James Drake Media Evolves from YouTube Channel to Full-Service Production Studio

Sep. 02, 2026

James Drake Media (JD Media) has rebranded and relaunched its website, marking its shift from a fast-growing YouTube Channel into a full-service production studio working across film, series, advertising and training content.

The studio began as JAMESDRAKE TV, a channel built around art, history, science and culture. Over the past 18 months it has grown past 750,000 subscribers and 300 million views, growth that pushed its founders to think bigger about what the channel could become. Rather than stay a content channel, they built a team and infrastructure around the same creative core, with the aim of pushing the boundaries of traditional storytelling using the best of emerging technologies, including but not limited to AI. 

The rebrand also marks a shift into working more commercially. Alongside its growing catalogue of original productions, JD Media is now taking on corporate and commercial clients, applying its production skills to training and advertising content as well as film and series work. 

To support the growth, the studio has expanded its team from 3 to over 20 people, adding creative and production talent alongside the commercial, admin and support roles needed to let that creative team focus on the work. 

JD Media's approach rests on three things it says define its work: production teams with an average of over 20 years' experience, technical range spanning traditional filming, animation and VFX alongside the newest AI and hybrid workflows, and a focus on empathy: understanding the story or mission behind a project, whether that's a feature film, a series or a piece of training content. 

James Drake, CEO and co-founder of James Drake Media, said: 

“What started as a YouTube channel about the things we care about, art, history, science and culture, has grown into what we always hoped it could become: a studio built to tell those same stories at a much bigger scale, for a much wider range of clients.”

 

Looking ahead, JD Media says it wants to pioneer some of the first long-form series and films made using AI and hybrid AI methods, and to position itself as a thought leader helping guide the wider industry on emerging technologies and the ethical use of AI. The studio is also bringing the industry together through events including its flagship festival, AI Movie Awards (AIMA) London, which it is co-organising this November. 

Thomas Righini Carrington, director and co-founder of James Drake Media, said: 

“We're not trying to be an AI production company. We're a production company that uses AI as one of many tools, alongside decades of traditional craft. The rebrand gives us the scale to take on bigger, more ambitious projects while staying true to that."