Yahoo continues to shuffle off original series from its digital coil. The online media giant announced it’s cancelling plans for the live DJ competition show Ultimate DJ from producer Simon Cowell’s Syco Entertainment.

Ultimate DJ, a competition series about electronic dance music (EDM) DJs competing, was originally announced at Yahoo’s 2015 Digital Newfronts presentation. The media giant had plans to air the show live on Yahoo and integrate it into Yahoo’s owned property and micro-blogging platform Tumblr. Variety notes that earlier this week, Yahoo had said it was moving forward with Ultimate DJ, aiming for a 2016 debut before making the recent decision to cancel production. A Syco rep declined to comment on the story.

The news of Yahoo’s decision to quit pursuing Ultimate DJ comes only a few days after the media company and internet pioneer cancelled plans on another project. Yahoo shuttered the TV-length comedy The Pursuit, another one of the originals it had previously announced at Digital Content Newfronts. The cancellation of both Ultimate DJ and The Pursuit likely stems from the fact that Yahoo seems to be taking a step back from original entertainment, as the company revealed it lost around $42 million in Q3 2015 for its three series Community, Sin City Saints, and Other Space.

Other networks or studios now have the option of picking up Yahoo’s cancelled series. In the meantime, Yahoo executives have said the company will continue to move forward with short-form content and live programming (like its recent live stream of the NFL game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and Buffalo Bills, which Yahoo claims was a success). Yahoo also renewed its deal with Live Nation Entertainment to stream live concert video on a daily basis for another year.

Filed under: Articles, News, Yahoo! by Bree Brouwer
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Hulu has set a release date for one of its upcoming original series. The streaming video-on-demand platform will premiere its series 11.22.63, based on the Stephen King novel of nearly the same title (the original is just styled as 11/22/63), on President’s Day, February 15, 2016.

Originally announced back in September 2014 and then previewed again at Hulu’s 2015 NewFront presentation, 11.22.63 stars actor James Franco as high school English teacher Jake Epping who travels back in time to try to prevent the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Hulu will release episodes of the nine-hour sci-fi series on a weekly basis, rather than all at once, exclusively to subscribers who pay for either the $7.99-per-month ad-supported premium tier or the newly-introduced, ad-free $12-per-month option.

Directed by Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland), 11.22.63 also stars Chris Cooper, Josh Duhamel, Cherry Jones, Sarah Gadon, George MacKay, T.R. Knight, Lucy Fry, and Daniel Webber. The Hulu original series hails from Warner Bros. Television and J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions. King executive produces 11.22.63 alongside Bridget Carpenter, Abrams, and Bad Robot’s Bryan Burk.

You can catch 11.22.63 on Hulu starting February 15 of next year. There’s no official trailer for the series just yet, but you can check out a video from the production (and it’s 1960’s aesthetic) below:

Filed under: 11/22/63, Articles, Hulu, News by Bree Brouwer
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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. 

We’ve all heard about the stereotypical gay bff, but how much do you know about the gay-bff-who-is-actually-straight? If you’re looking to educate yourself, you can tune into Sensitive, a new web series created by Cory Stonebrook.

In Sensitive, Stonebrook plays an eponymous character whose effeminate side is plain to see. He cries during Parenthood episodes, knows Spice Girls lyrics by heart, and reads Us Weekly. Cory, however, isn’t gay–he’s just sensitive. This distinction becomes a problem for him once he enters the dating world, since his touchy-feely side rubs his potential romantic partners the long way. Across seven episodes, we follow Cory’s search for love, a journey assisted by his platonic female roommate Layla (Tessa Drake).

The first of those episodes paints us a picture of the relationship Cory and Layla have with each other. Their on-screen partnership works, as do so many other successful web series pairings, because of the chemistry between Stonebrook and Drake, who combine to create lots of charming dialogue.

The first two episodes of the series are currently available on the YouTube channel of production company Green Apple 2 Step.

OTHER UNDER-THE-RADAR SERIES TO CHECK OUT

• Theater People. This award winning look at the eccentricities of theater performers just returned for its third season.
• LAblocks. Two Angelenos break down individual LA street corners in fast-paced, witty videos.
• Stay Gold. This entire channel is dedicated to Golden Girls, which it often mashes up with other series.
• Bored of Education. Three teachers figure out the best ways to check out during working hours.

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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At Stream Con NYC, Vimeo CEO Kerry Trainor sat down with StreamDaily’s Darah Hansen to discuss his company’s pay-to-view platform, Vimeo On Demand. One of the more interesting takeaways from the conversation concerned Oscar’s Hotel for Fantastical Creatures, a series created by YouTube star PJ Liguori that arrived on Vimeo On Demand on September 15th. According to Trainor, Oscar’s Hotel set a “single-day sales record for Vimeo On Demand,” while netting its creative team a sizeable amount of revenue in the process.

Liguori, who is known for the videos he shares on his KickThePJ YouTube channel, teamed up with production company New Form Digital to create Oscar’s Hotel. The series follows a young man named Oliver who must interact with the monstrous patrons of a colorful hotel; it boasted not just Liguori’s involvement but also a cast filled with YouTube stars, whose devoted fans certainly contributed to the series’ record-breaking sales figures.

It’s not surprising to learn how well Oscar’s Hotel sold; after all, feature films led by YouTube stars have performed well on VOD platforms. If anything, the series’ success has convinced Vimeo to broker more deals with online video content creators.  

The new YouTube Red platform stands in the way of Vimeo’s plans, but Trainor isn’t worried about the launch of the $9.99-per-month service, or the premium content that will be contained within it. Instead, he believes Vimeo On Demand has several perks–including full price controls for creators and a generous revenue split–that YouTube Red cannot match. “We’re going to be investing a lot more in those creators, and bringing them a lot more to Vimeo and Vimeo On Demand,” he said, “and showing the value of charging for their work.”

Filed under: Articles, Featured, News, Stream Con NYC, Vimeo, Web Series by Sam Gutelle
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A year ago, the online video and book publishing industries barely knew each other. Then, in November 2014, British YouTube star Zoe Sugg released Girl Online, and a new trend was born. Sugg’s novel was an instant hit, and its success has set off a wave of books authored by digital media celebrities.

One company that has benefited from this trend is Keywords Press, a Simon & Schuster imprint that focuses on the online-video-content-creator-to-published-author pipeline. During a panel at Stream Con NYC, three Keywords Press employees–Ariele Fredman, Jhanteigh Kupihea, and Jackie Jou–and Natalie Novak of talent agency UTA (which is partnered with Keywords) discussed the ways they have streamlined a process that combines an old media format with new media stars.

As Novak explained, creators have led the charge into the publishing world as they look to expand to new platforms. “There was a want for more talent to write books as we explored more opportunities out there for them,” she said. While a number of publishers have emerged as partners for these creators, Keywords is particularly well-suited for the task, given its ability to turn out books at the sort of speed fast-paced YouTube stars crave. While most projects take between 9 and 15 months to go from pitch to publication, Kupihea said her team has cut that process down to as few as four months.

It’s not Keywords Press’ speed, however, that is turning heads. To put it bluntly, the money is talking. Books written by digital media celebrities are selling terrifically; Kupihea said that most of the half-dozen books Keywords has published have become New York Times bestsellers. As a result, people in the publishing world who previously thought little of the online video world are now turning their heads. “We’ve seen some hesitancy, but we’re breaking down those walls,” said Fredman. “We’re showing people that print isn’t dead.” She noted that young readers are now requesting Connor Franta’s book in libraries and reading Girl Online for book clubs.

Why are these books selling so well? Novak suggested fans view them as a piece of memorabilia.  When you read the writing of someone you admire, she said, “you’re feeling a part of this person.”

The fact that Keywords is driving so many sales bodes well for the future of the digital media celebrity/book publisher partnership. “We’re able to show the success of past sales to further propel upcoming books,” said Novak. This isn’t a trend that’s going away any time soon, so we’re bound to see several more titles written by YouTube stars in the near future

Filed under: Articles, Featured, News, Studios by Sam Gutelle
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Fandango has a new brand personality. The movie ticketing company has created the fictional character Miles Mouvay, portrayed by Saturday Night Live’s Kenan Thompson, and will develop original videos and commercials featuring him.

Created in partnership with ad agency Stun Creative, Mouvay has quite the cinematic origin story, which ties in well to Fandango’s current We Love Movies marketing campaign and corresponding I Love Movies web series. Mouvay was born in a movie theater, but didn’t end up leaving it until his mother was done watching her movie. Thompson will play Mouvay in 18 videos, eight 30-second commercials, and a few comedic skits.

Adam Rockmore, Fandango’s SVP and Head of Marketing and Communications, told StreamDaily the goal behind Mouvay and the personality’s back story was to portray the company’s passion for movies. “Kenan has a really loveable quality to him,” Rockmore said. “From his smile, his laugh, the way he really gets into character. We knew he was going to resonate with that 18 to 45 group.”

Rockmore also explained how Fandango has been working to up its original content production to provide ticket buyers with something to engage with on a year-round basis. In addition to the I Love Movies series, Fandango also launched the Movieclips Mini Movies, where characters based on the movie Minions comment on classic film scenes from Fandango’s licensed movie content network MOVIECLIPS, which it purchased from Zefr in April 2014. All these and other original series have paid off; according to Rockmore, ticket sales are up 58% compared to 2014 (the exec didn’t provide exact dollar figures).

You can check out all of Fandango’s current and upcoming originals on its official YouTube channel or newly-updated app.

Filed under: Articles, Fandango, News by Bree Brouwer
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On October 21, 2015, YouTube announced the upcoming launch of its $10-per-month subscription service YouTube Red. Within the week leading up to the service’s official launch, YouTube had to do a lot of damage control to address both legitimate concerns (like the now-debunked rumor Red wouldn’t pay creators during the free trial month) and misunderstood problems video creators and fans had with the service’s proposed terms.

Now, YouTube superstar Felix Kjellberg (aka PewDiePie) has taken to a blog post to share his thoughts on Red, and the real problem he thinks YouTube fans need to be focusing on instead of the $10 monthly cost of Red: ad blockers.

The 26-year-old Swedish gamer, who now boasts over 40 million subscribers on his channel and adds roughly 18,000 new subs per day, first points out to his readers the important fact that YouTube doesn’t make any notable profit, even though it generates revenue from ads and is part of the ad powerhouse Google. Based on YouTube’s lack of positive ad revenue in 2014, Kjellberg says the reason Red exists is to help YouTube turn a real profit. But then PewDiePie digs deeper into the argument most people have against paying $10-a-month for YouTube Red: Why they should pay for something they can get for free using an ad-blocking program?

Kjellberg shares a Twitter poll he conducted where 40% of the respondents said they used an ad-blocking program of some sort to watch his content. The Swede says he verified this number with his own Google stats and notes it’s much higher than the 15-20% of ad-blocking viewers he had when he first started creating YouTube videos. While Kjellberg claims he’s fine with people using ad blockers on his channel because ads are annoying (and because if rumors are to be believed, he makes enough money to not have to worry about any revenue loss), the YouTube star points out how losing out on 40% of ad revenue can be devastating to smaller channels trying to make it big.

And that’s where YouTube Red comes in. Kjellberg writes, “I think what many people still don’t realize is that… YouTube Red exist[s] largely as an effort to counter Adblock… YouTube Red exist[s] because using Adblock has actual consequences.” PewDiePie also calls out viewers who use ad blockers to try to avoid paying for the content they enjoy, saying “using Adblock doesn’t mean you’re clever and above the system.”

Kjellberg wraps up his post by voicing concerns about how much money Red will actually be able to pump out to creators, especially the smaller channels (though fellow YouTube celebrity Hank Green seems to think it’ll be better for these up-and-coming creators). But in the end, PewDiePie warns his readers they need to be more worried about the effect ad blockers have on smaller channels than the way fans’ bank accounts will be slimmer each month because of Red.

Filed under: Articles, News, PewDiePie, YouTube Red by Bree Brouwer
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At Stream Con NYC, which takes place between October 30th and November 1st at New York City’s Javits Center, several of the world’s most popular online video stars are in attendance. At the same time, the convention is playing host to creators who run smaller operations on sites like YouTube, Vine, Instagram, and Snapchat. These creators may not have millions of subscribers or instantly recognizable faces, but they have plenty of other qualities going for them. For brands, partnering with these “emerging” channels can be good business, as we learned during a Friday afternoon panel at Stream Con.

The three creators who sat on the panel in question–beauty guru Camille Johnson, comedian Lauren Giraldo, and vlogger Jordan Doww–all run mid-sized operations on YouTube. They were joined by Adam Hendle; Hendle is the General Manager of FameBit, a digital marketplace that connects content creators to relevant brands.

One clear advantage of partnerships with emerging creators, from a brand’s perspective, is a relative cost-effectiveness. Both Johnson and Hendle cited Social Bluebook, a website that allows users to measure the monetary worth of personal brands. Naturally, the size of a specific creator’s social media reach affects the Bluebook’s estimate. Therefore, partnerships with emerging channels are likely to cost less than those based around multi-million subscriber operations.

What they lack in raw numbers, the emerging creators make up for in terms of engagement. “They have very strong mid-sized audiences that are super valuable,” said Hendle of his creative panelmates, “you don’t need to have a six-figure budget to [work with digital influencers].” Added Doww, “I always engage with my followers. Each video I post, everyone’s in a conversation with me, so people tend to listen to what I’m saying.”

Brands looking to take advantage of this highly-engaged audience must make sure they sponsor content that fits in with each individual creator’s voice. Both Doww and Giraldo stressed the importance of branded videos that feel “organic.” Those videos fit into the close relationship between creators and their fans, and they make for good business, too. Doww said he is less concerned with financials “if it’s a brand I like or I can help.”

YouTube is such a powerful marketing tool because it fosters close connections between videomakers and viewers, and no creators better exemplify that than the emerging class. They’re “not viewed as celebrities,” said Hendle, so the audience “views you more on their level.” Replied Doww, “that’s why I love YouTube.”

Filed under: Articles, FameBit, Featured, News, Stream Con NYC by Sam Gutelle
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Each year, around Halloween, YouTube creators unleash a furious barrage of themed videos, and each year, we pick out a few of our favorites. The end of October is the perfect time for all videos scary, horrific, and occult, and as per usual, the YouTube community’s 2015 selection is a mixed bag. Reach into it–you never know what sort of spooky secrets you’ll pull out.

7. “100 Years of Halloween Costumes in 3 Minutes” by Mode

Mode Media’s 100 Years… series of historical lookbooks is the channel’s most popular series, and Halloween provided the lifestyle media brand a perfect opportunity to look at the past ten decades of costumes. Watch with your own eyes as a simple, warty witch get-up turns into an indulgent Papermag-style Kim Kardashian look.

6. “The Genius of Michael Jackson’s Thriller” by Wisecrack

The music video for “Thriller” is an all-time Halloween classic, and Wisecrack, best known for its Thug Notes series, has taken viewers inside the iconic track and the best-selling album that surrounds it. Pay attention as Thug Notes host Sparky Sweets describes the musical precursors who influenced the King of Pop and explains how he managed to deftly blend white and black cultures in a single album.

5. “Can Microbes Solve Murder Mysteries?” by Gross Science

PBS Digital Studios turned Halloween into a network-wide event by producing several videos related to the subject of death. The best one, from Gross Science (which launched earlier this year) talks about the role microbial bacteria play in the world of forensics. It’s thematically relevant, timely, AND educational.

4. “DIY Halloween Pin-a-thon” by ThreadBanger

ThreadBanger always does a great job with Halloween costumes and crafts, and this year is no different; in a special episode of the Man vs. Pin web series, host Rob Czar tries out some homemade decorations. He also drops a reference to one of the greatest pieces of writing ever.

3. “In-Camera Ghost Effect” by RocketJump Film School

RocketJump is known for its elaborate special effects, but in a Halloween video on its secondary channel, its filmmakers teach viewers how to create one of the oldest analog effects in the business: Pepper’s Ghost. It’s a delightfully simple trick, and an easy way to create some ghostly magic.

2. “The House That Gave Sucky Treats” by Homestar Runner

Given its long-term hiatus, Homestar Runner makes our headlines just about every time it drops a new video. This time, the classic web series has taken on a fitting theme, with noted e-mail recipient Strong Bad describing his ideal haunted house. The best part of Homestar Runner’s Halloween videos are the costumes its characters wear, and this year’s video features an amusing array, including Strong Mad as a TiVo box.

1. “Five Nights In Freddy’s In Real Life” by Devinsupertramp

The jump scare-filled video game Five Nights at Freddy’s is extra-relevant around this time of year, and adventurous filmmaker Devinsupertramp has celebrated it with a real-life recreation filmed in 360-degrees. Viewers are invited to look around an abandoned funplex as Bonnie the animatronic bunny stalks a kid who was dumb enough to stick around after closing time. The video is an accurate adaptation of the game that inspired it, a brilliant application of the new 360-degree format, and, of course, a perfect topper for our list of Halloween hits.

Do you have a favorite Halloween video we didn’t include? Let us know in the comments and check out previous Countdowns here.

Filed under: Articles, Countdown, Featured, News, YouTube by Sam Gutelle
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One of the Internet’s most iconic pups has passed away. Tillman, who became an online sensation after a video of him riding a skateboard went viral on YouTube, died from a heart muscle disease on October 27th. He was 10.

The announcement of Tillman’s death came from his owner, Ron Davis, who shared the news with the Ventura County Star.

Tillman rose to prominence in 2007, when a video called “Skateboarding Dog” arrived on YouTube. With his jowls flapping in the wind and his short legs kicking him into action, he was impossible not to like. The video’s popularity–it has received more than 21 million views to date–supports this hypothesis.

Later ventures for Tillman included an iPhone commercial and a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records. He also left an unusual legacy within our industry; thanks to his popularity, the phrase “dogs on skateboards” entered the online video lexicon as a blanket term to describe all the cute and funny user-generated videos that live alongside premium, polished content on YouTube. Some writers and speakers eventually evolved the phrase to “cats on skateboards,” even though there are not very many skateboarding cats on YouTube, and certainly none as famous as Tillman.

Therefore, in order to honor Tillman, I can think of a appropriate tribute: From now on, marketers, writers, and executives are not allowed to use the phrase “cats on skateboards” to describe the breadth of amateur videos on YouTube. If they must resort to such a broad generalization, the least they can do is pay Tillman his due respects.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, News by Sam Gutelle
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Endemol Beyond is taking one of its most popular web series to South America. The YouTube multi-channel network launched the Brazilian version of Legends of Gaming on October 29, 2015.

Originally created by Endemol as a UK-based series based in 2014, Legends of Gaming is an eSports video game competition show where various YouTubers square off to see who will be the ultimate gaming champion. On October 7, Endemol launched the U.S. iteration of Legends of Gaming with host Toby Turner alongside the debut of its new gaming, eSports, and sports network SMASHER.

Now, the multi-channel network has brought the Legends of Gaming property to the largest country in South America. The Brazilian version of the series will feature 16 of the country’s gamers, who combined boast 25 million subscribers, competing for a chance to win $50,000 Brazilian Real and a trip to the UK. Legends of Gaming Brasil is hosted by local YouTuber and gamer Felipe Castanhari (aka Canal Nostalgia), who claims 4.6 million subscribers on his channel.

Here’s a complete list of the contestants on Legends of Gaming Brasil:

Marco Tulio (AuthenticGames)

Eduardo (BRKsEdu)

Lucas and Rosane (Casal de Nerd)

Leon (Coisa de Nerd)

Guilherme (Damianizando)

Allan (ElectronicDesireGE)

Guilherme (FunkyBlackCat)

Andrei (Spok)

Guilherme (mateiformiga)

Lucas (T33dy)

Thiago (TerrorBionic)

Gabriel Vilhena (Vilhena)

João Paulo (Patife)

Leonardo (Zigueira)

Guilherme (PhoenixBR)

Julio Cocielo (CanalCanalha)

“This is the first time we have locally produced an Endemol Beyond digital format on YouTube in Brazil,” said Vanessa Oliveira, Director of Endemol Beyond Brazil, in a release. “Using Endemol Shine’s global expertise in the creation and production of digital content, we can share the culture and experiences from some of the best gamers in the world. Above all, this project reaffirms YouTube as a great entertainment platform.”

“We are very excited that this is the first channel to be solely produced by Endemol Beyond Brazil,” added Juliana Algañaraz, Endemol’s Director of Business Development in Latin America. “We hope to replicate the project in other countries in Latin America in the near future.”

New episodes of Legends of Gaming Brazil will be released every Tuesday and Thursday on the series’ dedicated YouTube channel.

Filed under: Articles, Endemol Beyond, News, Web Series by Bree Brouwer
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On December 4th, Amazon Studios will begin its foray into American movie theaters. On that day, according to Deadline, it will release Chi-raq, a Spike Lee Joint that will see a limited theatrical release before ultimately emerging on Amazon’s streaming video service.

Chi-raq, which Amazon picked up in July 2015, will retell the classic Greek play Lysistrata within Chicago’s infamously dangerous South Side. A star-studded cast includes Samuel L. Jackson, Teyronnah Parris, John Cusack, Wesley Snipes, Nick Cannon, Angela Bassett, Jennifer Hudson and D.B. Sweeney.

This will be Lee’s second film in a row to utilize an unconventional release strategy. His last picture, Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus, was funded by a $1.4 million Kickstarter push and distributed via Vimeo On Demand before coming to theaters.

Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate will handle Chi-raq’s theatrical distribution, and Deadline says the film will come to most major US cities. In its limited run, it may not be a box office smash, but Amazon surely has other goals in mind. Just as Netflix has brought eyeballs to Idris Elba film Beasts of No Nation by promptly making it available online, Amazon can bring viewers to Chi-raq by distributing it on the Amazon Instant Video platform.

However, Amazon’s strategy is at least slightly different from Netflix’s, because it seems as if Chi-raq will be a theatrical exclusive for some period of time before it becomes available online. While the film’s December 4th release date is now public knowledge, Amazon has not yet said when it will arrive online.

Filed under: Articles, Celebrity, Channels, Featured, News by Sam Gutelle
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