[Editor’s Note: Tubefilter Charts is a weekly rankings column from Tubefilter with data provided by OpenSlate. It’s exactly what it sounds like; a top number ranking of YouTube channels based on statistics collected within a given time frame. Check out all of our Tubefilter Charts – with new installments every Friday – here.]

Scroll down for this week’s Tubefilter Chart.

It’s another installment of the weekly Tubefilter Chart of the Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide and a new channel is in the top spot.

Chart Toppers

Don’t call it a comeback! PewDiePie‘s been here for years. The YouTube channel of the 25-year-old online video gamer Felix Kjellberg is back in the #1 spot on the charts after a nearly five week hiatus to the #2 position. Kjellberg’s collection of Let’s Play videos scored nearly 87.3 million views on the week, a 6% increase over its numbers from the week prior.

DisneyCollectorBR is back down to second place after enjoying five weeks in the top spot. The online video destination for toddlers wanting to see videos of childrens’ toys racked up more than 84.2 million views during the week.

In third place is The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. The YouTube outpost of NBC’s flagship late night talk show amassed more than 70 million views in the last seven days. That’s nearly 600,000 views more than the next closest TV show on the list. The Ellen Show came in a very close fourth place with nearly 69.5 million views on the week.

And rounding out the Top 5 once again is LittleBabyBum. The UK-based channel comprised of videos for every schoolchild’s favorite songs amassed more than 51 million views during the week.

Top Gainers

The honor of one our Top Gainers this week goes to the aforementioned The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon.

Daniel Radcliffe‘s Patronus is apparently the Californian hip-hop duo Blackalicious. The British actor famous for his live-action portrayals of Harry Potter masterfully spit the tongue-twisting “Alphabet Aerobics” rap live on The Tonight Show. The video of the impressive feat quickly racked up an eight-figure view count and helped push the channel of Jimmy Fallon‘s talk show up 280% in views on the week and into the #3 spot in the world with more than 70 million views.

Distribution

All in all, the top 50 most viewed YouTube channels accounted for 1,765,620,270 views last week. Here’s the distribution of a few of those channels by multi-channel network:

• VEVO: 14 channels in the Top 50, with Katy Perry at #8.
• Maker Studios: 5 channels in the Top 50, with PewDiePie at #1.
• BuzzFeed, Fullscreen, XMediaDigital: 2 channels each in the Top 50, with BuzzFeed’s BuzzFeed Video at #16, Fullscreen’s PopularMMOs at #25, and XMediaDigital’s getmovies at #11.

And here’s the distribution of the this week’s Top 50 YouTube channels by country of origin:

• United States: 30 channels in the Top 50.
• Great Britain: 5 channels in the Top 50.
• Canada, India, Spain, Thailand: 2 channels each in the Top 50.
• Ireland, Netherlands, South Korea, Sweden: 1 channel each in the Top 50.

As always, keep up to speed with the latest Tubefilter Charts and all of our news at Tubefilter by following us on Twitter, becoming a fan on Facebook, and watching our videos on YouTube.

OpenSlate is a video content analytics platform that tracks more than 225,000 YouTube video channels and measures their ability to attract, engage and influence an audience. By providing one consistent measure of quality – the SlateScore™ – OpenSlate helps marketers, producers and agencies hone their online video marketing strategy.

Filed under: Articles, News, Statistics, statistics, YouTube, Youtube Chart by Joshua Cohen
No Comments »

We receive a ton of tips every day from independent creators, unaffiliated with any major motion picture studios, television networks, new media studios, or other well-funded online video entities. The Indie Spotlight is where we’ll write about and shout out to a select few of them and bring you up to speed on the great (and sometimes not-so-great) attention-grabbing series you probably haven’t heard about until now.  Read previous installments here. 

Boyhood, which was shot over an 11-year period, has been one of the buzziest movies of 2014; however, Richard Linklater isn’t the only person spreading his work out across a decade-plus. Magic Phone, created by Curtis Retherford and Adam Dorsey, is a comedy web series that began in 2002 and was finished this year.

Magic Phone‘spremise explains why it took so long to film. Retherford plays Ron, a man who possesses a magic phone that can call anyone from the past or future. Instead of using it to, say, warn the world about Hitler, he engages in pithy back-and-forth dialogues with his past self. It’s basically the same concept as this video, spread out across seven short episodes.

Magic Phone is most appealing as a piece of experimental fiction, but its jokes are pretty good, too. As you might imagine, Ron and Young Ron discuss typical time-travel subjects like temporal paradoxes and stealing ideas from popular TV shows before they air. In an episode about going bald, Ron calls his younger self “the John Connor of my hair.”

Beyond all the one-liners, Magic Phone has a nice underlying moral for its viewers: Make use of your time here. If you fulfill yourself in your 20s, you’ll be happier in your 30s, and you can also build a fun web series along the way.

OTHER UNDER-THE-RADAR SERIES TO CHECK OUT

• Let’s Get Divorced. This web series is a fake game show where disgruntled couples try to win a free divorce.
• Obedient Artists. A pair of Hollywood talent agents look for roles for animal actors.
• Slice. A Brooklyn twentysomething can’t stop murdering people she meets.
• Back To Reality. This web series follows the off-camera lives of a quartet of reality TV stars.

Got a series you’d like to see featured in the Indie Spotlight? Be sure to contact us here. For best coverage, please include a full episode in your e-mail.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Indie Spotlight, News by Sam Gutelle
No Comments »

Hulu has released its fair share of branded content, but it seems as if the online video platform wants to move in a different direction. According to a report in Adweek, Hulu is restructuring its branded content division, and the head of that division, Bryan Thoensen, has left the company.

Hulu’s previous branded offerings have included series like Escape My Life (branded by Ford), The 4 to 9ers (Subway), and Farmed and Dangerous (Chipotle). According to Adweek, the reshuffle suggests Hulu may now offer sponsorship deals for its originals rather than entire series created in partnership with agencies.

“As Hulu’s content slate has grown, we have evolved to offer advertisers more comprehensive integrated solutions, including targeted integration into Original Series,” reads a statement from Hulu. “As part of this process, the integrated marketing team will work more closely with the Ad Solutions team to offer clients fully integrated, cross-platform opportunities.”

Adweek quotes a number of advertising executives, one of whom called Hulu’s branded content strategy a “rigid model.” At the same time, the bottom line is that Hulu’s branded series haven’t been very appealing. Farmed and Dangerous, for instance, reportedly cost seven figures, but it didn’t stir up much excitement among viewers. Non-branded originals, such as Deadbeat and The Hotwives of Orlando, have been much stronger of late, so it makes sense for Hulu to position its sponsorships around those shows.

Thoensen did not respond to Adweek’s request for comment.

Filed under: Articles, Branded Entertainment, Featured, Hulu, News by Sam Gutelle
No Comments »

Last month, CBS announced its All-Access subscription service, created for its most devoted followers. Now, the TV network will implement a big marketing push to get the service in front of as many of those fans’ eyes as possible.

CBS’s All-Access marketing plan has several different stages. The first resembles what many already-established video subscription services like Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon have done in the past. Put ads on TV to encourage viewers to watch their favorite shows through streaming methods. CBS’s TV promos for All-Access will start playing the week after Thanksgiving.

“December is a key month for our push,” said Marc DeBevoise, executive vice president of entertainment, sports and news, at CBS Interactive, to Variety. “It’s the time when the network has ended the first half of the season and goes into repeats and Christmas specials for a few weeks, then comes back in early January. It’s a unique time period and we are going to present something that’s very timely around catching up on the first half of the season.”

CBS will start advertising on its own network before moving to others. Most of the TV ads will run before and after select shows, with the intention of making viewers want to experience more of the show via the All-Access streaming service. DeBevoise said ideas like “Watch live. Watch later” and “Binge away” will be pushed.

In the second stage of its marketing plan, CBS will run ads on multiple digital platforms. Unlike the TV ads, the digital initiatives will focus on one specific program (like Star Trek or Cheers) or behavior (mobile streaming) a viewer may want more of.

And in the last stage, CBS will wrap up its promotion of All-Access by directly involving those dedicated fans at which the streaming service is aimed. For example, DeBevoise noted CBS could look at offering perks or rewards to “influencers” who manage to get their friends or followers to join the service. Additionally, the executive also hinted that CBS may offer “a bounty, or some fee” to people who are running fan websites based on the network’s intellectual properties, likely in the form of a free trial of All-Access or a referral bonus.

CBS hasn’t revealed how many people have already signed up for All-Access, which Variety noted has been available since October 16. But the network’s leaders are determined to “make sure we are there for our audience on all of the places” they’ll be as the landscape of TV consumption habits continues to develop and change.

Filed under: Articles, CBS, News by Bree Brouwer
No Comments »

Sports and business have always been closely related industries, but now they’re getting even closer in AOL’s newest original series. Win/Win debuted its first five episodes on November 7, 2014, on AOL On.

Win/Win pairs some of the top athletes in the world with powerful business executives, so they can have authentic, enjoyable discussions about their struggles and wins in each of their industries (and maybe do something fun and offbeat together before they part ways). In the debut episode of the series, Major League Baseball All-Star Jimmy Rollins of the Philadelphia Phillies and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg talk about the state of paternity leave in modern businesses and organizations, as well as whether or not Rollins is a feminist. The two end their day by completing the ALS Ice Bucket challenge.

The remaining four episodes in the first season find similar top-level names matched up. New York Mets pitcher Matt Harvey talks team-building with GQ Magazine Editor-in-Chief Jim Nelson, AS Roma’s Ashley Cole shares mentoring stories with AS Roma team owner Jim Pallotta, and Olympic medalist Apolo Ohno discusses the power of failure with Susan Kellogg of Contemporary Brands for the VF Corporation.

Mike Tollin and Jon Weinbach executive produce Win/Win for Mandalay Sports Media. You can watch all five episodes of Win/Win on AOL On.

Filed under: Articles, Channels, News by Bree Brouwer
No Comments »

Every year, British retailer John Lewis releases a special Christmas-themed advertisement. These ads are sort of like Britain’s version of the Budweiser Clydesdales, and they regularly draw millions of views online.

This year’s ad is now available, and it has put up a typically strong showing, but what’s most interesting is where its views are coming from. Instead of only posting its Christmas ad to YouTube, John Lewis also made it available on Facebook, and according to Business Insider, that’s where 40% of its views and a majority of its shares have come from.

Business Insider’s report cites data from Unruly Media, which has been tracking the John Lewis ad since it was uploaded on November 6th. At the time of Business Insider’s post, the YouTube video had received 4.1 million views while the Facebook video had received 2.8 million views. While that still shows a majority of YouTube viewership, it’s important to note this is the first time John Lewis has uploaded its ad to Facebook at all.

Respective share counts tell a different story. The Facebook video has been shared more than 156,000 times, while the YouTube video has only been shared 46,890 times, a mere 23.1% of the total share count.

Here’s the ad in question, which features a cute boy and a penguin named Monty:

Unruly’s data backs up the trend we’ve been hearing about regarding the relative share counts of Facebook and YouTube videos. Just last month, a Socialbakers report showed a growing number of Facebook video shares and a  steadily decreasing number of YouTube video shares. John Lewis’ ad acts as a compelling case study (and provides viewers with cute CG penguins at the same time).

Filed under: advertising, Articles, Facebook, Featured, News by Sam Gutelle
No Comments »

YouTube wants its creators to make the coolest-looking, most impressive videos they can. As such, Google’s online video site just announced a series of four, live online workshops dedicated to perfecting creators’ video productions.

On November 6, 2014, YouTube posted on its official creators and partners blog the live series (dubbed the Online Production Master Classes) will debut on the YouTube Creator Academy channel. An as-of-yet unnamed “professional director of photography” will teach the sessions and provide tips and tricks to creators looking to make their videos as well-executed as possible.

The Online Production Master Classes are free and will take place from 10 AM – 12 PM PST. The schedule and topics as posted on YouTube’s blog are as follows:

• 11/13/14: Technical camera and sound—camera basics and sound recording principles
• 11/20/14: Lighting fundamentals—an introduction to lighting sets and subjects
• 11/27/14: Cinematography—a more advanced side of shooting beautiful looking films
• 12/4/14: Shoestring production—how to create studio quality films on a tight budget

These workshops are not unlike YouTube’s upcoming (in-person) sessions in Nashville to help the music community better understand how to use Google’s brands for its benefit. And like some of YouTube’s more recent initiatives (such as the newly-implemented Creator Credits feature or the new YouTube Space New York), the live Master Classes are just another way for the online video site’s creators to advance their careers and hone their skills.

If you’d like to make your videos more pleasing to the eye and ear, make sure you register for the live series so YouTube can send you more details. Plus, registering and attending the workshops gives you an official letter of completion, so you and anyone you’re working with or for can know you’re legit.

Filed under: Articles, Channels, News, YouTube by Bree Brouwer
No Comments »

The dreams of many Rooster Teeth fans are finally coming true. The Austin-based production studio boasting almost eight million YouTube subscribers released the trailer for its newest animated series, X-Ray & Vav.

The program will center around the escapades and antics of the two “superheroes” Gavin Free (of The Slow Mo Guys fame) and Ray Narvaez, Jr. (known for his work with Achievement Hunter). The pair is ready to fight crime and defend justice, though they don’t seem to understand how to get those tasks accomplished. They do, however, have some arguably useless skills. Free claims being British “throws people for a loop” and Narvaez says he’s “a parkour master.”

Rooster Teeth confirmed the series would come to be at its very own RTX Convention 2014 in Austin, Texas, after more than a year of speculation. Fans have long been obsessed over the idea of Free and Narvaez as a superhero-fighting team ever since the two gamers started introducing themselves by their self-assigned nicknames (Free is Vav and Narvaez is X-Ray) on some of Rooster Teeth’s videos. Some hardcore fanatics have even produced their very own fan fiction and other works of art featuring the dynamic duo.

Rooster Teeth played into the hype and created X-Ray & Vav-themed merchandise. Then at RTX 2013, the company showed an X-Ray & Vav teaser with the working title Animated Adventurers. Free and Narvaez also made a special appearance at the event in some brightly-colored costumes:

X-Ray & Vav joins several of Rooster Teeth’s other animated intellectual properties. The company became famous for its machinima, Halo-themed comedy series Red Vs. Blue, and more recently began to export its popular RWBY anime series to Japan. And don’t forget all of the Animated Adventures shorts, created by Jordan Cwierz and based on Rooster Teeth employees’ stories from the company’s podcasts and events.

Don’t miss the first adventure the (un)heroic X-Ray & Vav find themselves a part of. X-Ray & Vav debuts on November 27, 2014 on RoosterTeeth.com.

Filed under: Articles, News, Rooster Teeth, Web Series by Bree Brouwer
No Comments »

The BBC is using YouTube for a high-minded complement to one of its radio programs. Actors Harry Shearer and Gillian Anderson are two of the narrators who present philosophical topics in a web companion for A History Of Ideas.

The web series (which doesn’t seem to have a name of its own) is an animated accompaniment to A History Of Ideas, a BBC Radio 4 program hosted by Melvyn Bragg. Each week, Bragg invites guests to join him to analyze an open-ended question (such as “how do I live a good life?”) by sharing the wisdom of famous philosophers.

The web series explains a some of the philosophical topics discussed on the radio show by drawing them out in an engaging black-and-white style. The first episode features narration from Shearer as he explains Diotima’s Ladder, a concept from Plato’s Symposium. In the 90-second video, viewers get a brief overview of Plato’s thoughts on love and beauty.

Shearer (who recently released his web series Nixon’s The One on My Damn Channel) will narrate 12 episodes of the History Of Ideas web series, and Anderson will narrate 12 more. In total, 48 webisodes are planned; the other 24 will be narrated by two more people who have not yet been announced.

“Research shows that we can understand things more clearly if there are visual accompaniments,” said BBC Radio 4 commissioning executive Mohit Bakaya. “We want to explore ways in which Radio 4 can supplement what we do on air and not just putting a camera in a studio, as some of the other networks have done.”

This isn’t the first time animation has been used to explore complex academic topics, but it might be the headiest. New episodes of the web series will be posted to BBC Radio 4’s YouTube channel.

Filed under: Articles, BBC, Featured, News by Sam Gutelle
No Comments »

Nearly 17 months after it first debuted on the Cartoon Hangover channel, Bee and PuppyCat is back. Natasha Allegri‘s imaginative animated series, which follows a plucky heroine and her mysterious pet across space and time, has begun a ten-episode first season.

Bee and PuppyCat began as a two-part short, in which a girl named Bee finds an adorable creature named PuppyCat. A few trans-dimensional portals later, Bee and PuppyCat begin taking intergalactic temp jobs in order to pay the bills. The short was well-received, particularly by women and fans of Adventure Time, on which Allegri works as a character designer.

Bee and PuppyCat‘s success led to a Kickstarter campaign launched by Frederator Studios. That campaign proved to be wildly successful, raising $872,133 and setting into motion a ten-episode series chronicling the adventures of Bee and PuppyCat.

The first two episodes of that series are now available, and they’re a bit different from the short film that preceded them. There’s more of a focus on other human characters, such as a love interest voiced by Kent Osborne and a scold voiced by Ashly Burch (who also gets a small cameo as a horny cicada). By the second episode, though, we get back into what makes Bee and PuppyCat so great thanks to a visit to a planet made out of a cube of Jell-O.

“Bee & PuppyCat is one of those series that comes along only once in a long while,” said Fred Seibert, head of Frederator Studios. “It’s such a singular vision and we couldn’t be more proud of the direction it’s taken. Natasha is a distinctive voice in animation and we can’t wait for fans to see what she’s done with this first season of episodes.  There is no doubt in my mind that Bee & PuppyCat will establish itself as a true defining moment in animation.”

Bee and PuppyCat‘s first two episodes have already drawn plenty of attention, drawing hundreds of thousands of views less than a day after their release. Keep an eye on Cartoon Hangover to view new installments as they arrive.

Filed under: Channel Frederator, Web Series by Sam Gutelle
No Comments »

Supergravity and Rockstream Studios aren’t the only organizations in the online video industry producing feature-length films with prominent social media stars. AwesomenessTV is making movies, too.

The YouTube Multi-Channel Network acquired by DreamWorks Animation back in May 2013 in a deal that could be worth up to $117 million is now a YouTube MCN, record label, management company, young adult book publishing imprint, burgeoning retailer, and motion picture studio. It’s latest project is Expelled, an “action-packed comedy” flick starring a cavalcade of incredibly popular individuals from YouTube, Vine, and other social media sites the kids are on these days.

Cameron Dallas (who has no less than 6.1 million followers on Vine) leads the cast in the role of Felix, “a legendary prankster who seems to always charm his way out of trouble.” Here’s the rest of the premise:

After Felix’s “third strike at school, the principal has had enough and expels him. Never defeated, Felix resorts to his infamous ways and devises a plan with his brother (played by Vine star Marcus Johns), best friend (burgeoning Instagram and Twitter phenom Matt Shively), new friend (YouTube millionaire Lia Marie Johnson) and classmate (Vine star Andrea Russett) to convince his parents he’s a stellar student.

It’s a kind of twist on Ferris Bueller’s Day Off for the Vine set. Here’s the trailer:

In addition to the teenybopper-eye-candy that is a shirtless Dallas and the other major players mentioned above, Expelled also features Michelle Glavan (who is part of Fullscreen) and Teala Dunn (who is part of AwesomenessTV and plays the role of Emily).

In terms of crew, the film is written, produced, and directed by Alex Goyette. AwesomenessTV founder Brian Robbins is on board as a Producer, along with Shauna Phelan. Executive Producers include AwesomenessTV’s COO Brett Bouttier, Joe Davola of One Tree Hill, Smallville and MTV Networks, and Scott Levine, in addition to Steven Spiegel and Alan Spiegel of 26MGMT.

Expelled will make its theatrical debut in Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago on December 12, 2014. Four days later on December 16, the film will be available for on-demand purchase at ExpelledMovie.com by way of VHX and through iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, Target Ticket, and Walmart. Especially anxious fans who want guarantee they can see Expelled as soon as its released can pre-order a digital download today on the film’s website, and sign up for a “Hall Pass” to receive other Expelled-related news and alerts.

This also isn’t AwesomenessTV’s first foray into making a movie with a highly recognizable online video personality. The multi-hyphenate entertainment organization first made the announcement it would be working with Dallas back in April 2014, but since then AwesomenessTV already sold another film for distribution. Lionsgate picked up the rights for Smosh: The Movie, a feature about the famous YouTube duo, which AwesomenessTV produced and financed in partnership with DEFY Media.

Filed under: Articles, AwesomenessTV, News, Vine by Joshua Cohen
No Comments »

Rooster Teeth fans are no longer restricted to the company’s site to watch its videos. The Austin-based entertainment production house popular for hit shows like RWBY and Red Vs. Blue just launched an ad-supported mobile app.

Built on the Beachfront Builder platform, Rooster Teeth’s app allows fans to view many of the company’s most popular shows and brands (like The Know, The Slow Mo Guys, and Let’s Play) straight from their mobile devices. Adam Baird, Rooster Teeth’s Director of Technology, noted in his Rooster Teeth journal that more content will be added every day. The app is available on both iOS and Android devices with plans to bring it to Windows phones, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, set-top boxes like Roku, and connected TVs in the very near future.

The app does have one major limitation, though. In an effort to get the app out as quickly as possible to Rooster Teeth’s fans, the company didn’t build in login functionality. This keeps things simpler, focusing around the production studio’s core content, but it does mean sponsors (fans who pay a subscription to Rooster Teeth’s site for access to premium content) still have to visit RoosterTeeth.com to see sponsor-only and early releases. And, like everyone else, sponsors will see display ads on the app.

“Version 1.0 of the app is simply that; A starting place,” wrote Baird. “It gets a bulk of our content on the phone, and makes it easily watchable on your television or mobile device, and it certainly works a lot better than our current website.”

This is not Rooster Teeth’s first attempt at an app (Baird confirmed user Hunter04’s comment that there was an initial app from 2010 the company pulled a year later due to a “slew of problems”), but for many fans, it’s the first time they will be using a mobile application from the company. Comments on Baird’s journal entry confirm the majority of Rooster Teeth fans are delighted at the minimal yet much-desired new product:

In addition to its app, Rooster Teeth had several other initiatives in the works. For starters, the company just released its newest series called Ten Little Roosters, a murder mystery where fans can guess which character is the killer and who’s going to die next for a chance to win a trip to Rooster Teeth’s studios. Additionally, the production studio is selling some of its merchandise (previously only available online) in a physical “pop-in” retail shop at the local Austin toy store Toy Joy.

If you’re a fan of Rooster Teeth who wants to watch their content on the go, make sure you download it from the iTunes store or Google Play.

Filed under: Articles, News, Rooster Teeth by Bree Brouwer
No Comments »