap romance because he can protect innocent Belle from evil witches and dark magic? (- or am I thinking of another breadtuber video essayist?) That's sorta advocating for traditional conservative marriage.

 

[Markass the Worst]

From what I remember, Tumblristas hated the weird bike guy because packing up and moving to another country due to a petty reason such as "better bike infrastructure" is an example of out-of touch autistic tankies flexing their rich white privilege; or something along those lines. Like, if he cares so much about bike accessibility, why did he not remain in Canada & work to make Canada a better country for bicyclists? Poor Canadian bike-tards are left to suffer, while he's rich enough to just move to wherever on the globe currently has the best paved bike lanes.

Definitely post those screenshots, Jason hates it when you ask him why he didn't just stay and make things better. He gets all upset in the "I don't care!" way when he really does care.

 

[Markass the Worst]

Sam Denby of Wendover Productions uploaded a video that is so obviously just an ad for Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park (coincidentally, the park was just featured in his Jet Lag spin-off show The Getaway).

Even his own fans are calling him out in the comments with some pointing out how he failed to mention an incident where a little girl died on one of the rides. His pathetic excuse is that the matter is "pending litigation."

 

[Blue Gem Kosher Queen]

Sarah Z

Did Izzyzz replace her that bad?

...so anyway, once Nebula goes belly up, I bet Sarah Z will be the first Nebula essayist to turn conservative grifter. She has a very Fox News-esque resting bitchface.

This one could be funnier if that happening triggers Quinton to give his own version of the dm saga.

 

[The_Bladder_Splatter]

Why they never accepted Quinton tho?, Did he burnt all the bridges during the dm saga?

 

[Blue Gem Kosher Queen]

Why they never accepted Quinton tho?, Did he burnt all the bridges during the dm saga?

Quinton was aligned with the skeptics originally, that's how his channel grew in the first place so he was tainted. He awkwardly tried to distance himself from them while at Vidcon... while sharing an Airbnb with them.
He also was a MASSIVE tryhard. There were times he would go to r/breadtube and post memes of himself.
Pretty inept video essayist. Mispronunciation and malapropism galore of the likes of Brendan Schaub aside, Q is every video essayist stereotype minus the part of having good audio and editing.
He still follows Big Joel and Jack Saint, they were the only real 'friends' he had in breadtube. He apparently was into almost every B-lister womb haver. abelina sabrina fresh of Gus Johnson, Jebby while trying to be a Disneyland regular, Sarah. He always was seen as adjacent at best to the community and people only now call him a breadtuber as a joke. He prolly is creeping on Izzyzz' dms now.

 

[The_Bladder_Splatter]

Lindsay and her ilk want their peers to be Scorsese and similar auteurs

If that's the case i would imagine Elli's directorial debut would start strong until her alcoholism and self destructing tendencies catch up, destroying her own career Josh Trank style

If the platform was meant to bilk woke/DEI brownie points from corporate investors, than why is it so painfully white?

They do have a few blacks but most importantly they feature several queers and transgenders, and we all know that transes are the main trend right now in the world of performance activism

 

[Anti Snigger]

He awkwardly tried to distance himself from them while at Vidcon... while sharing an Airbnb with them.

>when an autist tries to social climb

 

[Eventide]

So I messaged a history redditor asking them why they suspected Nebula was foreign financed misinformation/propaganda, & they linked to a few videos made by Nebula creators that are very obvious Qatar financed propaganda.

For example, this video about Qatar (by Nebula-er Polymatter), which, I shit you not - argues that Qatar's Al Jazeera is an unbiased progressive news source free from propaganda

The Youtube comments section is hilarious:




...aren't creators supposed to disclose if their content is sponsored by a company/entity? Or does that not apply since Nebula is a private streaming service? Could they potentially get in trouble if its revealed all the weird Nebula videos fellating Qatar's mere existence turn out to actually be financed by said country?