Mark Rober is reaching more viewers (and selling more CrunchLabs kits) thanks to Netflix deal

Which platform offers a better deal for creators: YouTube or Netflix? If you ask Ted Sarandos, he’ll tell you that his company is giving its partners a noticeable bump.

That’s one of the takeaways from Sarandos’ recent interview with Politico. The Netflix Co-CEO claimed that engineer Mark Rober‘s CrunchLabs brand got a boost after Rober launched a show on Netflix. “What he saw was a big increase in his consumer product sales after this first week on Netflix, even though he reaches an enormous audience around the world,” Sarandos said.

While Sarandos didn’t offer specific numbers to qualify his assertion, he has repeatedly argued that Netflix is a business booster for top creators. Last year, he said that YouTube is a place where viewers go to “kill time,” whereas Netflix is a destination where viewers “spend time.” So even if the YouTube-to-Netflix pipeline produces uneven viewership results — and that’s what the streamer’s What We Watched data suggests — creators can still benefit from Netflix content in other ways.

Sarandos’ argument comess with a touch of irony. After all, Netflix is the platform that is reportedly dumbing down its scripts

to appeal to background viewers. YouTube is the platform that boasts unbeatable reach and close ties to top brands, so is it really accurate to paint Netflix as the home of engaged consumers?

In a certain sense, Sarandos’ comments are a form of wishful thinking. He wants creators to see as much value as possible in each Netflix impression, because if his platform doesn’t get that traffic, YouTube will. “The connected television market is a zero-sum screen. So whichever one you choose, that’s what you’re watching tonight,” Sarandos told Politico. “You’re going to be choosing [YouTube] at the expense of an RTL or Netflix.”

Even if Sarandos can convince the Mark Robers of the world to bring their business to Netflix, he must continue looking out for upstart platforms that are buying into the zero-sum viewership game. These days, that means TikTok. Sarandos said the ByteDance-owned app is “not directly competitive for us,” but it is competing “for attention and time,” and there’s only so much of that to go around.