On November 8th, George Takei will come to Broadway. The former Star Trek cast member turned social media savant will bring Allegiance, a musical based off his life story, to Manhattan’s Longacre Theater. In order to give his fans an accurate depiction of what it’s like to create a Broadway show, Takei has launched Allegiance: Trek To Broadway, a behind-the-scenes web series available on his Facebook page.
Allegiance is based off Takei’s experience during World War II, when his family was forcibly relocated at one of the US’ infamous Japanese-American internment camps. The musical first ran in San Diego in 2012, where it picked up several local awards.
San Diego, however, is far from the big lights of Broadway, and that’s where Trek To Broadway comes in. In each installment of his 10-episode web series, Takei will break down specific elements of the production process. After sharing a debut episode two weeks ago, Takei has now released the second part of Trek To Broadway for his 8.8 million Facebook fans. The new episode pays particular attention to Allegiance’s audition process and casting choices.
Trek To Broadway (Episode Two) – All We Need Is The GirlAuditions, auditions. Ever wonder what it’s like from behind the table? If you know an actor with Broadway dreams, tag them so they watch one performer’s dreams unfold.
Takei’s Facebook page is his most significant digital project, but he has also starred in several web series. He teamed up with AARP for Takei’s Takein 2013, and he explored his home life with his husband Brad in 2015’s It Takeis Two. Trek To Broadway feels like his most personal work so far, but it’s also an intriguing watch for anyone curious about the inner workings of the theater world.
Since 2012, YouTube has hidden the useful (and sometimes comical) video tags entered by the clip’s owner. But now, a browser extension can help you revert the site back to its original, tag-supporting glory. Called Tags for YouTube, the extension allows YouTube users to uncover hidden video tags and see what terms a video creator initially entered to describe the clip.
Tags for YouTube can be installed on either the Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox internet browsers. Once installed, users can refresh their YouTube tabs to see a video’s tags by clicking the “Show more” button in the description. Tags for YouTube may not work, however, if a user already has another YouTube-altering extension installed on the same browser.
Tags for YouTube is just one of several browser extensions developers and coding fanatics have created over the past few years to make users’ online video experiences more enjoyable on Google’s online video site. SmartVideo, for example, determines when to start playing a video uninterrupted with buffering, based on the speed of a video viewer’s individual internet connection. VidIQ’s Vision extension also shows tags along with a multitude of other metrics and stats, and until recently, Chrome extension Streamus allowed YouTube users to stream videos as background music.
All Def Digital (ADD) has a new web series showcasing the craziness of what it means to be a single woman in the modern age. The digital network, founded by businessman and entrepreneur Russell Simmons and centered on urban youth culture, has a new web series called The Kellys, which premiered on August 18, 2015.
In The Kellys, three Los Angeles women, all named Kelly, help each other deal with what a release calls “double standards, lame guys, and the highs and lows” of singleness (and most likely not any mass suicides). Each episode will find the Kellys addressing modern-day female problems like wearing comfortable shoes with dresses and drunk texting. The debut episode, for example, finds the three women discussing how to get over previous guys in their lives.
Time, Inc. is about to drop one of its first major online video projects. As part of its larger digital video strategy, the publishing giant is releasing its anthology-style documentary series New Orleans, Here & Now across multiple digital platforms on August 27, 2015, nearly ten years after the Hurricane Katrina disaster.
Produced alongside Killer Films, Field Office Films, and production and distribution company Rampante, New Orleans, Here & Now contains six different short films centered on the lives of individuals living in the post-Katrina Louisiana city. For example, one of the documentary’s episodes will cover the story of an oyster farmer and his decades-long quest to build a boat, while another segment will show four high school seniors, who were only eight when Katrina hit, preparing for graduation.
Time will release New Orleans, Here & Now on its own website; visitors to Time.com will be able to view one of the six segments of the documentary, while the remaining five will be exclusive to subscribers only. Additionally, People.com (whch is owned by Time, Inc.) will run one of the documentary series’ episodes for its own audience. New Orleans, Here & Now will also be available for purchase and viewing on Hulu, Sundance Doc Club, iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play.
You can watch New Orleans, Here & Now starting August 27 on Time.com, or one of the other digital outlets already mentioned above. In the meantime, you can check out the documentary series’ inspiring trailer below:
The world of branded merchandise related to YouTube channels contains all sorts of items, ranging from socks to Minecraft action figures. The current tie-in du jour, however, is the throw pillow. Throwboy, a company that makes throw pillows related to pop culture, has launched a new line centered around YouTube stars.
Throwboy’s new line is called Throwboy Loves, and the first three YouTube stars who will see their personal logos branded onto pillows are vloggers and BFFs Joey Graceffa and Meghan Camarena as well as prolific lister Matthew Santoro. Graceffa’s pillow can already be pre-ordered; it is shaped like a wolf, in reference to Graceffa’s dog.
The Throwboy Loves line is the latest collaboration between Throwboy and the YouTube community. Previously, Throwboy released a pillow emblazoned with the video site’s iconic subscribe button. “Since the early days of Throwboy, our brand was welcomed into the YouTube community,” said Throwboy Founder & CEO Roberto Hoyos in a release. “We are thrilled to be teaming up with top creators on something only Throwboy can offer.”
While Graceffa’s fans can currently pre-order his throw pillow (which retails for $24.99), it will become available for purchase on September 1st. Beyond Graceffa, Camarena, and Santoro, Throwboy also plans to announce more partners from the YouTube community in the coming weeks.
The growth of digital media has afforded a lot of cross-pollination between TV networks and online platforms, with cable channels using sites like YouTube to reach additional viewers. The latest cable hub taking advantage of this cross-pollination is MyxTV, which has launched three web series aimed at its target audience of Asian-Americans.
Unlike the digital programs distributed by many other channels, Myx’s web series are not companions to its TV shows. Instead, it has established a diverse library that ranges from health to food to comedy. The first new series, The Alternative, is a sort of “DIY medicine” program that offers holistic treatments to common ailments. Buddha Smash focuses on an entertainer named Buddha who combines wanton destruction of ordinary objects with side-scrolling video games. Finally, Snaxxx will give adult film stars the opportunity to review snack foods from around the world.
“Myx TV is committed to entertaining millennials in fun, enjoyable and interesting ways, which is apparent with these original YouTube series and the network’s renewed focus on its digital presence,” said Miguel Santos, General Manager of Myx TV, in a press release. “These efforts make us more accessible and entertaining to a broader audience.”
MyxTV was first launched in 2007. It is currently available in more than 15 million homes.
Vidme will soon be a part of the original video content crowd, but with a small twist. The YouTube-esque online video sharing platform will develop and commission one-minute-or-less documentaries to round out the company’s original programming efforts.
Vidme will host the mini-docs on a channel called Cannibal, so named because of the production company the video site is working with to create the 60-second clips. (It’s name is Cannibal, too). The original documentary shorts will cover unique topics like online sellers of used panties and Compton-area pride from the film Straight Outta Compton. Variety notes Vidme has already been testing out short-form content thanks to Fox’s Animation Domination High-Def animation company, which has released clips on its Vidme channel anywhere from a few seconds to a minute long.
Co-founders Warren Schaeffer and Alex Benzer told Variety making documentaries under a minute long makes sense for Vidme, because shorter content gets higher completion rates from the site’s younger audience. “One of the creators in our network suggested 60 seconds because he wanted videos that people could finish while stopped at a red light — though we don’t condone watching while you drive,” Schaeffer quipped.
Boasting a strong relationship with social news site Reddit and $3.2 million in recent funding, Vidme claimed roughly 400 million video views in the month of July 2015 alone. The video sharing site, which just launched an app called Gifdub to let users add music to GIFs, currently boasts 40 million unique visitors per month.
The web series that offers comedic breakdowns of classic works of literature is changing up its format. Thug Notes, in which streetwise lit critic Sparky Sweets, M.D. (portrayed by comedian Greg Edwards) brings a low-brow-yet-intelligent point of view to high school English class staples, has brought its wisdom to a book that is now available from multiple retailers.
The book, which is titled Thug Notes: A Street-Smart Guide to Classic Literature, features Sparky’s takes on “sixteen of literature’s most beloved classics,” ranging from Things Fall Apart to Hamlet to Lord of the Flies. Among other locations, the book is available from Amazon; as of this post, it has already marched up several of the online retailer’s hyper-specific bestseller lists.
Wisecrack, which produces the Thug Notes videos and distributes them on its YouTube channel of more than 500,000 subscribers, worked with publisher Vintage to bring a handful of Sparky’s most popular episodes to life. Since its 2013 premiere, Thug Notes has been a staple for Wisecrack, which has since crafted several other series based around the idea of “academic material conveyed in a hip, unusual manner.” The channel’s latest offering is Boss Bitches of History, in which a pair of adult film stars discuss famous women from around the world.
For students who are looking for simple, hilarious explanations of their assigned readings, the Thug Notes book is a compelling cheat sheet. As for those of us who no longer have to deal with assigned literature, we are free to enjoy Sparky’s Ebonic lit-crit without having to worry about his improper grammar slipping into our essays.
Connor Hines is making the leap from the digital screen to television. The producer of the YouTube series Local Attraction has landed a pilot deal for a new comedy series with ABC.
According to Variety, who originally broke the news, Hines will write, executive produce, and star in a series currently titled For Now. Hines, who has guest starred on the TV show Person of Interest, will develop the pilot of For Now, a show set to explore the lives of several twenty-year-olds living in New York City. Variety notes this new ABC deal comes after Hines originally landed a pilot with the network for a half-hour comedy in the summer of 2014.
Hines is predominantly known for his work on the web series Local Attraction, a comedy production satirizing the world of Tinder dating. Hines wrote and directed six episodes of the series, also starring as the male lead in the extreme and often uncomfortable dating scenarios set up in each episode. The first episode of Local Attraction has garnered over 350,000 views to date on YouTube, and the last episode guest starred actress Glenn Close.
No release date has been announced as of yet for Hines’ pilot with ABC.
[Editor’s Note: Tubefilter Charts is a new 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 timeframe. You can check out all of our Tubefilter Charts – with new installments every week – here.]
Scroll down for the Tubefilter Chart.
It’s another installment of the Top 100 Most Subscribed YouTube Channels Worldwide and an old favorite is still in the #1 spot.
Chart Toppers
Felix Kjellberg‘s PewDiePie channel still sits atop the 100 Most Subscribed YouTube Channels chart. The twentysomething Swedish gamer with his very own upcoming video game and a penchant for charity scored 790,000 new subscribers during the 31 days of July. In a not-so-distant second place is fernanfloo. The Brazilian gamer barely beat out an international icon, ending the month with 607,000 new subscribers.
That international icon is Taylor Swift. The country-turned-pop-star took a 21% hit in her channel’s subscriber acquisition rate to drop into third place with 606,000 new subs during the month. In fourth place is elrubiusOMG. The Spanish gamer stayed relatively constant, adding more than 547,000 new subscribers on the month. And rounding out the Top 5 is the top-ranked US gamer on the chart, MarkiplierGAME, who shot up 51% to close the month out with over 530,000 new subscribers.
Top Gainers
The honor of one of our our Top Gainers this month goes to Achievement Hunter.
The shiny new YouTube channel from Rooster Teeth had a fantastic first month on YouTube. The gaming-centric subsidiary of the long-standing-but-still-burgeoning Austin, Texas-based new media company got its very own YouTube destination (and physical office space) in July. And a lot of subscribers followed the entity to its new digs. YouTube.com/AchievementHunter was witness to a month-over-month increase of 210% in its subscriber acquisition rate, topping out at more than 468,000 new subs and the #11 spot on the chart.
Channel Distribution
The Top 100 Most Subscribed YouTube channels in the month amassed in aggregate a total of 31,754,581 new subscribers. Here’s a look at the distribution of a few of those channels broken down by the most-represented YouTube Multi-Channel Networks on the chart:
VEVO: 16 channels in the Top 100 Most Subscribed, with Taylor Swiftthe top channel in the network at #3.
Maker Studios:13 channels in the Top 100, with PewDiePie at #1.
Collective Digital Studio: 11 channels in the Top 100, with Roman Atwood Vlogs at #23.
BroadbandTV, Fullscreen, Machinima: 5 channels each in the Top 100, with BBTV’s fernanfloo at #2, Fullscreen’s canalcanalha at #26 and Machinima’s HolaSoyGerman at #8.
Stylehaul: 3 channels in the Top 100, with MyLifeAsEva at #13.
Big Frame, BuzzFeed, Divimove, Rooster Teeth, WMG: 2 channels each in the Top 100, with Big Frame’s Miranda Sings at #77, BuzzFeed’s BuzzFeed Videos at #14, Divimove’s elrubiusOMG at #4, Rooster Teeth’s Achievement Hunter at #11, and WMG’s Ed Sheeran at #48.
And here’s a look into the distribution of the this month’s Top 100 by country of origin:
The United States:53 channels in the Top 100.
Brazil: 11 channels in the Top 100.
Great Britain: 8 channelsin the Top 100.
Spain: 6 channels in the Top 100.
Canada: 4 channels in the Top 100.
Netherlands: 3 channels in the Top 100.
Australia, Chile, Mexico, Sweden: 2 channels each in the Top 100.
Argentina, Colombia, El Salvador, Ireland, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Ukraine:1 channel each in the Top 100.
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.
An investment that has been the subject of rumors for the past month has now been made official. NBCUniversal has announced a $200 million equity investment in BuzzFeed, which delivers shareable content to its audience of more than 200 million users each month.
NBCU’s interest in BuzzFeed was reported in July, when the Comcast-owned media company was revealed to be pursuing deals with both Vox Media and BuzzFeed. The Vox investment, which also totaled $200 million, was completed a week ago. While the size of NBCU’s two investments may be the same, the company’s valuations of its two new partners are believed to be very different. Before either of the deals were closed, Recode reported that BuzzFeed would be valued at around $1.5 billion, with Vox valued closer to $850 million.
By investing in BuzzFeed, NBCU gains another strong ally in the digital media industry. On the flipside, NBCU is a fitting partner through which BuzzFeed can explore its TV and film ambitions. “BuzzFeed and NBCUniversal will be great strategic partners and we both have a lot to offer the other,” said Kenneth Lerer, BuzzFeed’s Executive Chairman, in a press release. “We look forward to collaborating on television content, movies, the Olympics, and joint partnerships with ad agencies and brands.”
The NBCU deal joins other previous investments in BuzzFeed, including a $50 million round led by Andreessen Horowitz in 2014.
BuzzFeed first came to prominence thanks to its text and image-based content, but in recent years, it has poured more resources into its video operation, and as a result, Ze Frank’s BuzzFeed Motion Pictures division is now a thriving network that receives 1.5 billion video views each month. One would think Frank is doing a little dance today to celebrate his company’s big payday.
