Been offered a new contract - Frederator or United Screens?

[Coyoteze]

Hey all! Haven't posted here in a while!

So long story short for almost 2 agonizing years I've been on the crapfest known as BBTV. Absolutely hated my stay there with their atrocious and outright hostile support and blatant stealing of ad revenue.
But finally I've managed to break free, starting March 11th I will be out of their contract and free to sign with someone new.

Now I've been offered two contracts in a short time span, and both are very, very enticing. I'm unsure what to go with here...
Now, I am an animation channel. So revenue-wise I will get screwed anyway. But hey.

Network #1:
Frederator. A YT network focused entirely on animation. Belongs to the company Frederator who have produced such awesome cartoons as Fairy Odd Parents and My Life As A Teenage Robot. I was in a personal Google Hangout meeting with two of their employees for about half an hour where we discussed what I do and they offered a lot of aid since they have contacts within the industry, which could be VERY useful for me.
PLUS: Network is exclusively relevant to channel content, flexible CPM/RPM, very personal support, great future opportunities.
DOWN: Obscure network, not exactly local.

Network #2:
United Screens. A more local network, based in Sweden. The people who run it are the same guys who run the "Ordinary Swedish Meal Time" YT channel. They took me out for some beers and food and we had an awesome time and they've also invited me to a ton of cool events. As far as locality goes they've got the best ad placement in all of Scandinavia. Which I think is a good thing, but I wonder HOW good since about 50-60% of my viewership is in the US/UK...
They're also media-focused, but more sketches and humor in general and less animation.
PLUS: Network is relevant to media, top notch people running the show, very local (offices are where I live, they could in theory employ me and I could work AT their offices with my videos). Get to go to awesome events with lots of YT famous people.
DOWN: Also an obscure network, not very open about CPM/RPM, possibly only beneficial to people with a majority Scandinavia audience.

Now writing all this down I guess I see that the obvious choice would be Frederator. But y'know, now I HAVE written it all down so I figure I still wanna hear what you guys think.

Thanks!
-Coyote

 

[WolfWraith]

I'm not an expert in network stuff, but I'd see a massive advantage going for Frederator because if they have ties in the industry, that can lead to bigger things if possible, could be from working with big animation networks on TV/animation studios (although I recall you were working for Starbreeze unless that was some other animator on here xD) to getting your stuff featured on TV/ads on TV, I wouldn't have massive hopes for that but I'd imagine it's a possibility. Being people who are experienced with the industry as well makes it sound like they could provide better support and feedback (if that's something they do), they might be able to help you improve better than United Screens so there's that benefit too.

I guess the only benefit I see with United Screens is that they themselves are content creators on YouTube so they understand all that and what you're going through more from the YouTube side of things (as opposed to the animation side of things) + if something goes wrong being local you got some doors to kick down. The scandanavian ad thing would worry me as well, being in Aus and also have a viewer base that resides mainly in the UK (for some ****** up reason) I'd be concerned if I had ads catered to say Asia, appearing on my vids because I'd expect a massive decline in ad revenue from people skipping ads even more. There's also the part where they took you out which is pretty damn nice of them.

Although I don't know that much about networks (apart from them taking fairly large cuts to serve a few ads), regardless of business type, 1 thing I do know when it comes to situations similar to this; everyone's nice until they close the sale.

 

[Caber]

Apologies if I seem like I'm pointing out the obvious, but it seems Frederator would be good for your career as an animator, while United Screens would be good for your YouTube channel.

 

[Shakycow]

I see that you have since decided to go with Frederator. I was curious how the experience was going for you so far.

I'm also an animator and have been debating joining them, but, as I've never joined a partnership, I still have my hesitations. Any insight you could offer would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.