What do you think of when you think of OnlyFans? Well, for those of us that ever do think of OnlyFans… nudity, right? Maybe adult content and creators? Well, in August 2021, for those not in the know, OnlyFans launched OFTV: a new ‘safe for work’ streaming platform. I say safe for work in quotation marks but I shouldn’t, because it seems like the company has gone out of its way to get across the message that the platform really is safe for work.
Indeed, Australian lifestyle site Man Of Many called it ‘surprisingly safe for work’. The platform comes with an app, so the rigid adherence to the safe aspect was no doubt in order to get the nod of approval from the Apple and Google app stores. At the time of launch Adweek ran an article saying the service ‘has no plans to monetise and will not be running ads’, which is interesting, and looks like the revenue the company makes from NSFW content is funding the opposite. (I suppose the business isn’t short on cash for this venture, having taken $2.4bn in payments from fans in 2020 and $5.6bn in gross revenue in 2022.)
Initially OnlyFans described OFTV as ‘a way to enjoy videos from your favourite OF creators’, and if you go on the platform today (in April 2024) it does appear to be dominated by OF creators. It’s quite something.
That said, at the time of launch Music Ally reported that the platform was immediately looking to diversify, and bring in ‘musicians, podcasters, influencers and other kinds of creators’. Although in February last year Business Insider watched a few hours of footage from a variety of shows and creators and came back saying the content felt ‘chaotic and mediocre at best’. Perhaps things have improved since then, though. In October last year Variety reported that stand-up comedian Whitney Cummings was to release a comedy series, Whitney Cummings Presents, for the fledgling streamer. Encouragingly for those involved in OFTV’s content strategy, the premiere episode of that show was the most watched original content on the platform to date (at least, according to the streamer).
And, most interestingly, as of last month (in March) there was news that Netflix UK will be licensing their first show from OFTV, House of Sims, starring Chloe Sims of The Only Way Is Essex fame. That programme, which is akin to Keeping Up With The Kardashians, is an ‘OFTV original’ — a phrase that we should expect to hear more going forward, given the significance of Netflix working with the platform for the first time, effectively legitimising them as a bona fide streamer.
To return to the monetisation of it all: creators don’t make money from OFTV, and the platform doesn’t run ads. Ultimately, it appears to be a superb marketing exercise, with many OF creators creating safe content that, in turn, drives viewers to their, er, less safe content — where they can actually make money. I imagine OnlyFans looked at how successful some of its creators already were on other visual media platforms like Tiktok, and wanted to utilise their skills on their own platform.
For example, take former porn actor turned media personality, Mia Khalifa, who was admittedly a big name before OnlyFans, OFTV and TikTok even existed; she currently has 37M followers on TikTok and appeared as the guest star of the season 2 premiere of In Real Life, an OFTV interview show, hosted by Australian model Casey Boonstra, who herself comes with 1.6M Instagram followers. And remember Chloe Sims mentioned above, the star of House Of Sims? She has 1.2M followers on Instagram and almost a million on Twitter/X. Both Sims and Boonstra have OnlyFans accounts but don’t share nudity. And in an interview with El Pais, Khalifa has talked about OnlyFans being empowering as a platform, allowing her to shape her own narrative.
Perhaps part of the blurring of the lines over what OnlyFans is (or can become) and how OFTV is trying to position itself, can be attributed to CEO Keily Blair, who took the top job in July last year, having been promoted from Chief Strategy and Operations Officer. As reported in Variety, speaking about Blair’s influence on the company, CFO Lee Taylor said: ‘Over the past 18 months, Keily has played a pivotal role in shaping the strategic direction of OnlyFans and driving it towards our goal of becoming the safest social media platform. Her connection with our creator community, and her vision for the future of the platform, will ensure that we continue to disrupt and innovate the monetization potential of the creator economy, as well as continue to appeal to creators and fans around the world.’
Blair previously led OnlyFans’ trust and safety operations, so the aim to make the platform’s various offerings safe and putting the focus on creators seems something she’s quite well suited to do. Indeed, on taking the CEO job Blair said, ‘OnlyFans only succeeds when creators succeed’. I assume this strategy also applies to OFTV. I guess time will tell as to what OFTV will become, but with the Netflix deal I expect we’ll see more of this streamer’s content appear on other platforms going forward.
It may just be that OFTV is here to stay.
Featured image: OFTV
