New kings of content Why TV streamers are vying for influencers who rule on YouTube

From MrBeast creating the world's most expensive reality TV show and Jake Paul's record-breaking clash with Mike Tyson to British supergroup the Sidemen's Netflix deal, YouTube's superstar creators are taking over mainstream television.

- Mark Sweney

Last month Netflix launched the second series of Inside, the Sidemen's reality show which was a hit when the first run of episodes premiered on YouTube.

The deep-pocketed streamer has such confidence in the format from the septet - whose members include the content creator, rapper and sometime boxer KSI - that it has already commissioned a US version that is due to air this year.

The TV breakthrough comes just weeks after the Sidemen, who have more than 150m YouTube subscribers, sold out a 90,000-seat Wembley Stadium for a charity football match against a YouTube Allstars team.

Attendees and players at the 18-goal extravaganza by the group included Jake Paul, whose Netflix fight against Tyson in November made history as the most-streamed sporting event ever, and the world's most popular YouTuber, Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson.

Donaldson, who is touted to become the Google-owned video sharing platform's first billionaire creator, sparked a bidding war for his $100m (£75m) TV debut Beast Games, which recently set the record as the most expensive reality show ever made.

The success of the show, a take on Netflix's hit Squid Game that reportedly provided Amazon with its biggest ever subscriber uptake, has MrBeast touting the next two series at $150m a pop.

When the Sidemen appeared at a recent Netflix event showcasing programming highlights this year one member quipped that they had signed up with Netflix "for the money".

"Creators are looking to evolve and enhance the level of what they are doing and finding partners to help them do that," says Jordan Schwarzenberger, the Sidemen's manager. "Beast Games, Inside, you need partners to fund ambition. There is only so much you can self-fund, self-run. It's about how can we elevate the production. [These deals] are another string to the bow and a sign of growing ambition."