[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 U.S. YouTube Channels and Justin Bieber is as popular as ever.

Chart Toppers

Justin Bieber maintained his spot on the top of the U.S. chart for the seventh week in a row thanks to the apparently undying popularity of the music video releases associated with his latest studio album Purpose. Fans of Bieber’s music around the globe viewed videos on his channel to the tune of nearly 220 million times during the week. WWE is in the #2 spot. The YouTube home for all things video from World Wrestling Entertainment shot up 54% in views to tap out at more than 122.3 million views on the week.

In third place is Ryan ToysReview. The biggest family-friendly toy and unboxing channel in the U.S. opened up more than 119.2 million views during the week. FamilyFunPack is up next in the #4 spot. The familial exploits of this American household of seven closed out the week with more than 111.1 million views.

And rounding out the Top 5 once again is FunToyzCollector. The channel formerly known as DisneyCollectorBR that arguably started this whole toy unboxing trend shot up 30% to top out at more than 95.2 million views in the week.

Top Gainers

The honor of one of our Top Gainers in the U.S. this week goes to 20th Century Fox.

The American film studio and distributor’s outpost on YouTube had a great week thanks to a sequel and some 1990s nostalgia. The Official Trailer for Independence Day: Resurgence (the sequel to the 1996 Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum blockbuster) hit the internet and quickly racked up an eight-figure viewcount. The two-minute-and-21-second trailer helped 20th Century Fox’s YouTube channel to a 1,523% week-over-week increase in views, nearly 45.8 million views on the week, and the #24 spot on the worldwide chart.

Channel Distribution

The top 50 most viewed U.S. YouTube channels this week amassed a total of 2,748,862,599 views. Here’s the distribution of a few of those channels by multi-channel network:

• VEVO: 16 channels in the U.S. Top 50, with Justin Bieber the highest-ranked channel of the network at #1.
• Maker Studios, NBCU: 3 channels each in the Top 50, with Maker’s DisneyCarToys at #15 and NBCU’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at #12..
• BuzzFeed, Collective Digital Studio, Movieclips: 2 channels each in the Top 50, with BuzzFeed’s BuzzFeedVideo at #9, Collective’s FamilyFunPack at #4, and Movieclips’ Movieclips Trailers at #16.

As always, keep up to speed with the latest Tubefilter Charts and all of our news at Tubefilter by subscribing to our newsletter,following us on Twitter, becoming a fan on Facebook, and watching our videos on YouTube.

OpenSlate is a video content analytics platform that tracks more than 250,000 YouTube video channels and measures their ability to attract, engage and influence an audience. By providing one consistent measure of quality – the SlateScore™ – OpenSlate helps marketers, producers and agencies hone their online video marketing strategy.

Filed under: Articles, News, Statistics, YouTube, Youtube Chart by Joshua Cohen
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T-Mobile has launched a program aimed at users who hope to save some data, but YouTube believes the new package has come with some shady consequences. According to the Wall Street Journal, the world’s most popular video site has accused the cell phone carrier of throttling its streaming speeds after the release of the latter company’s Binge On service.

Binge On allows subscribers to waive certain data fees in exchange for lower-quality streams. T-Mobile customers who have signed up for Binge On have experienced this expected trade-off, but problems have arisen on the accounts of customers who have not opted into Binge On. According to YouTube, those users are also seeing their streaming speeds reduced, which would seem to violate the doctrine of net neutrality that has long driven a wedge between ISPs and the video sites that use up more than half of all North American downstream bandwidth.

YouTube has not held back its accusations against T-Mobile. “Reducing data charges can be good for users, but it doesn’t justify throttling all video services, especially without explicit user consent,” a YouTube spokesman told the Wall Street Journal.

This is not the first tip a video platform has accused a service provider of throttling its connection. Netflix levied the same charge against Comcast early in 2014, though it eventually gave into the ISPs demands and agreed to pay extra in exchange for smooth service.

The FCC is aware of T-Mobile’s new program and is looking into it. The government agency has sent letters to T-Mobile, Comcast, and AT&T that inquire about the new services the telecom companies are providing.

T-Mobile did not comment on the Wall Street Journal’s report.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, News, T-Mobile, YouTube by Sam Gutelle
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While some analysts believe the cable and satellite TV sector is holding its own, Pew Research has new information which implies otherwise. The research firm’s recent “Home Broadband 2015” study discovered 24% of American adults don’t subscribe to a cable or satellite TV service.

Pew interviewed 2,001 adults aged 18 and over across the 50 States and the District of Columbia for its “Home Broadband 2015” study. Of the 24% of adults who don’t subscribe to cable or TV, 15% of these respondents said this is because they’ve cancelled their service (i.e. they became cord-cutters), while another 9% had never subscribed in the first place (i.e. cord-nevers). A whopping 71% of all study participants said the cost of cable and satellite TV was why they don’t subscribe, and 64% said they prefer to watch content online or via a traditional TV antenna.

According to the study results, Pew found young adults are the most likely candidates for cord-cutting, a phenomenon backed up by other 2015 studies of millennials’ TV-viewing habits. Out of the participating adults aged 18 to 29 in Pew’s study, 19% of them cancelled their satellite or cable subscriptions in 2015. Another 16% were cord-nevers, having never signed up for any sort of pay-TV service before.

Pew’s research echoes that of other firms’ studies over the course of the last year. For starters, MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett found roughly 1.4 million Americans either cancelled or didn’t ever sign up for cable TV in 2014. MoffettNathanson and SNL Kagan later reported pay-TV companies lost record amounts of subscribers in both Q1 and Q2 of 2015. And Forrester Research believes these numbers will continue to decline through the year 2020, where 50% of American adults under the age of 32 won’t pay for cable TV at all.

You can read more about Pew’s methodologies and findings for its “Home Broadband 2015” study on the research firm’s site.

Filed under: Articles, Industry, News by Bree Brouwer
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2015 was another banner year for BuzzFeed. The company known for its viral content received a $200 million investment, upped its reach to encompass more than one billion views per month, and continued to share its impressive insights into the world of data science.

Out of all that output, what were the highlights of BuzzFeed’s year? Its video team has provided some answers. It has come up with a list of the top ten most “impactful” BuzzFeed videos of the year, based on the effects they had on viewers.

The entries that cracked BuzzFeed’s top ten list reinforce some of the principles the company has held close to itself as it continues to grow. Some of the videos, including an exploration of life as an intersex person and a segment where second-generation immigrants discuss their parents, show how BuzzFeed strives to provide content that resonates with specific subcultures that may be underserved on the Internet. The top video is indicative of that mission as well; it supports young LGBT people as they come out to their immigrant parents.

Other videos on the list show BuzzFeed’s knack for branded content. A collaboration with CleanPath ended up as the seventh-most impactful BuzzFeed video of the year, and a texting-and-driving PSA came in tenth.

To see BuzzFeed’s full list, click here.

Filed under: Articles, Buzzfeed, Featured, News by Sam Gutelle
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[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 Justin Bieber is still on top. By a lot.

Chart Toppers

Justin Bieber held onto his #1 spot on the worldwide chart for another week and continued to do so in commanding fashion. The 21-year-old international pop star’s mid-November release of his fourth studio album Purpose and its associated music videos seemingly can’t be played enough by the internet connected masses. Items in the Bieb’s YouTube library were viewed a collective 220 million times during the week. In a still very distant second place is Adele. Th YouTube channel of the British musician who came back from a three-or-so-year hiatus in a very big way scored nearly 128.6 million views in the week.

WWE is next up in the #3 spot. The repository for World Wrestling Entertainment clips and highlights slammed down more than 122.3 million views on the week. Mashamedvedtv is up next in fourth place. The YouTube home of an apparently incredibly popular Russian children’s cartoon closed out the week with almost 119.4 million views.

And rounding out the Top 5 is Ryan ToysReview. The family-friendly channel dedicated to Ryan and his toys racked up nearly 119.3 million views during the seven-day timeframe.

Top Gainers

The honor of one of our Top Gainers this week goes to YouTube.

YouTube Spotlight is YouTube’s owned-and-operated channel on the video-sharing site, where the company posts mostly promotional videos about a variety of the site’s campaigns and initiatives. And as it’s been every year for the past several years, the channel was once again a home for YouTube Rewind, an epic collaboration video meant to highlight some of the site’s biggest trends from the year featuring some of the site’s biggest stars. The 2015 iteration – once again shot and produced by Portal A – featured more than 150 creators and helped YouTube’s Spotlight channel to a 5,451% week-over-week increase in views, more than 68.8 million views on the week, and the #18 spot on the worldwide chart.

Distribution

All in all, the top 50 most viewed YouTube channels accounted for 3,678,997,464 views last week. Here’s the distribution of a few of those channels by multi-channel network:

• Vevo: 10 channels in the Top 50, with Justin Bieber at #1.
• Maker Studios: 4 channels in the Top 50, with TheDiamondMinecart at #23.
• AIR, BuzzFeed, Collective Digital Studio, XMediaDigital: 2 channels each in the Top 50, with AIR’s Miss Katy at #27, BuzzFeed’s BuzzFeed Video at #16, CDS’ FamilyFunPack at #8, and XMediaDigital’s mashamedvedtv at #4.

And here’s the distribution of the this week’s Top 50 YouTube channels by country of origin:

• United States: 23 channels in the Top 50.
• Great Britain: 5 channels in the Top 50.
• Canada, India: 4 channels each in the Top 50.
• Russia, Thailand, Ukraine: 2 channels each in the Top 50.
• Argentina, Denmark, Ireland, Jamaica, Netherlands, Philippines, Sweden, Turkey: 1 channel each in the Top 50.

As always, keep up to speed with the latest Tubefilter Charts and all of our news at Tubefilter by following us on Twitter, becoming a fan on Facebook, and watching our videos on YouTube.

OpenSlate is a video content analytics platform that tracks more than 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.

Filed under: Articles, News, statistics, Statistics, YouTube, Youtube Chart by Joshua Cohen
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Internet users have proven their interest in one of Netflix’s upcoming originals. The trailer for Fuller House, Netflix’s revival of the late ‘80s through early ‘90s ABC show Full House, has just become the most-watched trailer for any of the streaming platform’s original series.

Netflix, which confirmed its production of Fuller House in April 2015, released the upcoming original series’ teaser just five days ago on December 17, 2015. The clip takes viewers back to the show’s iconic Tanner home in San Francisco. In the course of a minute and 15 seconds, the Fuller House teaser provides wide, panning, interior shots of the Victorian establishment’s nearly-untouched kitchen and living room to help fans fondly remember on their days of watching the original ABC series.

That sense of nostalgia apparently struck a chord with internet users, who have collectively watched the Fuller House teaser more than 10.3 million times on Netflix’s U.S. and Canada YouTube channel alone. The teaser beat out Netflix’s previously most-watched trailer, which was Orange Is the New Black’s season two promo (that clip has a total of 9.5 million views since it was uploaded in April 2014. On Facebook, the Fuller House teaser trailer also managed to pull in over 630,000 views, almost 11,000 likes, and more than 18,000 shares.

Fuller House debuts for Netflix subscribers on February 26, 2015. Until then, we’re curious to see how many more views the show’s teaser, future official trailers, and fun extra promos (like this recently-released one) might get.

Filed under: Articles, Fuller House, Netflix, News by Bree Brouwer
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As it establishes itself as the premier multi-channel network dedicated entirely to sports content, Whistle Sports has embraced all sorts of unusual athletic competitions. It has spotlighted everyone from trick shot experts to ultimate frisbee enthusiasts–often at the same time. For its latest partnership, Whistle Sports is joining forces with a company that peddles an unusual sporting competition of its own. It has teamed up with Spartan Race, known for its worldwide series of events that asks participants to negotiate a gauntlet of obstacles.

Through the deal, Spartan Race will become one of Whistle Sports’ content partners and will work with the network to create videos that highlight the Spartan Race courses and profile the athletes who navigate them. These videos will live, among other locations, on the previously-established Spartan Race YouTube channel, which has more than 40,000 subscribers. Here is one of the most prominent videos the channel has featured thus far:

“Through our new partnership with Whistle Sports, we are looking to share the inspiring stories of our Spartan Race athletes,” said Spartan Race CEO Joe De Sena in a press release. “Their experiences of overcoming obstacles show us the power of the human spirit and how fun it can be to test your limits. We want to show how our racers train, eat, and more of the Spartan lifestyle. We are excited to connect our network of racers with the Whistle Sports community and beyond.”

Spartan Race was founded in 2007. More information about its mission can be found on its website.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, News, The Whistle Network by Sam Gutelle
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Cassey Ho is already a well-known personality on YouTube, where she teaches fitness and workout videos to more than 2.6 million subscribers on her channel Blogilates. Now, readers of Health Magazine will become familiar with Ho, as well (if they aren’t already). The 28-year-old vlogger is featured on the cover of Health’s January/February issue, due out on Christmas Day 2015.

Ho, who’s also a serial entrepreneur and founder of brands like Pop Pilates and Bodypop, unsurprisingly looks fit and powerful on the cover of Health. But in an interview for the magazine’s winter issue, Ho reveals how she must constantly deal with the pressure to look good simply based on her choice of career and her constant video shoots. This pressure came to a head in April 2015, when the vlogger responded to body-shamers with a video in which she photoshops her body to perfection, but ends up disappointed with the fake results.

Ho told Health her appearance often overshadows her ten years of teaching experience and the thousands of lives she’s touched. “I feel the pressure to look a certain way every single day,” Ho explained. “And I get it – I am a fitness instructor. But there are some people who think that because I don’t have six-pack abs, I am not a great instructor.”

Despite these social expectations, Ho isn’t afraid to treat herself to unhealthy foods every so often, like French toast sticks topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The fitness vlogger told Health she doesn’t consider these decisions “cheating,” a term which carries negative connotations and can make a person feel bad about breaking their diet and workout routines. Instead, Ho said she follows the “YOLO” philosophy when she feels the urge to splurge.

Ho also suggests comparing yourself to other people is the worst thing you can do, especially when you only look to those who post “perfect” fitness shots on social media. “You should only compare yourself with who you were yesterday and try to be stronger than that,” Ho said. “If you are trying to be someone else, you have already lost yourself. Plus, on Instagram, people post the perfect portfolio of their life; it’s not real. I don’t post myself crying or stuffing my face with burritos.”

You can read more of Ho’s interview on people.com. The physical copy of Health’s issue with Ho’s cover and interview will arrive on newsstands on December 25.

Filed under: Articles, Channels, News by Bree Brouwer
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Netflix might add another drama to its slate of original series. The streaming video-on-demand platform has reportedly picked up the serial killer-themed show Mindhunter, developed by House of Cards director and executive producer David Fincher alongside actress Charlize Theron.

The Mindhunter series is based off the 1996 book Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit by Mark Olshaker and former special agent John E. Douglas. The book tells the backstory of Douglas’ methods for profiling and catching some of the most notorious serial killers, like the Atlanta child murderer and the Seattle Green River Killer Gary Ridgway. Douglas is already a familiar name in the film industry, as various TV and movie characters have been based off him (like Jack Crawford in Silence of the Lambs and Will Graham from Hannibal).

According a report from Deadline, producer Jennifer Orme Erwin originally brought the Mind Hunter book to Theron six years ago. The project was picked up by HBO and Fox 21 with Dexter’s executive producer Scott Buck as scriptwriter, but Mindhunter didn’t move forward until now. Netflix will reportedly produce the series previously optioned by HBO and Fox 21, with Theron and Fincher on board as executive producers. Fincher will likely direct the script written by Sunny Afternoon’s playwright Joe Penhall.

No release date has been announced for Mindhunter as of yet.

Filed under: Articles, Netflix, News by Bree Brouwer
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Despite the fact that it shut down Bill Simmons’ Grantland, ESPN continues to roll out new episodes of 30 for 30, the acclaimed documentary series co-created by Simmons. In fact, the 30 for 30 style is expanding, and one of ESPN’s new video series adopts a similar tenor. Adidas, ESPN Films, and branded media production company Process are behind Pioneers, a trio of short films that explore fascinating figures within the sports world.

Each Pioneers episode runs in the 5-7 minute range and focuses on a particular subject. The first one to see release, The Mark Gonzales Ride, goes inside the psyche of its titular skateboarder. Another, Royal in Hollis, follows the life, career, and community work of former NBA player Royal Ivey. The most stylish of the three shorts, however, is titled The Fosbury Flop. It uses a voice-over narration and a touch of wit to examine Dick Fosbury’s invention of his signature technique, which revolutionized the sport of high jumping.

Like with the 30 for 30 series, Pioneers strives to shed light on interesting stories in the corners of the sports world. “While each of the films is distinctive, they all deal with original thinkers, all people who charted unique paths and live outside conventions and rules,” said Tim Perell, CEO of Process, in a press release.

The three short films were compiled together to form a half-hour TV program that aired on ESPN on December 20th. If you wish to check out the program’s encore performance, tune into ESPN2 at 2 PM EST on December 26th.

Filed under: Articles, Branded Entertainment, ESPN, Featured, News by Sam Gutelle
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Books are, for all intents and purposes, the oldest form of media that still exists, and yet, despite their age, they are suddenly generating strong business. According to data from Nielsen, physical book sales have risen by about 70 million copies over the past two years in the US, and according to some publishers, books written by YouTube stars have been a major factor for that growth.

Nielsen’s data, as shared by Quartz, shows that physical book sales in the US had dwindled to around 500 million in 2013. With the rise of e-readers, some outlets have for years been declaring the physical book as a thing of the past, and the numbers seemed to support those claims.

Don’t tell that to YouTube stars, though. In 2014, book publishing deals became a hot trend in the YouTube community, and, perhaps in correlation with that trend, sales began to rise. They surpassed 559 million copies in 2014 and 571 million this year. Publishers won’t attribute this growth entirely to the efforts of YouTube stars–the rise of adult coloring books and the release of Harper Lee’s new novel also contributed to it–but Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy was sure to tell the Associated Press that the presence of YouTuber-authored books “was [not] a factor before this year.”

Perhaps the most counter-intuitive element within the rise of the YouTube book club is that young online video viewers, who are well-known for their early adoption of new technologies, have purchased physical copies of these titles, not just e-book versions. In fact, the New York Times recently reported that e-book sales are slipping, even as popularity of physical copies continues to surge.

This trend toward books (and away from e-readers) is consistent with the reading habits of online video videos. As UTA agent Natalie Novak explained during a recent panel at StreamCon NYC, fans view these books as a way to feel “a part of” their favorite YouTube stars, and they want to be able to hold a physical copy in their hands. By catalyzing the sale of physical copies, readers are proving Novak’s point and showing analysts that print isn’t dead just yet.

Filed under: Articles, Books, Featured, News by Sam Gutelle
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Dormtainment is well-known in the online video world for creating comedic sketches on their popular YouTube channel, which currently boasts over 900,000 subscribers. But the comedy group, consisting of six best friends Cam, Chaz, Rome, Amanuel, Mike, and Tay, also knows a thing or two about music. In fact, Dormtainment’s most recent album, Broke and Famous 2, landed the #1 spot on the iTunes comedy charts.

Dormtainment, which debuted its own digital special in the summer of 2015, originally released Broke and Famous 2 December 20, 2015. Within 24 hours of its release, the 11-track album skyrocketed to the top of iTunes’ comedy album chart. Dormtainment’s Broke and Famous 2 even passed up albums from iconic comedians like Jim Gaffigan and Brian Regan, as well as Smosh’s recent release Shut Up! And Listen.

For a taste of what listeners are currently obsessed with, check out Dormtainment’s official music video for the Broke and Famous 2 track “Body Roll”:

Broke and Famous 2 is the second full album from Dormtainment over the last three years. The first album, simply titled Broke and Famous, arrived in December 2012 and boasted 15 original tracks, including the comedy group’s previously-released November 2012 single “@$$ on the Internet.” Dormtainment originally broke into the music market with the single “Fart in Front of Me” in January 2011.

You can purchase Broke and Famous 2 via the iTunes Store ($9.99) or Amazon ($8.99).

Filed under: Articles, Channels, News by Bree Brouwer
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