Phil DeFranco’s multiple-times-a-day online video news and pop and internet culture program uploaded its first installment to YouTube on January 23, 2012. Sometime around May 28, 2012 that original video – and the subsequent 400+ videos uploaded under the banner of SourceFed – collectively amassed over 100 million views. And sometime on August 1, 2012, the most successful channel in the YouTube Originals Initiative crossed another analytics threshold that contains a lot of zeroes.
Today, SourceFed garnered its 500,000th subscriber. The means in the 191-or-so days since its first upload, the YouTube channel has attracted somewhere in the ballpark of 2,600 subscribers a day, 109 subscribers an hour, and almost 2 subscribers per minute. (Editor’s Note: DeFranco started promoting SourceFed before its first upload, so its subscriber rate isn’t quite that high, but still, it’s impressive.)
In anticipation of a celebration for the occasion, the SourceFed hosts solicited videos from fans, asking particularly fervent members of the Phil DeFranco nation to explain why they watch the program. Here’s a montage of a few of the 620+ videos that were submitted:
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“I attribute hitting this milestone so quickly to the incredible viewers of SourceFed and members of the Defranco Nation who rally behind us showing their support by letting us be a part of their lives on a daily basis,” said SourceFed’s Executive Producer James Haffner.
And here’s SourceFed’s familiar faces had to say about making it into the 500K subs club.
Elliott Morgan:
For me, it sort of blows my mind that there’s this huge group of people out there who not only get our weirdness, but they actually love it. I think that’s the most awesome thing about YouTube. We get to be informative, tell people the news, but also express ourselves, knowing that on the other side of the screen there are people who are accepting of that. So, to the fans, I can only say thank you, like a thousand times. Literally. It’ll take a while.
Lee Newton:
We have the most amazing fans, they took a chance on us, and with crazy devotion and constant love we get to go on this journey together!! We delight in them everyday.
Steve Zaragoza
Since I’m more of a “newcomer” to the show, I’m very thankful the fans took me in and accepted me as the 4th host. It was nerve wracking at first since the dynamic between the original 3 was so perfect, I really didn’t want to jump in and mess with that mojo, but I really feel like the fans have embraced me and made me feel welcome and loved.
Congrats SourceFed! Here’s to the next 500,000 and Golden Play Buttons all around.
