YouTube tells producers its next films start online
About 85% of people in the U.K. with a creative career started on YouTube.
That was the figure offered by Pedro Pina, YouTube's vice president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, speaking at Iberseries & Platino Industria. His subject was YouTube's evolution across 20 years, from user uploads to a home for full-length films, according to Variety.
The post is a regional leadership role. EMEA, in company language, groups Europe, the Middle East and Africa under one executive. Pina used the slot to present YouTube as a partner for established screen businesses.
He named two examples. He cited the genre features "Backrooms" and "Obsession" as audiovisual hits that originated on YouTube. Audiovisual, in industry use, simply means finished screen work, from films to series made for any screen.
He was not on stage alone. Pina appeared alongside Roger Rofín Sanglas of 3Cat, Gianluca Curti of Minerva Pictures and Hugo Figueiredo of RTP. A panel, in conference language, means a public discussion with several speakers sharing one stage.
Event listings billed Pina's appearance as a keynote titled 'YouTube: The strategic ally of the audiovisual ecosystem', according to Iberseries & Platino Industria. The audiovisual ecosystem is industry shorthand for everyone who makes and sells screen stories, from writers' rooms to sales agents. A keynote is a headline speech meant to set the agenda for the meeting.
The listings said the session would explore YouTube's role as a strategic partner and how it fuels audience growth and expands traditional business models. In plain terms, audience growth means finding viewers early and keeping them. Business models cover how a title earns money, through box office, advertising and licensing deals, meaning agreements to show a title in specific territories or windows.
For viewers, this is about where films can come from. A story can gather an audience online before it becomes a feature. That reverses the old order of commission first, audience second.
The argument landed in front of a growing crowd. The 2025 edition of Iberseries & Platino Industria drew more than 2,700 accredited participants, meaning registered industry delegates. That total was a record for the event, Variety reported in October 2025.
