Fans of CollegeHumor will know the CH Media subscription streaming service Dropout. Some big news just dropped by the company, and it turns out Dropout is going to share their end-of-year revenue with its creatives.
Dropout is a streaming platform that was created back in 2018 by the same company behind the CollegeHumor brand. This subscription service runs original programming in the same style as CollegeHumor, often tackling the same characters and shows. A few shows from Dropout include Um, Actually, Dimension 20, Gods of Food, and Cartoon Hell. As we’ve said before, they’ve produced some amazing sketches, such as “Diversity Is So IN!”
Kevin Stiller, who works on Dropout, posted a screenshot on Instagram of an email from the company informing them of the news. Sam Reich, CEO of Dropout, also shared the story.
The original goal of Dropout was to be a home for creators who couldn’t get monetization through traditional means, such as advertising. Now, with Dropout’s latest industry mic drop of sharing revenue, hopefully indie platforms will be given a better rep.
This is a monumental move that shouldn’t be understated. Most companies in Hollywood refuse to share profits with production teams, instead extracting the maximum amount of surplus from the labor, and paying them very little for their hard work. Dropout wants to change that through leading by example. The message is clear: if a small indie company without multi-million dollar ad campaigns can do it, why can’t you?
Such a move comes on the tail-end of the SAG-AFTRA strike, which affected most productions in Hollywood, and made plenty of execs reconsider unfair labor contracts. As Gizmodo reports, Dropout was also affected by the strikes, and shut down a few productions to follow guild guidelines.
We need more companies like Dropout in the world if we’re ever going to fix our labor crisis. Hopefully other small companies follow suit.
(featured image: CH Media/Dropout)
