Survive+ arrives on YouTube to feed growing appetite for adventure

Data from our Tubefilter charts shows survival content ranks among the most popular genres on YouTube worldwide. That viewership trend is serving as Propagate Content‘s compass, leading the production company to a new YouTube-based venture titled Survive+.

The new service is emerging out of a partnership between Propagate — a studio known for TV-first formats like Chopped and streaming hits like Untold — and the U.K.-based producer Cowshed Ventures. The available shows will be led by a mix of familiar faces and social media standouts, including veteran survivalist Bear Grylls and zookeeper Jack Randall.

Survive+ content will be available on YouTube and other social media platforms, according to Deadline. “Survive+ represents a bold new chapter for adventure storytelling,” said Propagate Content COO and Group President Drew Buckley. “Partnering with Cowshed allows us to blend world-class talent like Bear Grylls with emerging voices like Jack Randall, all through a digital-first lens.”

This is not the first time that Bear Grylls name has popped up in connection with a social video venture. We saw several similar announcements during the 2010s, back when YouTube programming blocks put together by traditional producers

Propagate, which produces Grylls’ Nat Geo show Running Wild, is betting that now’s the time to bring the former Discovery star back to YouTube. The popularity of survival content on YouTube Shorts justifies that decision. Creators who tie knots and scale cliffs are getting more views than ever before. In some cases, channels trend up through mere mentions of the word “survival,” even if the attached content is pure nonsense.

Those numbers show there is a viewer appetite that can be sated by an old favorite like Grylls, and the two companies behind Survive+ are well-positioned to marry unscripted TV to creator content. Cowshed, which will run the service’s day-to-day operations, teamed up with the Sidemen to launch their YouTube-to-Netflix success story Inside. Part of Propagate’s digital-first investment has come through talent management firms. It has picked up majority shares for both Select and Parker Management, two companies that work with notable influencers.

Propagate and Cowshed revealed Survive+ at MIPCOM, the entertainment conference that has turned into a gold rush for traditional production companies who are hunting creator fanbases. By adding family content like The Survivalists to Survive+, Propagate and Cowshed are ensuring that they can get a piece of the dialed-in YouTube audience, and they won’t have to consume anything untoward to make that happen.