Reality TV giant Endemol Shine going direct to consumer via YouTube

The country’s biggest TV production company is experimenting with an additional business model by dropping three new reality series direct to the consumer via YouTube.

Endemol Shine Australia has scored a huge hit with Married At First Sight Australia 2025.

The country’s biggest producer of TV, Endemol Shine Australia, is experimenting with a new business model by filming new reality shows for the YouTube audience.

The current roster of ESA – the local arm of global TV giant Banijay – includes Married At First Sight and Lego Masters for Nine, Big Brother for Seven, Survivor and MasterChef for Network 10 and Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds for ABC.

Its new ESA direct-to-consumer venture is called Resay and it is being run by Sydney director of content Amelia Fisk.

In between running the massive Survivor Australia format for Network 10 and Nine’s 5pm weekday hit Tipping Point and The Summit, Ms Fisk has pulled together talent from across ESA to dream up new reality formats for the YouTube experiment.

Ms Fisk explained ESA is well aware of respecting the relationships it has with broadcasters. “We’re not taking anything away from our existing formats that we’ve got with our clients here. What we are doing on YouTube always has to be fresh and new,” she said. As to the decision to use YouTube for distribution, Ms Fisk explained: “It’s the second largest media company in the world. For us to ignore that and not try our hand at making content in that space would be a missed opportunity. It’s a new world we are moving into.

“We make some of the biggest multi-award winning shows around the world. We thought, ‘let’s try our hand at something different and take content straight to the consumer’.”

She added it was a good time to launch the new reality series as YouTube celebrates its 20th anniversary. Elsewhere in the Endemol Shine network, Germany too is working with YouTubers and collaborating with creators.

Hosting the new programming are former Big Brother contestants Tilly Whitfield and Marley Biyendolo. If the YouTube audience doesn’t warm to these two, the venture might not fly as they front all the new shows.

Whitfeld brings a solid following to the venture – 200,000 on TikTok and 90,000 on Instagram, although she recently explained to followers that she has taken a 9-to-5 job as a buyer’s agent.

Whitfeld’s on-air partner, Marley Biyendolo, was the winner of Big Brother 2021, and is newly married to US soccer star Lynn Williams. He brings a crowd of followers, too – 100,000 on TikTok and 57,000 on Instagram.

The endgame for ESA is both YouTube revenues and the possibility of turning one of the new formats into a big-budget global TV hit.

But no one is expecting overnight success, Ms Fisk said.

“We’re still babies in the world of YouTube.

“That means we’re taking lessons from kids who have made content in their bedrooms.”

While ESA is used to big-budget glossy TV productions, Ms Fisk and her colleagues are finding that the simpler the idea and the presentation, the better it can work for a YouTube audience.

There are three new YouTube shows. The first, Squirm Sessions, will see the hosts conduct an interview, and the special guest will have a button to push if the questioning gets too intrusive.

Spicy Dates will feature two singles sitting down to a meal with each course hotter than the last. Glow Ups will pair the two hosts with an expert to transform “geeky” people into more confident and stylish versions of themselves in just two hours.