Kids Dynamo Pocket.watch Leverages YouTube Scale To Expand Creator Programming To Hulu, Peacock And Amazon Kids+

Dade Hayes

4 February 2025 at 3:21 pm·4-min read

EXCLUSIVE: If you recognize the name pocket.watch, you likely associate it with YouTube, its anchor distribution partner since the kids programming outfit was founded in 2018.

Now, the company is expanding its slate of creator-based fare to premium streaming outlets like Hulu, Peacock and Amazon Kids+.

More from Deadline

Pocket.watch, founded by Chris Williams, who runs it as CEO, has a stable of 53 creator brands reaching 1.2 billion subscribers with 855 billion lifetime views. Williams in a past chapter was an exec at Disney and also co-founded two other startups, including Maker Studios, that were acquired by the media giant.

The move to leverage popular creator brands like Ryan’s World, Love, Diana, Daniel LaBelle, and MeganPlays in new streaming environments has paid dividends. Hulu, which last year completed an integration into Disney+, has nearly doubled its tally of pocket.watch titles since 2023. It just added six new titles to Hulu on February 1, among them Diana’s Popstar Princess Adventure!, Daniel LaBelle: Full Body Funny, and MeganPlays: Play It Peachy.

Watch time on Peacock, meanwhile, has increased fivefold compared with a year ago and Amazon Kids+ has premiered content from Love, Diana, opening up a sizable new platform for the channel, which has more than 10 million subscribers.

David B. Williams, SVP/GM Channels at pocket.watch (and brother of Chris Williams), says the potency of the kids-and-family audience has been clearly established in the streaming era. “They drive tons of engagement, subscriber growth and retention, and there’s simply no content that resonates with them as powerfully and consistently as creator content,” he said.

The task for pocket.watch, he added, is “transforming this content, at scale, into high-quality, kid-safe, enriching shows that are ready for premium services.”

One area of concern among both parents and advertisers is safety, given the regularly disconcerting reports about inappropriate content being served to minors, sometimes with blue-chip ads attached, across the internet.

“We have a rigorous vetting process for identifying creators and curating their content, ensuring it meets the highest standards for kids’ safety,” Chris Williams says. “We focus on YouTube creators because, as the only platform with specific accommodations for under 13 audiences, YouTube is the clear leader with kids in terms of both viewership and monetization.”

The recent uproar over TikTok, which has been banned by the U.S. government but is a candidate for a potential rescue by the Trump Administration, doesn’t directly affect pocket.watch since its core audience is a bit younger.

“We use Reels and TikTok primarily as a promotional tool to reach parents as they are not legally approved for use by kids under 13 the way YouTube is,” Williams explains. “We’re optimistic about the platforms’ future if government, legal compliance and strong kids safety measures are introduced. Meanwhile, YouTube Shorts continues to emerge as a powerful space for creator engagement and kid-safe content, with growing opportunities, especially as we see shifts in global markets like India, where Shorts fills the void left by TikTok.”

As far as longer-form content goes, the upside of being in business with multiple major partners is clear.

When Ryan’s World, the channel with 38.7 million subscribers, got big enough to support a feature film, Paramount Pictures wound up distributing it last summer, understanding the power of its YouTube DNA. The channel is robust enough to also support Ryan and Friends Plus, described by pocket.watch as the largest independent kids subscription streaming outlet in the U.S., though the company hasn’t disclosed the numbers.

As the flywheel spins, reputable partners see pocket.watch as safe and reliable and in turn offer their “continued trust” in the company to surface premium creators. The leadership team has a feel for what will play, even if the streaming age isn’t where they started their careers. Along with the Williams’ traditional media experience, another key exec at the company is Chief Content Officer Albie Hecht. His deep experience in kids programming includes key oversight roles at Nickelodeon as it became a dominant player in cable’s salad days with the launch of SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer.

Best of Deadline