Even though it was known as the “War To End All Wars,” World War I has ultimately become overshadowed by the even bigger conflict that followed 20 years behind it. Now, 100 years after fighting broke out in Europe, a web series is looking to re-evaluate the first world war. The series is called The Great War, and it is educating viewers about World War I, all in real time.

The “real time” gimmick is central to The Great War‘s appeal. Essentially, new episodes coincide with the military actions that took place exactly a century ago. The series began on July 28th, which was exactly 100 years and one month after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo.

A few months later, new episodes chronicle battles all across the continent: The Russians are defending their homeland in the final years of the Tsarist regime, the Germans are learning what happens to nations that try to invade Russia, and the Western Front has settled into the trench warfare that is ultimately remembered as emblematic of World War I.

The Great War has more going for it than a clever premise. The “real time” gimmick has already been used on a World War II-related Twitter account, but The Great War adds in a vibrant narrator (the amusingly named Indiana Neidell) and historical footage courtesy of the British Pathé. That formula has thus far produced an engaging educational series, and there’s still plenty to come–we still have almost four years until the armistice.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, News, Web Series by Sam Gutelle
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DJ Flula Borg is no stranger to silly antics and amazing beats. The YouTube star decided to bring both to Entertainment Weekly’s New York City office by performing his rendition of popular Christmas songs.

In EW’s video, Flula enters the office and sits down at a cubicle, stocked very sparingly with little more than a computer, a microphone, a mixing board, and a speaker. The German YouTuber then spreads some holiday cheer by “caroling” hip-hop versions of famous tunes such as “Frosty the Snowman” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Needless to say, the EW staff looks on in bewilderment.

The accented and fanny pack-wearing musician showed up at the EW offices to honor its magazine’s latest cover, which highlights the three main Barden Bella actresses from the upcoming film Pitch Perfect 2. Flula announced he’d signed on for the film in May of 2014. More recently, online viewers caught a glimpse of him in the film’s trailer as the lead male vocalist for the Bella’s rival group at the World Championships of Acapella, Das Sound Machine.

Directed by Elizabeth Banks and produced by Universal Studios, Pitch Perfect 2 debuts on May 15, 2015. While you’re waiting to see Flula as part of Das Sound, you can watch him talk more Christmas as he rants about how creepy Santa Claus really is.

Filed under: Articles, Channels, News by Bree Brouwer
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Earlier in November, Taylor Swift and her label decided to remove all of the pop star’s songs from Spotify. The decision has proven fairly controversial, but while Spotify may not be happy with Swift’s decision, YouTube has a reason to smile. According to a recent report in Mashable, Swift’s YouTube views nearly doubled in the week after she pulled her songs from Spotify.

Mashable cites statistics from Nielsen Music Connect that show an 11.5 million view jump for Swift’s videos between November 3rd and November 9th. On the 3rd, her videos received 12.5 million views; six days later, that number was up to 24 million. Her numbers increased again the week after that, though Mashable disregards the second jump as a result of a new music video Swift released on November 10th, not an aftereffect of her decision to leave Spotify.

The best news for YouTube is that Swift doesn’t seem to be headed back to Spotify any time soon. This past Sunday, she accepted the first-ever Dick Clark Award at the American Music Awards, and she used her stage time to reiterate her feelings about the monetary worth of her oeuvre. “What you did by going out and investing in music and albums is you are saying that you believe in the same thing that I believe in: that music is valuable and music should be consumed in albums and albums should be consumed as art and appreciated,” she said.

The spike in Swift’s YouTube views reiterates the Google-owned platform’s place in the music streaming industry. For many listeners, Spotify is still a top choice, but there’s a place in the music world for YouTube, especially with regard to artists who forgo the former platform. With the recent launch of YouTube Music Key, that statement should be music to Google’s ears.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, News, Spotify, YouTube by Sam Gutelle
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As promised this past August, Break.com has brought back its hit feel-good web series Prank it FWD. The newest episode gives an Iraq veteran the surprise of his life, complete with a special greeting from Michelle Obama.

The installment starts off with Gabrielle Carmona nominating her boyfriend Jon Arneson, a U.S. Army veteran who served time in Iraq now unable to find employment. To make matters worse, Arneson’s grandfather (who was responsible for raising him) died of cancer and Arneson had to take on the medical bills. Prank it FWD’s host Greg Benson sets up an elaborate prank for Arneson to help remedy the soldier’s problems. He has Arneson show up for a job interview at Universal Studios, only to be taken backstage and asked to stand in for his favorite actor, Michael Weatherly from NCIS.

After Arneson poses with Weatherly on a motorcycle, Benson shows the veteran a special surprise message from Michelle Obama (who’s no stranger to participating in do-good initiatives). The First Lady thanks Arneson for his service and lets him know the motorcycle is his to keep, courtesy of Extra. In addition to the bike, Arneson leaves the set of Prank it FWD with a job offer directly from Larry Kurzweil, President of Universal Studios.

Previous Prank it FWD episodes have seen a California waitress receiving a new car, and a homeless shelter transformed into a five-star restaurant. The show has inspired viewers around the world to conduct their own pranks of kindness.

You can view more episodes of Prank it FWD by subscribing to Break’s YouTube channel or by visiting PrankitFWD.com.

Filed under: Articles, Channels, News, Web Series by Bree Brouwer
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Old Spice has never failed to deliver clever advertising to the online video masses. Now, the hygiene products company has released a new video ad called “Dadsong” which is just as engaging as the American male grooming brand’s previous clips.

“Dadsong” debuted on November 24, 2014, and is part of Old Spice’s #SmellcometoManhood campaign. As noted on the company’s YouTube channel, the campaign promotes the idea that using the company’s body sprays could “cause boys to become men, girls to become girlfriends, and moms to become sad.”

In “Dadsong,” fathers and mothers are pitted against each other over their sons’ futures. The fathers are celebrating their sons’ maturation, saying “He’s a man!” But their wives express their unhappiness with all the changes, still missing their little boys. The fathers refute the whimpering women’s complaints with lines such as, “We’ll be using [our son’s room] for storage pretty soon.” Even the video’s description gets in on the argument, with the phrases “He’s a man!” and “He’s a boy!” repeated over and over again.

Written by Bret McKenzie of Flight of the Conchords and produced by Biscuit Filmworks, the “Dadsong” ad is a sequel to Old Spice’s “Mom Song” ad from earlier this year where moms stalk their sons because they think they’re too young to be men. The ad was also part of the #Smellcome campaign and has racked up over 9 million views on Old Spice’s YouTube channel.

Old Spice has always done well with comedic marketing. The company’s ads first became internet favorites because of the video “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” starring Isaiah Mustafa. The company also created a series of ads embedded in websites selling fake products, with Mustafa’s character telling viewers to purchase Old Spice and stop wasting their time on unrealistic items.

If the 9 million views of “Mom Song” are any indication, “Dadsong” could do very well for itself. The ad should also help boost Christmas sales, though it may not be the mothers buying Old Spice’s products this year.

Filed under: Articles, Branded Entertainment, News by Bree Brouwer
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Bear Grylls first gained fame as the guy on TV who drank his own urine, but he’s now coming to the Internet as more than just an image macro. Grylls has launched a new YouTube channel called Bear Grylls Adventure, which will be “the home of action, adrenaline, and survival.”

The new channel is already live, but it is only populated by a channel trailer. In that video, Grylls lays out his plan, which involves three videos per week from “trailblazers that are pushing the boundaries of the ultimate in adventure.” That statement leaves us wondering how much Grylls himself will appear on the channel, though regardless of his role, the trailer shows off some awe-inspiring footage.

Bear Grylls Adventure will join YouTube’s growing library of extreme sports videos, which have found a sizable audience on the world’s largest video-sharing site. Grylls’ channel seems to emulate the high-flying attitudes of Red Bull and GoPro, which have built two of the biggest branded channels on YouTube by sharing death-defying stunts with viewers.

Grylls spent more than five years as the host of Man Vs. Wild (known as Born Survivor in the UK), which ran for seven seasons on the Discovery Channel. Though Grylls’ frank approach to surviving in nature proved popular, Discovery terminated its contract with Grylls in 2012, and while the channel runs a successful online video network of its own, Bear Grylls Adventure doesn’t seem to be affiliated with it. Instead, Grylls teamed up with Barcroft Media through his company, Bear Grylls Ventures.

The first video from Bear Grylls Adventure is expected to launch on November 28th.

Filed under: Articles, Bear Grylls Adventures, Featured, News by Sam Gutelle
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Amazon may be looking at a way to offer more content by giving consumers a subscription-free video platform. The New York Post reported the e-commerce giant could launch an ad-supported streaming service sometime in 2015.

Previously, Amazon denied a claim made by the Wall Street Journal that the online site would offer a free, ad-supported streaming service. At that time, an Amazon spokesperson told AdAge, “We have no plans to offer a free streaming media service.”

But now, Amazon’s tone has changed, if only slightly. In an email to TechCrunch, Spokeswoman Sally Fouts said that “we currently offer the first episode of some television shows free with ads through our First Episode Free feature on Amazon Instant Video, and there are display ads on some short videos such as movie and game trailers. We’re often experimenting with new offers and experiences for customers, but we have not announced any plans to offer an ad-supported video streaming service.”

Judging by that statement, Amazon’s status has now moved from “no plans” to “haven’t announced any plans.” This could mean Amazon is now working on a free, ad-supported video streaming service, if not at least considering it.

If the e-commerce retail giant does introduce their streaming service, Ingrid Lunden at TechCrunch thinks it could be a move to hook more viewers for the company’s $99-a-year Amazon Prime service, which includes unlimited, ad-less Amazon Instant Video streaming. The company would also have the benefit of snagging the attention of viewers who don’t mind ads and the ones who are willing to pay to remove them, essentially mixing the Hulu and Netflix models.

Lunden also thinks the free, ad-supported service would help boost Amazon’s revenue. She argues the streaming service would be another way for Amazon to break into more global video advertising options, since the company currently only offers one video format to advertisers, and these formats are only displayed on Amazon’s subsidiary sites (like Imdb.com) in Canada and the U.S.

The free, ad-supported streaming video service could be a big boost for Amazon and help establish it as a larger player in the online video world. However, until an official announcement arrives from the company, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Filed under: Amazon, Articles, News by Bree Brouwer
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Pitbull will show off some of his empire with two new web series. The musician known as “Mr. Worldwide” and Endemol Beyond just launched the trailers for two new original series, Gentlemen’s Code and The Most Bad Ones.

The trailer for Gentlemen’s Code explains the upcoming show as “Pitbull’s ultimate guide to being the perfect gentleman.” In the GQ-esque show, he’ll cover topics such as grooming, style, fitness, diet, business, sex, and more. Many of Pitbull’s fellow Endemol Beyond talent and YouTube stars make guest appearances, including Brittany Furlan, Kandee Johnson, DeStorm Power, Bart Baker, Shira Lazar, and Blogilates.

Pitbull and Endemol’s other trailer is for docu-series The Most Bad Ones, about the women who perform with him. The show will chronicle the day-to-day lives of Pitbull’s six backup dancers (collectively known as “The Most Bad Ones”) as they tour with Mr. Worldwide.

Pitbull (aka Armando Perez) signed with Endemol Beyond back in January 2014. The musician received a Streamy ICON Award in September for his ability to engage audiences worldwide. And in just a few weeks’ time, he’ll be hosting a massive New Year’s Eve party on Fox. Pitbull’s personal YouTube channel has over 100,000 subscribers.

No release dates have been announced for either Gentlemen’s Code or The Most Bad Ones as of yet. However, you can subscribe to Pitbull’s YouTube channel and follow him and Endemol Beyond on Twitter to catch future news as it’s announced.

Filed under: Articles, Endemol Beyond, News by Bree Brouwer
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Netflix has added another sitcom to its upcoming slate, and this time, it poached its new series from a major TV network. Last week, Netflix announced that it will be the exclusive home for Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, a comedy co-created by Tina Fey that was initially planned as to debut on NBC.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, which is co-created by Fey and Robert Carlock, stars Ellie Kemper (best known for her role in The Office) as an ex-cultist who decides to start anew in New York City. “Wide-eyed but resilient,” reads a press release, “nothing is going to stand in her way.”

NBC, where Fey became a star thanks to her roles on Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock, initially snapped up the series and planned to use it as a mid-season replacement. NBC would’ve had plenty of room for it; the network has already canceled two of its new comedies. Instead, Fey and Carlock opted to move to Netflix, where the 13-episode first season will debut in March 2015. That won’t be the end of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, either; Netflix has already picked up a second season.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is Netflix’s latest attempt to score a huge hit with a TV-length sitcom. The online platform also has plans to distribute Love, a series created by Judd Apatow, and Arrested Development is still showing signs of life more than a year after its fourth season ended.

Fey isn’t the only 2000s SNL alumnus making moves on the Internet. Frequent Fey collaborator Amy Poehler recently announced a sitcom called Difficult People for Hulu. A former NBC sitcom, Community, has also moved online thanks to Yahoo Screen. By adding Kimmy to its roster, Netflix is only the latest web video company to poach from the Peacock.

Filed under: Netflix, Web Series by Sam Gutelle
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DisneyCollectorBR is in first place on the U.S. charts for its ninth week in a row. The YouTube destination for toddlers who want to watch adults playing with children’s toys received a more-than-decent 11% bump in views to top out at more than 102.4 million views in the last seven days. Taylor Swift jumped up a spot to claim the second place position. The international pop star witnessed a 43% week-over-week increase in views to end the seven-day stretch with more than 84.7 million views.

The Ellen Show is next up in third place. Ellen DeGeneres’ syndicated talk show’s home on YouTube saw a slight 4% slip, but still racked up more than 58.1 million views on the week.

MarkiplierGAME is up next in fourth place. The gamer also saw a massive 43% uptick in views and scored more than 47.3 million views on the week. And rounding out the Top is Katy Perry. The second international pop star on the list stayed relatively constant with her channel’s view count and ended the week with more than 42.4 million views.

Top Gainers

The honor of our Top Gainers in the U.S. this week goes to the New York Post.

The YouTube home of the newspaper originally founded in 1801 by Alexander Hamilton (#FunFact) stumbled upon a viral hit in its upload of “Young elephant survives attack by 14 lions“. The fascinating Zapruderian footage quickly racked up an eight-figure view count and almost solely accounted for the NY Post’s channel’s 2,119% week-over-week increase in views. The channel amassed more than 20.4 million views on the week and claimed the #34 spot on the U.S. chart.

Channel Distribution

The top 50 most viewed U.S. YouTube channels this week amassed a total of 1,509,784,832 views. Here’s the distribution of a few of those channels by multi-channel network:

• VEVO: 20 channels in the U.S. Top 50, with Taylor Swift topping out at #2.
• Maker Studios: 4 channels in the Top 50, with markiplierGAME at #4.
• BuzzFeed, NBC: 2 channels each the Top 50, with BuzzFeed’s BuzzFeed Video at #9 and NBC’s The Tonight Show at #7.

As always, keep up to speed with the latest Tubefilter Charts and all of our news at Tubefilter by subscribing to our newsletter, 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 250,000 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, YouTube, Youtube Chart by Joshua Cohen
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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. 

This week, we discussed the return of Everything But The News, a smart web series that makes fun of West Coast tech trends. At the same time, there’s another web comedy that also has its eye on Silicon Valley. That series is called Tech Boom!, and the seven episodes it has released so far take on self-satisfied tech-heads.

It is easy to compare Tech Boom! to Silicon Valley, Mike Judge’s satirical look at all the hot air blowing around the Bay Area. Sure enough, Jack Birmingham, Loren Risker, and Hector Escarramán‘s web series does share some things in common with the HBO sitcom; for example, they both execute similar self-driving car gags.

At the same time, Tech Boom! has more of an interest in the sheer insanity of the Silicon Valley tech scene. “There’s been such a constant flow of bizarre, frustrating, and shameless behavior on display to draw from,” Birmingham told SF Weekly. “Some of it, like the Sarah Slocum “tech hate crime” stuff or the Dropbox guys, is just so weird (disastrously weird, even) that it already feels like an absurd comedy skit.”

Billingham’s philosophy is put on display in Tech Boom!‘s strongest episodes. Take, for example, the most recent installment, which applies jargon-y buzzwords to a marriage. It’s a ridiculous concept, but how far does it actually stray from the already-ridiculous reality the series is based on? In that sense, Portlandia–not Silicon Valley–is the TV show Tech Boom! resembles most.

All of Tech Boom!‘s episodes can be watched from the series’ YouTube channel.

OTHER UNDER-THE-RADAR SERIES TO CHECK OUT

• The Things You Learn On Wikipedia. Esoteric subjects take center stage in this web series, which uses kinetic typography to discuss topics like toilet paper orientation.
• Re-Election. Groundhog Day comes to a political campaign in this web series about a staffer who keeps reliving an election over and over.
• The Return Of Saturn. This web series about adulthood takes its title from the 29.4 years it takes Saturn to return to the same spot in the sky.
• Green Vespers. This murder mystery uses a GoPro camera to pull off a first-person point of view.

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
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Most people who follow YouTube trends know that Minecraft—Mojang‘s highly-addictive open-world video game–is the single most popular game on the site. Creators who base their entire channels around the game regularly crack our Tubefilter charts, and popular videos about the game draw millions of views.

A report from ReelSEO quantifies just how big Minecraft is. According to data sourced from Octoly, Minecraft fan videos reached 31 billion views by June 2014. Since then, the game’s audience has continued to grow at a rapid pace, and now, Minecraft videos have amassed more than 47 billion views on YouTube.

The “fan videos” referred to in the report simply refer to any videos that don’t come directly from Mojang’s official YouTube channel. While Mojang does have its own online presence (the company was recently acquired by Microsoft), more than 99% of Minecraft video views on YouTube come from fans of the game, who use it as the subject for “Let’s Play” walkthroughs, multiplayer competitions with friends and fellow YouTubers, and animations like this one:

As a chart from Octoly shows, Minecraft‘s share of the YouTube gaming market dominates other popular video game titles. When that chart was collected back in June, only three other games had more than five billion views, and Minecraft had more views than those three games combined.

The most extraordinary result, though, is what has happened since Octoly collected its data. At the time of ReelSEO’s report, Minecraft was already up to 47 billion views, which means the game has totaled 16 billion views in five months. The number of people who are making videos about the game is up, too. The 81,000-person figure from June is now up to 147,000; that’s an 81% increase.

ReelSEO’s report also shares a number of reasons why Minecraft has gotten so popular: The game’s sandbox design has encouraged players to share their results from the start, YouTube’s advertising model made it the perfect place to share those results, and Mojang has taken a hands-off approach. Instead of interfering with fans who are technically infringing on its copyright, the Swedish company has taken advantage of the free advertising those videos provide. It’s a win for everybody, and in the coming months, Minecraft‘s extraordinarily large YouTube following is only going to get bigger.

Filed under: Articles, Minecraft, News by Sam Gutelle
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