Man Buys Racetrack, Ends Up Launching the Netflix of Grassroots Motorsports

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: In 2019, Garrett Mitchell was already an Internet success. His YouTube channel, Cleetus McFarland, had over a million followers. If you perused the channel at that time, you would've found a range of grassroots motorsports videos with the type of vehicular shenanigans that earn truckloads of views. Some of those older videos include "BLEW BY A COP AT 120+mph! OOPS!," "THERE'S A T-REX ON THE TRACK!," and "Manual Transmission With Paddle Shifters!?!." Those videos made Mitchell, aka Cleetus McFarland, a known personality among automotive enthusiasts. But the YouTuber wanted more financial independence beyond the Google platform and firms willing to sponsor his channel. " after my YouTube was growing and some of my antics [were] getting videos de-monetized, I realized I needed a playground," Mitchell told Ars Technica in an email.

Mitchell found a road toward new monetization opportunities through the DeSoto Super Speedway. The Bradenton, Florida, track had changed ownership multiple times since opening in the 1970s. The oval-shaped racetrack is three-eighths of a mile long with 12-degree banking angles. By 2018, the track had closed its doors and was going unused. DeSoto happened to be next to Mitchell's favorite drag strip, giving the YouTuber the idea of turning it into a stadium where people could watch burnouts and other "massive, rowdy" ticketed events. Mitchell added: "So I sold everything I could, borrowed some money from my business manager, and went all in for [$]2.2 million." But like the rest of the world, Mitchell hit the brakes on his 2020 plans during COVID-19 lockdowns. Soon after his purchase, Mitchell couldn't use the track, renamed Freedom Factory, for large gatherings, forcing him to reconsider his plans. "We had no other option but to entertain the people somehow. And with no other racing goin' on anywhere, we bet big on making something happen. And it worked," Mitchell said. That "something" was a pay-per-view (PPV) event hosted from the Freedom Factory in April 2020.

The event led to others and, eventually, Mitchell running his own subscription video on demand (SVOD) service, FRDM+, which originally launched as Cleetervision in 2022. Today, a FRDM+ subscription costs $20 per month or $120 per year. A subscription provides access to an impressive library of automotive videos. Some are archived from Mitchell's YouTube channel. Other, exclusive videos feature content such as interviews with motorsports influencers and members of Mitchell's staff and crew, and outrageous motorsports stunts. You can watch videos from other influencers on FRDM+, and the business can also white-label its platform into other influencers' websites, too. "Today, bandwidth isn't a problem for FRDM+, and navigating the streaming service doesn't feel much different from something like Netflix," writes Ars Technica's Scharon Harding. "There are different 'channels' (grouped together by related content or ongoing series) on top and new releases and upcoming content highlighted below. There are horizontal scrolling rows, and many titles have content summaries and/or trailers. The platform also has a support section with instructions for canceling subscriptions."

"Due to wildly differing audiences, markets, costs, and scales, comparing FRDM+'s financials to the likes of Netflix and other mainstream streaming services is like comparing apples to oranges. But it's interesting to consider that FRDM+ has achieved profitability faster than some of those services, like Peacock, which also launched in 2020, and Apple TV+, which debuted in 2019."

I Don't Know What To Say

[SlashbotAgent]

This is one of the more pointless and irrelevant articles to splash the pages of Slashdot for a good while.

Re:

[Powercntrl]

I guess the takeaway here is that if you fall on that tiny sliver of the Venn diagram between "redneck" and "affluent", you have moar free peach?

Or maybe they're pointing out that if that's the height of the bar to get around Google's demonetization policies, perhaps some scrutiny of YouTube's market position is warranted?

Or perhaps, in recreating Hollywood, but on a computer, we're simply rediscovering why Hollywood ended up the way it did in the first place. Whether it's on a silver screen, television, c

Re:

[jacks smirking reven]

perhaps some scrutiny of YouTube's market position is warranted?

Or it could be used as the opposite, that this guy started his own streaming platform based on the success YouTube provided them and YouTube didn't even try and stop them in any way, I don't think YouTube even makes folks enter into some sort of exclusive contract (they tried that when they were going after Twitch on livestreams and it failed pretty badly)

If they were to make that case it cut's against the argument plenty of video is still posted and monetized on YouTube, I can pay them $5 a month on YouTub

Re:

[Powercntrl]

Mostly I was thinking about smaller creators who don't really have the following to go it alone. They've gotta walk the tightrope of YouTube's TOS or their channel goes *poof*. Of the top of my head, there's that "There I Ruined It" guy who does comedy song mash-ups (and lately AI voice impersonation covers), and YouTube's copyright Gods are not amused.

And anything with AI is a popularity minefield right now, with some people up in arms over it because of what it potential represents to the employability

Re:

[jacks smirking reven]

Yeah for sure it's a balance of maintaining a platform that advertisers like enough to pay for the ads on those smaller channels and in your case there it's not just the artists but the labels who have put quite a lot into Youtube as a platform.

So what happens to content creators who can't play by YouTube's rules but aren't big enough to tell YouTube where they can stick it?

I would need examples of what rules are being broken. Youtube, at least imo, as the largest media platform in the world, is pretty open about what you can put up there so generally I am just a lil' bit suspicious when I hear about content getting deleted, most of th

Re:

[Powercntrl]

Usually what happens is DMCA abuse, as you said. Apparently, if you get enough strikes you're still at the mercy of YouTube's appeal process, and since YouTube has a conflict of interests going on (they license content from the same IP holders who are pitching a fit over parodies), they have a strong incentive to find in favor of the IP holders.

Also, derivative works fall into something of a YouTube black hole, because the while the original IP holders generally are fine with someone lip-syncing along with

Marginal News for Nerds

[Kotukunui]

I guess there is some relevance in that a YouTuber has launched his own streaming service. This may be a sign that the era of niche-audience "micro-streaming" has begun as the technology becomes easier and cheaper to work with. Perhaps the pattern will become, build your audience on YouTube, then when you get enough followers, split to a private streaming service where the lions share of the cash is going directly into your own pocket. I followed the Cleetus McFarland channel on YT more for his aviation episodes than his motor racing. He did seem to disappear from YT a while back and now I know why.

Re:

[newcastlejon]

I guess there is some relevance in that a YouTuber has launched his own streaming service.

Is that was this is about? I was stuck wondering what it had to do with him buying a race course.

Re:Marginal News for Nerds

[sarren1901]

I only read the summary, but it did mention that some of his videos were getting de-monitized for some of his antics and this gave him the push to buy this so he could do whatever he wanted.

It's sort of a stretch for this to be on Slashdot, but then again, here is someone that used a computer, built a YT channel with all the work that goes into the media creation, then was able to buy a "playground/film area, whatever" and setup a subscription video on demand on his own. That's really quite awesome and something you could only dream of 30 years ago.

Re:

[SpzToid]

...here is someone that used a computer, built a YT channel with all the work that goes into the media creation, then was able to buy a "playground/film area, whatever" and setup a subscription video on demand on his own. That's really quite awesome and something you could only dream of 30 years ago.

TFS title comes from Ars Technica, which is also mentioned at the beginning of the text, but there's no link to TFA. Here's a link to TFA [arstechnica.com].

I watch him on YT occasionally

[aaarrrgggh]

Glad he has done well with his venture, and I hope more people move to alternatives from YT/IG/FB/TT. It is an area where fragmentation is desperately needed.

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[Powercntrl]

Except when its fragmentation to behind a paywall, I wouldn't necessarily call that an improvement. Take Howard Stern for example, he's basically been irrelevant ever since he moved to a paid service. Sure, every once in awhile someone mentions that he's still alive, but he's no longer the controversial shock jock testing the limits of the FCC's patience.

If the future of the internet is every content creator going OnlyFans (maybe sometimes even literally) the moment their following is big enough to monetiz

Re: I watch him on YT occasionally

[EvilSS]

Seriously. Creators who want to make a living should go work for a traditional media company. Or Starbucks. You know a real job with a boss. None of this be-my-own-boss crap. This bullshit of doing their own thing for money is just a rent seeking money grabs.

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[Powercntrl]

You mock me, but let's see how entertaining YouTube is when it's nothing but creators posting 30 second clips hawking their paid channels. Hell, we're not far off from that now.

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[drinkypoo]

It won't be YT though, it'll be TT, or some other thing. They will make themselves irrelevant.

Youtube is now leaning heavily into this ad blocking thing, and that's always followed by showing ever more ads. Even people who will tolerate ads will only tolerate so much of them.

Re: I watch him on YT occasionally

[EvilSS]

I am not mocking you. If you donâ(TM)t make a physical product you are not doing an actual job. Software development, actor, influencer, musician. None are real jobs but hobbies people seem to think they should be paid for. Rent seeking assholes.

Re:

[Kernel Kurtz]

If you donâ(TM)t make a physical product you are not doing an actual job.

Wait till you find out how the stock market works.

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[nevermindme]

You must be kidding.

Remember the top you tube properties alll worked for the classic entertainment or news machines and now have gone independent and are much happier getting twenty dollars per hundred thousand views.

NBC says they need their own version of Joe Rogan for late-night, Joe Rogan was under a 3 show deal with NBC/Universal but the media giant flaked out. MSNBC says they need a liberal version of Joe Rogan, until the covid mess, Joe Rogan was a liberal podcaster. Fox and CNN certainly wou

Sidehackers

[zawarski]

The only way to race.

Hell yeah, brother! Let's get to the live action!

[mschuyler]

Cleetus provides solid content and entertainment, most of it free. And for the record, he's pushing 5 million subs these days with a cast of characters including Jackstand Jimmy, Sam, the old man detailer, Leroy, the Savage, and Buenos Dias George. You never know who is going to appear, including Dale Earnhardt, Jr., or even Cleetus's Mom in a racing suit, or his brother Parker, the dentist. Cleetus is as likely to fly in on a helicopter as he is hosting a burnout contest or the annual Christmas tree race.