[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 entertainment entities remained in the top spot.
Chart Toppers
WWE is still not letting go of its U.S. YouTube title belt. The online video repository of clips and highlights from World Wrestling Entertainment events maintained its hold on the #1 spot on the chart this week, netting nearly 95.9 million views. In a distant second is FunToyzCollector (aka the channel previously known as DisneyCollectorBR). The anonymous channel featuring a pair of adult hands playing with playing with children’s toys was down 1% on the week to end it with more than 86.1 million views.
Up next in the #3 spot is Taylor Swift. The pop star’s YouTube viewership stayed almost constant this week as her channel received more than 82.2 million views. In fourth place is BuzzFeedVideo. The main YouTube destination of the popular social website full of animated GIFs, irreverent quizzes, listicles, and actual news ended the week down 2% and just over of 81.9 million views.
And rounding out the Top 5 is The Ellen Show. The YouTube home of Ellen DeGeneres’ eponymous daytime talk show was up 69% in views on the week to top out at more than 81.9 million of them.
Top Gainers
The honor of one of our Top Gainers in the U.S. this week goes to Star Wars.
The final trailer for the next installment of the Star Wars franchise hit the internet on October 19, 2015. Unsurprisingly, the web (and the actors in the movie) went wild and watched the two-minute-and-35-second video a collective tens of millions of times. That one upload helped the Star Wars YouTube channel to a 1,773% week-over-week increase in views, almost 34.2 million views on the week and the #33 spot on the U.S. chart.
Channel Distribution
The top 50 most viewed U.S. YouTube channels this week amassed a total of 2,215,850,887 views. Here’s the distribution of a few of those channels by multi-channel network:
VEVO: 18 channels in the U.S. Top 50, with Taylor Swift the highest-ranked channel of the network at #3.
Maker Studios: 4 channels in the Top 50, with DisneyCarToys at #9.
BuzzFeed, Fullscreen, MovieClips, OhMyGenius: 2 channels each in the Top 50, with BuzzFeed’s BuzzFeed Video at #4, Fullscreen’s FamilyFunPack at #7, Movieclips’ Movieclips Trailers at #23, and OhMyGenius’ Kids Channel at #36.
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.
When Stream Con NYC takes over the Javits Center in Manhattan on Halloween weekend, a select group of brands and stars will huddle away from the Industy Summit and its stellar speakers, the Creator Camp and its burgeoning talent, and the other ongoings at the event and its crowds for Creatorland, an intimate invitation-only series of discussions we’ve helped to facilitate about how marketers and talent come together in the new world of digital content.
Presented by OgilvyOne and Victorious (the mobile platform that powers superfan communities for Ryan Higa, The Young Turks, Lele Pons, and more of today’s burgeoning and biggest creators), the purpose of Creatorland is to help break down the walls between brands and creators by providing a relaxing and safe environment for the collaboration, ideation, and the exploration of opportunities offered by the new content marketplace.
“When OgilvyOne launched the Advanced Video Practice, we were the first large agency to formally address the ‘YouTube era’,” said Robert Davis, the practice’s Founder and current Executive Director of Content & Social at OgilvyOne. “From the beginning, we’ve understood that the draw for brands is not just online stars but the highly engaged audiences they’ve developed and the interactions that take place between them. Creatorland at Stream Con is a collaborative opportunity to further explore the possibilities of this new world.”
OgilvyOne’s Advanced Video Practice started way back in 2008, shortly after YouTube itself first started welcome advertisers to the platform. “The first breakthrough projects from the practice came in 2008 and 2009, with work for IBM and Nestle brands leading the way,” Davis explained. “At that time, our focus was on YouTube channel strategies and customer engagement videos with business value beyond the viral view. One of our earliest strategic projects was the 2009 Raisinets YouTube channel and Nestle Crunch’s Apolo Ohno video series.”
Since then, the Advanced Video Practice has widened its scope of work. “Today, we work across the spectrum of owned, earned, and paid channels helping clients achieve maximum ROI from video content,” Davis said. That includes conceiving of and executing on dynamic campaigns with the aforementioned IBM, British Airways, and a laundry list of other brand names known around the globe.
OgilvyOne’s early dedication to digital media, its position within the advertising industry (as it’s a division of Ogilvy & Mather, one of the largest marketing communications companies in the world), and its established and continued interest in working with and learning from those who understand this new paradigm of digital entertainment are just a few of the reasons we’re incredibly excited about Creatorland.
When we first conceived of Stream Con NYC at Tubefilter, we wanted to leverage New York City’s inherent status as the advertising and marketing capital of the world to foster conversations and relationships between advertising executives, brands, and talent. We wanted to build an event that would enable interaction between fans and stars, and also between those stars and opportunities in advertising, marketing, publishing, licensing, and other kinds of businesses endemic to NYC.
We’re very thankful for OgilvyOne and Victorious for bringing this vision from conversation intro reality. We’re excited to refine the process and open up the opportunity to more creators in future Stream Con NYCs to come.
[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 an old chart-topper is still in the top spot.
Chart Toppers
The international market for Turkish music videos showed no signs of slowing down this week. netd müzik, a YouTube channel and YouTube network for Turkish-language music, maintained its top spot on the worldwide chart with nearly 111.5 million views. That was more than enough to stay ahead of LittleBabyBum. The online video repository of all the songs you remember from around the same time you learned object permanence received almost 97.7 million views on the week.
WWE was up 3% in views and maintained its third place spot. The YouTube home for World Wrestling Entertainment scored just about 95.9 million views during the week. ItsBabyBigMouth is still up next in fourth place. The Canadian YouTube channel all about the toys and possible choking hazards inside Kinder Surprise Eggs closed out the week with more than 91 million views.
And rounding out the Top 5 is, once again, mashamedvedtv. The YouTube home of an apparently very popular Russian children’s cartoon was up 4% in views to end the week with almost 90.7 million of them.
Top Gainers
The honor of one of our Top Gainers this week goes to The Ellen Show.
The YouTube home of Ellen DeGeneres‘ eponymous, syndicated daytime talk show had a great week on YouTube, all thanks to Adam Levine and his new 3-year-old girlfriend. Mia was recorded by her mom Emily having a little bit of breakdown after hearing The Voice star and judge was married. The video went viral on YouTube, so DeGeneres decided to orchestrate a meeting between Mia and Levine on her show. The clip of the encounter quickly racked up an eight-figure viewcount on YouTube and helped The Ellen Show‘s channel to a 69% week-over-week increase in views, more than 81.9 million views on the week, and the #10 spot on the worldwide chart.
Distribution
All in all, the top 50 most viewed YouTube channels accounted for 2,949,198,971 views last week. Here’s the distribution of a few of those channels by multi-channel network:
Vevo: 9 channels in the Top 50, with Taylor Swift at #8.
Maker Studios: 5 channels in the Top 50, with DisneyCarToys at #17.
AIR, BuzzFeed, Fullscreen, Machinima, XMediaDigital: 2 channels each in the Top 50, with AIR’s Miss Katy at #36, BuzzFeed’s BuzzFeed Video at #9, Fullscreen’s FamilyFunPack,at #13, Machinima’s VanossGaming at #34, and XMediaDigital’smashamedvedtv at #5.
And here’s the distribution of the this week’s Top 50 YouTube channels by country of origin:
United States: 25 channels in the Top 50.
Canada, Great Britain: 4 channels each in the Top 50.
India, Russia, Thailand, Ukraine: 2 channels each in the Top 50.
Argentina, 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.
Every once in a while, a series comes along that nails the “single-shot” serving size of web comedy. One of the more recent examples takes us to the shores of Cape Cod, whereThe Other Kennedys spend their summers.
The titular characters in The Other Kennedys are a pair of uber-bougie brothers, played by series creators James Coker and Marshall Stratton, who are distant relatives of the Kennedy family. In order to get in touch with their famous clan, they travel to Cape Cod and express their whiteness as best they can. They argue about croquet, perfect their golf swings, and skip rocks. Episodes rarely last for more than a minute, and some are as short as a couple lines. Even so, the two Kennedys end up emerging as expertly rendered characters. They’re a pair of Wes Anderson wannabes with lots of summertime ennui in their lives and a dash of US history thrown in for good measure.
The Other Kennedys premiered earlier this year to some fanfare, and it’s not hard to see why. This isn’t a particular complex web series, but it’s very well done, and the ten minutes you spend watching it will be a ten minutes well spent. Plus, as Coker told Splitsider, a second season is in the works, so we have that to look forward to as well.
OTHER UNDER-THE-RADAR SERIES TO CHECK OUT
S-Band. A cheerful teacher tries to pass on his positive attitude to his less-than-enthused students.
The LifeSavers. Two unlikely friends banter while on the clock as EMTs.
Power Couple. A husband-and-wife duo terrorize their employees at a charity organization.
Tour Japan. Treasures of the Land of the Rising Sun are revealed.
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.
Rooster Teeth is getting fans pumped up for the third season of its ultra-popular anime web series. The Austin-based production company dropped the trailer for RWBY: Volume 3, which is set to debut on October 24, 2015.
RWBY: Volume 3 will follow the main characters and monster-huntresses-in-training Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang as they compete to win glory for their school Beacon Academy in the Vytal Festival Tournament. The Volume 3 trailer reveals plenty of intense and fast-paced fights in the massive arena (a new set revealed at RTX 2015) where the four young women take on rival students. But the new RWBY trailer also hints at something sinister brewing underneath all the excitement of the festival.
Rooster Teeth will release the first episode of RWBY: Volume 3 for paying sponsors on roosterteeth.com and the company’s app on October 24. The episode will be available to the public starting October 25. New RWBY: Volume 3 episodes will be released each week on Saturdays for sponsors and Sundays for the public, with a break on November 7 for Rooster Teeth’s 2015 Extra Life charity live stream.
YouTube is starting to become more of a factor in its parent company’s financial growth. In its Q3 earnings call for 2015, Google’s own newly-formed parent company Alphabet emphasized the role YouTube played in helping the internet giant grow its revenue 13% year-over-year to hit $18.7 billion.
During the call, Google CEO Sundar Pichai shed more light on why and how YouTube has been so instrumental to Google’s recent growth, citing the online video site’s ability to help consumers make purchasing decisions as a prime factor. “People turn to YouTube and they want to research, buy or fix a product,” Pichai said, according to Wired. “For example, mobile watch time for apparel videos has doubled this year and videos about toys have also doubled.” Pichai also noted how YouTube’s new shopping ads will only help propel the video site forward as a retail destination.
While YouTube was vital to Google’s Q3 success, mobile search was the main driving force behind the company’s revenue (much like it was in Q2). Pichai said Google increased its mobile advertising revenue this quarter, thanks to Google’s DoubleClick programmatic technology. The number of ads served through that service to YouTube and other mobile platforms increased 3.5 times over Q3 2014’s numbers.
“Our Q3 results show the strength of Google’s business, particularly in mobile search,” said Ruth Porat, CFO of Alphabet and Google, in a release. “With six products now having more than 1 billion users globally, we’re excited about the opportunities ahead of Google, and across Alphabet.”
You can check out all the specific financials of Google’s Q3 2015 report here.
On October 21st, YouTube announced YouTube Red, a premium subscription service that offers ad-free viewing, offline playback, and access to an upcoming library of original programming created by members of the YouTube community. Upon its launch, YouTube Red has inspired a mountain of responses from various media publications, many of which have raised concerns about the new service.
Some of the concerns are valid, but there have also been many articles that have drawn up faux controversies that aren’t based on the facts of YouTube Red. In particular, I’ve noticed at least seven different “myths” pop up in recent articles about it. Let’s go over those myths, one at a time, and debunk them:
Myth 1: YouTube Red is YouTube’s Netflix Competitor
Several outlets have looked to compare YouTube Red to Netflix. Fortune took the comparison the furthest, writing “Google wants to compete with Netflix—and Hulu and HBO Go and Comcast’s Watchable—as well as Spotify and Apple Music and Pandora, all at the same time.”
On the surface, this comparison has merit. Both streaming services require a subscription, and both are using the promise of original content to attract new users. The basic prices are even the same; YouTube Red and Netflix’s most popular plan both cost $9.99.
But that’s where the comparisons end. Netflix is a disruptive service and an indispensable tool in the cord-cutter arsenal. YouTube Red, on the other hand, won ‘t help you replace your cable subscription in any way, because YouTube doesn’t have the licenses for TV shows from major networks or movies from major studios–nor does it seem interested in acquiring them. Instead, the YouTube Red original content will come from the online video industry’s creative community, so it’s more accurate to think of the new service as a way for YouTube to upsell its most dedicated users by promising them an exclusive content tier.
If Netflix only produced original content, perhaps YouTube Red could be thought of as a competitor. But that’s not the case, so it’s time to chill on all the “next Netflix” talk.
Myth 2: YouTube Red will replace YouTube’s ad-supported offering
At this point, most people seem to understand that YouTube Red will not replace the video site’s ad-supported offering, but there have still been some misleadingheadlines. The Christian Science Monitor termed the new service a pivot, which implies that YouTube will move away from the ad model that has become its bread-and-butter.
There are many reasons why ad-supported YouTube won’t go away, but to put it simply, TrueView ads have galvanized the video site’s growth over the past decade. “If you look at media over time, most of them have both ads and subscription services,” said YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki a year ago, when she first hinted at the possibility of a premium subscription offering. “YouTube right now is ad-supported, which is great because it has enabled us to scale to a billion users, but there’s going to be a point where people don’t want to see the ads.”
If YouTube ever moved away from its ad-supported model, it would lose millions of users in the process. I can’t imagine a realistic situation where that sort of change makes sense.
Myth 3: YouTube Red is a bad deal for creators, and they’ve only signed up for it because they’ve been strong-armed by YouTube
We’ll spend more time delving into the financial side of YouTube Red in an upcoming post, but the bottom line is that the service’s economics look good for creators. At the very least, creators will see no change. In that worst-case scenario, none of their current viewers will sign up for YouTube Red, and as a result, advertising rates will stay exactly the same.
If viewers do sign up for YouTube Red, though, they become what YouTube Chief Business Officer Robert Kyncl calls “high value” users. “Advertisers tell us what a user’s eyeballs are worth,” he said at the press event where YouTube Red was announced. “Now, it’s the user, voting with their pocket, telling us what their eyeballs are worth.”
To translate this out of business speak, we turn to Hank Green, who posted a recent video discussing YouTube Red. He considers a hypothetical YouTube super-user who watches two hours of video on the site each day. Give the current state of YouTube ad rates, that user will only generate about two or three dollars in revenue each month. If that user signs up for YouTube Red, however, he generates $9.99 per month. And since Kyncl has stated YouTube is sharing the “vast majority” of its subscription revenue with creators, YouTube Red has the potential to make creators a lot more money than they could ever make off ads.
Myth 4: YouTube Red only benefits the top 1% of the YouTube ecosystem. The rich get richer.
Shortly after the announcement of YouTube Red, Gizmodo pulled a couple of tweets from established YouTubers, which it gathered under the headline “YouTubers Are Up In Arms About YouTube Red.” That’s a bit of an overstatement, since there are YouTubers (like Green) who see YouTube Red as a beneficial service. I want to focus, however, on tweet in particular from a YouTube gamer with more than 800,000 subscribers, Jesse Cox:
So far, this is all we know about YouTube Red. 1. Horrible name. 2. The rich get richer 3. No one knows what it means for other 99% of YT.
Sorry, Jesse. I think your videos are hilarious, but I disagree with you here.
I can certainly see why he would be worried. After all, the creators who will release original programs on YouTube Red all come from the site’s upper echelon. But Green talked about this issue, too, and he suggests YouTube Red might actually be more beneficial for the minnows of the YouTube ecosystem. The reasoning, as he puts it, is that smaller channels could have a larger percentage of dedicated fans who will be willing to pay for the new service, and as we’ve already established, more viewers who are YouTube Red subscribers = more revenue for creators. Subscription revenue from YouTube Red will be divvied up based on watch time for individual channels, so it is possible for everyone to benefit, so long as they can get eyeballs on their videos.
Myth 5: Major channels will become unavailable once YouTube Red launches
This is a myth with some truth to it, since many channels run by ESPN have already been turned private thanks to rights issues stemming from the launch of YouTube Red. Don’t expect many other channels to go dark, though. Kyncl has admitted that his team still has contracts to negotiate, but 99% of YouTube’s creative partners are on board, and Kyncl hopes the others will soon follow suit. “We’re still in the final sprint,” he said.
Myth 6: YouTube Red will fail because YouTube viewers don’t want to pay for content
This is a viewpoint that hasn’t been trafficked much, but it’s certainly worth talking about. In 2013, the last time YouTube tried to launch a paid subscription service, the results were lackluster. That effort, however, was mostly based around traditional media companies, while this one is more focused on the homegrown YouTube community.
Online video stars have displayed their ability to drive a tremendous amount of revenue based around premium content; take, for example, the success of films like Camp Takota and Expelled, which used the appeal of digital star power to generate strong returns. The stars aligned with YouTube Red have enough influence to drive thousands of subscriptions, and that can’t be said for most of the channel owners YouTube tried to sell in 2013.
Myth 7: YouTube Red? You mean like RedTube?
No, YouTube Red isn’t a porn site. Apparently, based on answers from YouTube’s VP of Product Management, Matthew Glotzbach during a press Q&A, the word and/or color “red” is already associated with YouTube and also supposed to make consumers think of glamorous and exclusive red things, such as a “red carpet” or “red velvet rope.” But hey, who are we kidding? You’re going to keep making the RedTube jokes, aren’t you? Go right ahead.
Netflix has gifted the internet with a new peek at one of its highly-anticipated series. The streaming video-on-demand platform dropped the official trailer for Marvel’s Jessica Jones on October 23, 2015.
Based on the early-2000s Marvel comic book series Alias by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos, Jessica Jones features Krysten Ritter as the titular character who’s working as a private investigator and trying to hide from the horrors of her superhero past. The two-minutes-30-seconds clip is reminiscent of the dark Daredevil trailer and shows a haunted Jones dealing with the psychological aftermath of her days being mind-controlled by Kilgrave (played by David Tennant). But when the villain shows up again in her life, Jones must work to take him down.
The official Jessica Jones trailer certainly boasts a darker tone than that of the two teasers Netflix previously released for the upcoming series. The new trailer also introduces viewers to Jones’s friend and eventual love interest Luke Cage (played by Mike Colter), who will boast his own Netflix show in the future. Fans should start to see more and more connections between all of Netflix’s Marvel series, as the streaming giant has plans to release Iron Fist and then The Defenders, all of which were shot in the characters’ native New York City thanks to a $200 million, year-long production.
Jessica Jones is executive produced by Melissa Rosenberg (Dexter), Liz Friedman (Elementary), and Marvel TV lead Jeph Loeb (Daredevil, S.H.I.E.L.D.). All 13 episodes of the first season of Jessica Jones arrive on Netflix on November 20, 2015.
Vice, which began as a magazine and eventually evolved into a digital media destination that encompasses multiple verticals, is moving along with its plan to step into the world of TV. The alternative news company led by CEO Shane Smith will launch an American TV channel, as well as a dozen additional channels across Europe, during the next 12 to 18 months.
Smith discussed his company’s overseas plans in a Guardian article that arrived on the day of Smith’s presentation at the UK version of the Digital Content Newfronts. “There is a bit of a bidding war going on,” he said. “In the UK there are potentially a number of partners. There are lots of deals on the table. It’s pretty fast and furious.”
On our side of the pond, Vice seems firmly linked to A&E, which owns a 10% stake in it. The understood plan calls for A&E to rebrand its H2 channel around Vice, which will stock its new hub with the sort of edgy programming it has become known for. During his most recent presentation at the American Newfronts, Smith teased a few programs–including celebrity-driven shows hosted by the likes of Ellen Page and Marc Maron–that appear to be part of this TV programming slate.
When discussing his company’s programming plans, Smith said Vice is building its TV library “kind of secretly,” though he did tell The Guardian that 32 different shows have been developed. We’re hoping to receive more details once Smith takes the stage at Vice’s UK Newfronts presentation on October 23rd. And while we wait for Vice to get its own TV channel, it still has plenty of content on the tube; specifically, it has a large presence on HBO, led by its half-hour news program.
Sandi Crystal Ball has joined the ranks of YouTubers to release their own game. The 26-year-old YouTuber, who runs the channel CutePolish and boasts over 2.5 million subscribers, launched her free mobile video game Polish Blast on October 23, 2015.
Developed by Red Piston, Polish Blast is a tile-matching puzzle mobile game (a la Candy Crush Saga), where players have to match at least three nail polish bottles of the same shape and color in order to level up. The mobile game boasts 140 levels, five different game modes, and Facebook connectivity so users can easily compete with their friends. Available for iOS and Android, Polish Blast also features a cartoon version and voice of Ball instructing gamers on how to play.
Ball, who’s partnered with StyleHaul and recently signed a content deal with Michelle Phan’s ICON Network, said in a video how Polish Blast is “the perfect combination of both of my favorite things,” which are (of course) nail polish and video games. The YouTuber and polish expert also explained in a release how she wanted to make Polish Blast “as cute, colorful, and magical as possible.” “But what I wanted it to be most of all? Fun. You’re seriously going to have a blast playing it!” Ball said.
So far, fans have responded positively to Ball’s game, tweeting pictures of their gameplay using the hashtag #PolishBlast:
Over the last few years, Joe Sugg (aka ThatcherJoe) has risen the ranks of YouTube stardom. The 24-year-old British vlogger and gamer originally trained to be a roof thatcher (hence his threechannels all starting with the word thatcher). But Sugg then delved into the world of YouTube in late 2011, quickly amassed an audience, and caught the bug (much like his older sister Zoe – aka Zoella – who’s a digital superstar herself).
Now, Sugg boasts over 8.8 million subscribers across his three channels thanks to his crazy antics, infectious personality, and ability to mimic celebrities nearly spot-on. The ex-thatcher who still has roofing skills has used his YouTube stardom to break out into other industries, as well. Sugg published his first book, a graphic novel called Username: Evie, in September 2015. The British vlogger also partnered with fellow digital star and best friend Caspar Lee to start the production company Raucous Productions in early October.
Sugg will make an appearance at Stream Con NYC from October 30-31. Before he hits the Big Apple, we sat down with Sugg to talk to him about his graphic novel and his future plans with Lee and Raucous Productions.
Tubefilter: What has been your favorite part about writing a book? And what’s been the most frustrating or difficult?
Joe Sugg: My favourite part of creating the graphic novel was seeing my visions come to life and seeing the development of Evie’s character throughout the story. The most difficult part was trying to cram all my ideas into one book. I could have made the story a lot longer but there’s always the possibility to make more in the series.
TF: Why did you decide to write a graphic novel as opposed to a more traditional book format?
JS: I decided to go with a graphic novel because growing up I’ve always been into cartoons and a more visual way of reading. I used to read comics a lot as a kid and then got into graphic novels during the end of my high school days and I love getting lost in fictional world/story so felt this was the perfect choice for me.
TF: On a separate note, why did you and Caspar Lee want to start your own production company? What are your hopes for this endeavor?
JS:Caspar and I decided to start Raucous Productions because he’s one of my best mates, we are both creative and love working and hanging out together. We always have so many ideas for new original content on different platforms so we decided to start Raucous Productions to bring our viewers extra entertainment. We’re currently in the stage of planning our future projects together and prioritising which ones to share with our audiences first. It’s all very exciting!
TF: What can we expect to see from you in 2016?
AS: I think 2016 will be even crazier for me than last year! I would love to carry on the graphic novels and make Evie go on another adventure. Caspar and I will also be working on a lot of stuff together with Raucous Productions – but most importantly I’ll still be making my usual videos across my three channels. Without those channels and loyal subscribers I wouldn’t be able to any of these cool things with my friends so I think it’s key that I keep those channels as entertaining as possible.
Back in May 2014, entertainment company and film studio The Weinstein Company, along with its book publishing division Weinstein Books, announced it would turn the YouTube channel and web series The Haunting of Sunshine Girl into the formats of book and television, the former of which is already well underway. The first publication of a planned trilogy, written by Sunshine Girl star Paige McKenzie along withAlyssa Sheinmel, was released on March 24, 2015, by Weinstein Books, the book publishing division of the larger entertainment brand.
So, how did a YouTube channel with a few hundred thousand subscribers get involved with one of the best-known entertainment entities in Hollywood and end up on bookshelves? According to Georgina Levitt, Publishing Director at Weinstein Books, her company knew exactly what it was looking at when a literary agent originally pitched a book series based on The Haunting of Sunshine Girl. Being a part of a larger multi-media company means Weinstein Books is often well-aware of popular content and trends in spaces beyond traditional publishing, like online video and blogs.
“We were familiar with the Haunting of Sunshine Girl YouTube channel and the success it had had,” Levitt explained in an interview with Tubefilter, referencing the web series’ more than 124 million total views to date. “We were very impressed with the author, and all the creators, and their social media platforms, and the way they marketed and promoted their content.”
Levitt explained how The Weinstein Company considers books “an important” component of its business. Published works are often the source of film or television programming and can lay the foundation for a very successful franchise in a number of mediums. Levitt noted the content for The Haunting of Sunshine Girl book series was especially strong, giving credit to McKenzie and the other Sunshine Girl creators Nick Hagen and Mercedes Rose, who were all involved “100%, every step of the way” with the book, its development, and its marketing.
Weinstein Books started to work on The Haunting of Sunshine Girl series just ahead of the wave of YouTubers looking to become authors. “This was slightly before the onslaught of a lot of YouTubers moving into the book space,” Levitt explained. “We thought it was an amazing opportunity, and it was unique at the time that a work of fiction would be inspired by a YouTube channel,” as opposed to the memoires and how-to publications we’ve seen from a lot of other prominent online video personalities.
“To have this YouTube channel that was then going to be a fictional, young adult series of paranormal books was rare, unique, and sort of unheard of at the time. For us, it really stood out as being special,” Levitt explained. The publishing director said it was an easy decision to purchase publishing rights, and also get Weinstein Company owners and brothers Bob and Harvey Weinstein on board with a television adaptation. The move was the first time both the Weinstein book and film branches had simultaneously picked up a title for new projects in their respective departments.
In terms of the content in the The Haunting of Sunshine Girl book series, Levitt believes the story is creative and broad enough to attract new readers while also satisfying pre-existing fans of the web series. “It takes the basic concept of a mother and her daughter living in a haunted house and really expands it from there,” Levitt explained. “It takes it into a whole paranormal world and universe with a lot of layered mythology.” Readers are introduced to 16-year-old Sunshine Griffith and follow her story as she finds out she is a member of an ancient super-human race and starts to figure out what that means for the future of the humanity. The book can, according to Levitt, “stand on its own” for those unfamiliar with the web series, but Sunshine Girl will also provide “really interesting twists and turns” with the characters, setting, and story previous fans have come to know and love.
Levitt will be hosting a panel at Stream Con NYC on October 30 to discuss more about Weinstein’s acquisition and development of The Haunting of the Sunshine Girl book series. You can purchase tickets to the event here. The second The Haunting of Sunshine Girl book, called The Awakening of Sunshine Girl, is due out in March 2016.
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.
