What's interesting to me about stories like this is that with content creators can deliver their art/entertainment without the middlemen and actually make good money doing it to the point that they don't need traditional broadcast formats. It's the democratization of media that is a cliche but sometimes actually true.
This is starting to happen in the podcasting world as well. Comic Jimmy Pardo charges $20/season for his "Never Not Funny" audio podcast in lieu of advertising. While I don't believe he's divulged his numbers, I'm pretty sure it's in the tens of thousands, which is a good hunk of change considering his costs to produce the show.
i suspect never not funny passed 6 figure revenue as an enterprise (subscriptions, shirts, back episode sales, etc). he dropped some clues in an episode once before quickly changing the subject.
I do hope this kind of thing doesn't become the new standard. Episodes of "The Guild" and most other online series clock in at 10 minutes and under. At that length, it seems (from present examples) like the stories pretty much have to be fluff.
i'd point out that he mentions two examples, the average the guild episode clocking in at 10 minutes, the average never not funny episode clocking in at 1h 30m.
This is starting to happen in the podcasting world as well. Comic Jimmy Pardo charges $20/season for his "Never Not Funny" audio podcast in lieu of advertising. While I don't believe he's divulged his numbers, I'm pretty sure it's in the tens of thousands, which is a good hunk of change considering his costs to produce the show.