Few vloggers have expanded their personal operations as effectively as Tyler Oakley, who has grown his YouTube channel into a personal brand that includes a podcast and a new book. On December 11th, Oakley will add to his resume with Snervous, a documentary following his 2014Slumber Party tour.
Snervous, produced by AwesomenessFilms, was first announced more than a month ago, but Oakley recently attracted new-found attention to his upcoming documentary by posting its trailer on his YouTube channel. As we expected, many of the scenes will feature scenes from Oakley’s road life during his worldwide tour, as is the case with several other films based around YouTube stars. At the same time, Snervous also promises a look into Oakley’s videomaking process and his personal life; one particularly intriguing segment features a conversation between Oakley and his father.
Snervous looks as if it will be a complete, multi-faceted portrait of its affable subject; at the very least, his fans will surely eat it up with glee. If you’d like to join them, you can preorder the film from its website.
[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 week right here.]
Scroll down for this week’s Tubefilter Chart.
It’s another installment of the weeklyTubefilter Chartof theTop 50 Most Viewed U.S. YouTube Channelsand one of America’s most popular sports is still in the top spot.
Chart Toppers
WWE won’t let go of its U.S. YouTube title belt. The online video home for all your World Wrestling Entertainment needs maintained its hold on the #1 spot on the chart this week, slamming down almost 102.5 million views. In a not-so-distant second is Justin Bieber. The 21-year-old international pop star is posting new lyric and music videos regularly to his YouTube channel and the internet is watching to the tune of almost 95.6 millionviews.
Ryan ToysReview is next up in third place. The burgeoning family-oriented channel devoted to little kids playing with and showcasing children’s toys ended the week just shy of 91.9 million views. FunToyzCollector (aka the channel previously known as DisneyCollectorBR) is up next in the #4 spot. The anonymous channel featuring a pair of adult hands that also plays with children’s toys netted almost 89.4 million views during the week.
And rounding out the Top 5 is Taylor Swift. The pop star’s YouTube viewership continued to stay almost constant on the week, receiving more than 82.2 million views.
Top Gainers
The honor of one of our Top Gainers in the U.S. this week goes to the aforementioned Justin Bieber.
The 21-year-old musical sensation has had a great month on YouTube and continues to rack up views after every new upload. The latest music video to attract tens of millions of of them was “Sorry”, which helped his channel to a 75% week-over-week increase in views, almost 95.6 million views on the week, and the #2 spot on the U.S. chart.
Channel Distribution
The top 50 most viewed U.S. YouTube channels this week amassed a total of 2,210,385,585 views. Here’s the distribution of a few of those channels by multi-channel network:
VEVO: 17 channels in the U.S. Top 50, with Justin Bieber the highest-ranked channel of the network at #2.
Maker Studios: 5 channels in the Top 50, with DisneyCarToys at #10.
BuzzFeed, Fullscreen, MovieClips, OhMyGenius: 2 channels each in the Top 50, with BuzzFeed’s BuzzFeed Video at #6, Fullscreen’s FamilyFunPack at #7, Movieclips’ Movieclips Trailers at #29, and OhMyGenius’ Kids Channel at #26.
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.
[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 week right 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 the world’s most popular YouTube channel is back in the top spot.
Chart Toppers
Felix Kjellberg‘s PewDiePIe channel is back in the top spot this week. The twentysomething Swedish gamer’s repository of Let’s Play videos and more netted over 209.5 million views during the seven-day stretch. Next up is Adele. The British musical sensation is back in a big way, saying Hello to the internet and the world and racking up nearly 118.7 million views during the week along the way.
The international market for Turkish music videos netd müzik dropped down to the #3 spot. The YouTube channel and YouTube network for Turkish-language music netted more than 106.2 million views on the week. WWE was up 7% in views and took home fourth place. The YouTube home for World Wrestling Entertainment scored just about 102.5 million views throughout the week.
And rounding out the Top 5 is LittleBabyBum. The YouTube home for music videos of nearly every pre-K song you’ve ever heard received more than 98.8 million views in the week.
Top Gainers
The honor of one of our Top Gainers this week goes to the aforementioned Adele.
The YouTube home of the 27-year-old British singer and songwriter with a very big voice had an amazing week on YouTube. The release of Adele’s “Hello” – her first major music video since “Skyfall” way back in October 2012 – racked up tens of millions of views within hours after its upload. That helped her channel to a 926% month-over-month increase in views, almost 118.7 million views on the week, and the #2 spot on the worldwide chart.
Distribution
All in all, the top 50 most viewed YouTube channels accounted for 3,211,475,475 views last week. Here’s the distribution of a few of those channels by multi-channel network:
Vevo: 12 channels in the Top 50, with Adele at #2.
Maker Studios: 4 channels in the Top 50, with PewDiePie at #1.
AIR, BuzzFeed, Fullscreen, Machinima, XMediaDigital: 2 channels each in the Top 50, with AIR’s Miss Katy at #30, BuzzFeed’s BuzzFeed Video at #14, Fullscreen’s FamilyFunPack at #15, Machinima’s VanossGaming at #37, and XMediaDigital’smashamedvedtv at #9.
And here’s the distribution of the this week’s Top 50 YouTube channels by country of origin:
United States: 24 channels in the Top 50.
Great Britain: 6 channels in the Top 50.
Canada: 4 channels in the Top 50.
India, Russia, Thailand, Ukraine: 2 channels each in the Top 50.
Ireland, Jamaica, Netherlands, Philippines, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey: 1 channel each in the Top 50.
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.
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.
Brooding’s title refers to a fictional TV show on a fictional network called The WC. A sequence at the beginning of each episode advertises “deep thoughts” and “dark places,” but instead, viewers are treated to a hilarious, over-the-top melodrama featuring tense music, dim lighting, low-cut tops for Delilah and tight shirts for Ben. In the Brooding world, every conflict must be resolved in the most dramatic way imaginable. Everyday nuances, whether they take place in the bathroom or the kitchen, are cause for concerned faces and free-flowing tears. Here’s one of the best installments, in which Ben and Delilah turn an empty coffeepot into an emotional swell:
The best part of Brooding is its thoroughness. Beyond the individual episodes, viewers can also watch short 30-second promos for the series, all of which are smart and succinct. Even if you’ve never watched a show on The CW (I, for example, have not), Brooding has a lot to offer.
In Retrospect. A squabbling husband-and-wife sing their troubles to their therapist in this musical comedy.
The Oracle of Bellwoods. A man goes on a quest to appease a fortune teller he meets in the park.
Yukata Cowboy. In comedy sketches set all around the globe, a Japanese-American man tries to fit in.
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.
RocketJump: The Show is less than a month away from its premiere date on Hulu, and the streaming video service wants to make sure it brings in a hefty audience for its special-effects serial. In order to drum up support, Hulu has released a teaser for the show, featuring RocketJump founder Freddie Wong.
In the teaser, Wong walks through a busy production set and gives viewers a brief overview of his company’s upcoming show. “We’re on hulu making eight of the biggest shorts we’ve ever done, with no room for error,” he says. “Come behind the scenes with us as we try to figure out how to make a new film every week.” The camera then straightens up to reveal the title of the series displayed across the scene. It’s a fun practical effect from a team known for its work with computer graphics–though it’s not the first time RocketJump has gone lo-tech.
RocketJump: The Show was initially slated for an October 21st release, but it was later pushed back to December 2nd. More information about the upcoming series can be found in a previous blog post authored by showrunner Ben M. Waller.
Atwood, Zdorovetskiy (aka VitalyzdTV), and Roady are all known for the prank videos they create on YouTube, where they have more than 17 million subscribers among their respective channels. In Natural Born Pranksters, they will take their antics to the big screen by “turning Hollywood into Prankwood,” according to a press release. Guests who will appear in the film will include Jenna Marbles, Furious Pete, and fellow prankster Tom Mabe. It kind of sounds like Jackass, re-spun for the YouTube crowd.
Natural Born Pranksters has been in the works for more than a year and a half. It was first announced in April 2014, shortly after Atwood and Zdorovetskiy joined the Collective Digital Studio. The film gained some notoriety when Zdorovetskiy invaded the pitch during the 2014 World Cup Final with the words “Natural Born Pranksters” painted on his chest.
By agreeing to distribute the film, Lionsgate continues to build up its ties to the YouTube community. It will also distribute Grace Helbig, Hannah Hart, and Mamrie Hart’s Dirty Thirty as well as RocketJump’s upcoming Hulu series. “We’re delighted to partner with the CDS team on a film that reflects our commitment to serve consumers with original, exciting digital content built around the superstars of social media,” said Lionsgate President of Worldwide Television & Digital Distribution Jim Packer in the release. “Vitaly, Roman and Dennis have built a massive YouTube following, and this is a great opportunity to bring their trademark stunts and humor to an even bigger audience.”
Natural Born Pranksters will be released in theaters and through digital video on-demand platforms sometime in “early 2016.”
12 years and more than 250 episodes after it first premiered, Red Vs. Blue is finally coming to TV. Rooster Teeth’s machinima web series, which follows its cast of characters as they crack wise and do battle in the Halo universe, will air on the El Rey Network beginning on December 5th.
Red Vs. Blue launched in 2003 and emerged as one of the Internet’s first great web series. It established Rooster Teeth as a major player in the online video world, and the Austin-based studio has only built up its legacy since then. 12 years later, it is set to release a 14th season of Red Vs. Blue, and it has also brought its flagship series to movie theaters and created a book based around it.
With its move to TV, Red Vs. Blue will be able to reach the estimated 40 million consumers who receive El Rey in their homes. The English-language, Latino-skewing channel, which was founded in 2013 by filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, will cut the existing 13 seasons of Red Vs. Blue into 95 half-hour episodes, which will air between 6 and 10 AM EST on weekends. That’s right–Red Vs. Blue is now a Saturday morning cartoon.
“I’ve been wanting to carve out an animated component to El Rey’s lineup and this was just the perfect fit for the network. Red vs. Blue is cool, quirky, badass and a little off-beat,” said Rodriguez in a press release “It’s a truly groundbreaking machinima series, with a strong focus on quality writing and pioneering motion capture techniques. I can’t wait for the El Rey Network audience to check out.”
Welcome to YouTube Millionaires, where we profile channels that have recently crossed the one million subscriber mark. There are channels crossing this threshold every week, and each has a story to tell about YouTube success. Read previous installments of YouTube Millionaires here.
On YouTube, Russell Simmons is All Def, all the time. In 2013, the businessman best known as the co-founder of Def Jam Recordings, bolstered his digital presence with a new channel called All Def Digital(ADD), and two years later, that channel has become an unqualified success. ADD’s content runs the gamut from music to comedy to unscripted news programming, all featuring a network of talented partners. No matter which ADD video you choose, you’ll encounter an urban sensibility the channel has trademarked as its signature style. ADD just passed one million subscribers, so we talked to its CEO, Sanjay Sharma, to find out what him and his team are all about.
Tubefilter: How does it feel to have one million subs? What do you have to say to the ADD fans?
All Def Digital: It feels great and we have the squADD to thank for it. The squADD is our community, it’s our fans, it’s our talent, it’s our employees. We worked together this year to make ADD the fastest and most dynamic destination for hip hop-infused programming, from social video to sketch comedy, from stand-up to spoken word, from digital series to premium television.
TF: What would you say is one theme that unites all the content within the ADD network?
ADD: Authentic collisions. We love real comedy, real language, real music, real artists, and we love embracing a new generation – both creators and fans – who remix and juxtapose, who aren’t easy to define or put into the so-called ‘urban’ box. We love the collaborations and collisions that emerge from within the hip hop millennial world and the potential for breakout that comes with it.
TF: How has Russell Simmons’ influence helped you build ADD into the network it is today?
ADD: He’s the heart and soul and the creative inspiration. He has made All Def a multi-platform universe. The revolution and movement he started is at the core of our vision for the future: from Def Jam in music to Phat Farm in fashion, to Def Comedy Jam and Def Poetry Jam, into premium television programming that puts a spotlight on artistry that had been unseen by mainstream America. He comes to work everyday and he is so intellectually curious and honest. He is a true visionary who has had such a profound impact on culture over so many decades.
TF: What has been the biggest surprise you’ve encountered since launching ADD?
ADD: The pent-up demand from advertisers. We have been working with forward-looking marketers, brands and agencies who have immediately grasped the power of what we’re building, and the need to organically and authentically connect with this massive audience through content and other multi-faceted approaches that traditional players don’t offer. They get there’s an audience here that’s not simply the ‘urban’ market of days past, and that it’s not easy to reach in resonant ways.
We like coming up with organic and creative integrations that solve that, whether through large-scale bespoke solutions, branded content, live events, or frankly clever and creative Vine activations. We’re still very early in our evolution and have focused this year on building our programming slate and fan base, but we’re catching up quickly to advertiser demand for our offerings.
TF: What methods do you use to uncover new talent for the ADD network?
ADD: We use our creative instincts, and a whole lot of data. Our network is highly curated and invite-only; we aren’t a mass aggregator and don’t focus on tonnage. We look at a lot of signals through our own data and analytics team and mining efforts, as well as through partners like Tubular Labs.
But because we’re a creative hub and engine and an original programming brand that plays across digital, tv, film, recorded music and live events, we have a unique platform to discover new voices. What we are looking for is real talent who we think can pop off a digitally native platform and who has interests in other professional paths and in other media formats. We can take a star from one of our series and later cast them in a movie or a television show. We are looking for talent that has the range and versatility to transcend any single medium.
TF: On a similar note, why do you think aspiring, talented creators should team with you? What do you offer that other networks do not?
ADD: While we offer all the core functions a creator needs (channel optimization, reporting and analysis, etc), what we offer that’s unique is two-fold. First is a home in a consumer brand that means something. We aren’t broadcasters or aggregators and care only about our vertical.
Second, and most importantly, we offer a creative platform with direct touch points across digital and up into premium traditional media. For example, through our first-look deal for television with HBO, we offer a very unique and premium path for the right creators and projects. Any network or agency can say they can help you set up a show, but we actually do it and if we love the show you will have Russell Simmons and our Head of Programming (who used to run drama at NBC) in your corner helping you shape your pitch to take into a network.
Similarly, through a partnership with Universal Music Group, the largest music publisher in the world, we can take a select set of the right talent into the biggest labels in the world. And we’re just getting started.
TF: What do you think makes YouTube a great platform for urban creators?
ADD: I think it’s what makes the platform great for creators of all kinds, but especially those we are interested in which is the new face of urban. African-American for sure, but also Asian, Latino/Latina, white, Indian, Jewish, LGBT, anyone that is part of or has been influenced by the hip-hop movement.
For all these creators, YouTube gives them an opportunity to do two things: One, go around traditional gatekeepers and reach an audience directly (our own channel now offers a pretty compelling vehicle to do that too for up and coming creators), and two, over-serve under-served markets. YouTube as a social video network is allowing all these amazing voices (including the creators in our network) to emerge and thrive.
ADD: We’ve always been fans of what Q has built at World Star: the largest urban video portal outside of YouTube. He’s just announced an amazing partnership with Fullscreen (now owned by AT&T/Chernin), one of the first large-scale and world class MCNs, so we’re thrilled for both of them on that front.
For us, we have a couple of great original projects – a feature film and a comedic web series that already has generated millions of views online – and we’re excited about both of those in 2016.
TF: What’s next for the ADD channel? Any fun plans?
ADD: We’ve got so much planned it’s hard to start. We’re already expanding into music programming. Our flagship music discovery series The Signal was featured by YouTube in its YouTube for Artists documentary, created alongside Vice and unveiled at Midem in Cannes this year. We’ve just launched a political show, The Firing squADD with Maronzio Vance, a standup comic who has also played our live comedy night – illustrating the cross-platform engine we’re building.
We’ll take a moment to celebrate at a VIP event in Hollywood with some amazing talent performing, including a live taping of one of our new music shows. We’ve already developed new programming in sports and we have a lot that we are continually exploring and developing. But it’s all about the grind – we’re working everyday to build a big platform where we see a massive white space.
YouTube has taken the final step in its journey to make its videos compatible with virtual reality (VR) devices. Eight months after releasing its first 360-degree videos, the world’s largest video site has now enabled its users to upload VR videos that make viewers feel as if they’re part of the action.
VR videos can be captured through all-angles camera rigs like Google’s Jump; when they are uploaded to YouTube, they can be played back in a format that takes its cues from the mechanics of human eyes. By selecting a 3D option, viewers can immerse themselves within these videos, especially when watching through devices like Google Cardboard. Here’s a recent example:
The ability to watch YouTube in a VR format, however, is not limited to videos uploaded specifically for that purpose. In addition, a new feature on the YouTube Android app lets users watch through Google Cardboard by pressing an icon that splits videos into two separate pieces, one broadcast to each eyeball. This gif explains it all:
“Using the sametricks that we humans use to see the world, VR video gives you a sense of depth as you look around in every direction,” reads a post on YouTube’s official blog. “Near things look near, far things look far. So if you were excited about 360° videos, this is pretty freakin’ cool.”
This is undeniably a cool development, so if you own an Android device, update your YouTube app and check it out. If you need some suggestions for VR videos to watch, YouTube has provided a playlist filled with them.
Part Timers, which is looking to reclaim the pizzeria-arcade setting from a certain series of horror video games, will follow an underpaid, overworked weirdos as they have the “best time ever at the worst job ever.” A trailer, recently released on the Smosh YouTube channel, forecasts plenty of silly comedy as well as a gigantic porcupine costume that will surely be involved in all sorts of shenanigans.
“We’re thrilled to announce our partnership with YouTube for Part Timers, continuing Smosh’s expansion into longer form programming following the successful release of Smosh: The Movie earlier this year,” said Barry Blumberg, Chief Content Officer at DEFY Media, in a press release. “Today also marks Smosh’s ten year milestone on YouTube and we look forward to celebrating with our partners this evening with a peek at what’s next.”
Several of the other original programs produced by YouTube will only be available to viewers who subscribe to the $9.99-per-month YouTube Red service, but Part Timers will be available for free. Instead, Schick Hydro has signed on as the series’ official brand partner, and it will receive placements and custom videos in return.
Beyond Part Timers, the Smosh channel is also home to Hecox and Padilla’s one-off comedy videos and series like Every [Blank] Ever. Having established themselves as one of the Internet’s most popular and consistent acts, the Smosh guys now count more than 21 million subscribers on their primary YouTube hub.
On the surface, Trivy seems like a fairly run-of-the-mill trivia app, but its biggest appeal comes from its 99-cent microtransactions, with allow purchasers to download 64-question “creator packs” themed around particular YouTube stars. If you think, for example, that you know more about Lilly Singh than any of her other fans, you can download her creator pack and compete against everyone else who has purchased it. Creators can also update their packs, in order to prevent question fatigue once their fans inevitably memorize all the correct answers.
At launch, 64 different YouTube, Vine, Twitter, and Snapchat stars have submitted their own creator packs. “Once we started development, we realized it was an opportunity for the biggest digital names to get involved, and for #TeamInternet to band together,” said Rhett & Link in a press release.
“We teamed up with tech entrepreneur and former venture capitalist Abdul Khan, who has been behind companies like Pandora and Ancestry.com,” added See, “to create a game that transcends the current benefits of the direct to consumer model by introducing a new way of engaging with fans.” Khan also has lots of experience on YouTube, where he has co-founded channels like YOMYOMF and The Noc (now Vice Sports).
According to the release, more creator packs will become available “as more creators join the game.” For now, here’s the list of current participants:
AJ Rafael, Ali Spagnola, Andrea Russet, Andreaschoice, Andrew Garcia, Andy Lange, Anna Akana, Annoying Orange, Bart Baker, Boyce Avenue, Brittani Louise Taylor, Chester See, Christian Collins, Crawford Collins, Dan Avidan, Dan Nampaikid, DeStorm Power, Devinsupertramp, D-trix, Elliott Morgan, Epic Rap Battles of History, Felicia Day, Flula, Frankie Grande, General Trivia, GloZell, Grace Helbig, Gregory Brothers, Hannah Hart, Harley Morenstein, Jack & Dean, James Maslow, Josh Golden, Josh Sundquist, Justin James Hughes, Kingsley, Lee Newton, Lilly Singh, Lindsey Stirling, Logan Paul, Mamrie Hart, Matthew Santoro, Megan Batoon, Michael Buckley, Mitchell Davis, MysteryGuitarMan, Nikki Limo, Olga Kay, Rhett & Link, Sam Pottorff, Shane Dawson, Shay Carl, Smosh, Stampy Cat, Stassiebaby, Steve Zaragoza, Tay Zonday, Tiffany Alvord, Timothy DeLaGhetto, TomSka, Troye Sivan, Tyler Oakley, Tyler Ward, VlogBrothers and Wassabi Productions.
Over the past couple years, we’ve shared dozens of documents that analyze the growth of the online video industry and advise marketers about the best practices they can employ to take advantage of said growth. I don’t think any of those documents, however, have been as thorough as “The Digital Social Contract,” a new paper from marketing agency Ogilvy and mobile community platform Victorious that breaks down the online video industry, instructs readers how to harness its power, and provides a list of the most influential digital content creators.
Ogilvy and Victorious set up the importance of their paper by sharing a few key stats related to the online video industry. By 2019, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, online video advertising will reach $83 million and surpass TV in that category. More immediately, eMarketer estimates that two-thirds of Americans will watch online videos this year. For the 18-24 demographic, that figure is close to 96%.
What strategies, then, do Ogilvy and Victorious lay out for marketers? Their suggestions are very much in line with Victorious’ community-based philosophy, which it uses as the driving force for the fan-facing apps it builds alongside creators. Here are six specific points, laid out in a neat infographic:
The paper also recommends 30 specific creators, all of whom have built engaged communities on YouTube and other social media platforms. This list, first shared by The Hollywood Reporter, doesn’t quite turn out the way you’d expect. Sure, it contains some familiar faces, such as Ryan Higa, Markiplier, and Michelle Phan, but it also includes lesser-known YouTube stars like Adriene Mishler, Andrew Schrock, and SamGladiator.
The entire 110-page paper can be read here. It’s a truly mammoth document, filled with extensive histories of TV and digital media, references to the philosophies of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Martin Luther, and economist Vilfredo Pareto, and input from top creators like Scott Hoying of Pentatonix and Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks. Ogilvy and Victorious have truly left no stone unturned, so if you’re looking to educate yourself on digital video marketing, you should definitely see what “The Digital Social Contract” has to say.
