YouTube is moving forward with its upcoming paid subscription service. The Google-owned online video site recently sent an email to creators asking them to accept an updated YouTube partner agreement by October 22, 2015 in order to be included in the program. If creators don’t agree to the new agreement, they risk losing the ability to monetize their videos within the United States. 

YouTube’s latest email again confirms the site will launch an ad-free viewing experience in the near future, possibly before the end of the year. YouTube claims it’s implementing the alternative way to consume content on its platform because that’s what fans have been asking for. The letter explains online video viewers have told YouTube for some time they want an “option to watch their favorite videos uninterrupted.” That may be accurate, but the timing of YouTube’s initial announcement of the new viewing experience could also lead individuals to believe the Google-owned online video site is also responding to new subscription players in the market. Jason Kilar’s Vessel is a relatively new addition to the online video fray, charging viewers a modest $2.99 monthly fee for early access to programming from some top-name creators. And Fullscreen just officially announced its own subscription service, set to launch in the not-so-distant future, too. 

YouTube states the ad-free viewing option will “create a new source of revenue over time” to supplement content creators’ current revenue generated from TrueView, pre-roll, display, and other advertising mechanisms currently available on YouTube (which have all seen a very sharp increase in their value over the past couple of years). If that’s true, it should appease creators who were reluctant to sign up for the paid tier program for fear of missing out on ad revenue.

However, YouTube’s email and corresponding FAQ page also made it clear creators who don’t join the subscription service will lose monetization capabilities on their videos within the United States. YouTube writes creators who “need more time to review and accept these [updated partner agreement] terms” won’t be able to run ads on their videos. These creators can choose to re-enable monetization in their account settings, but it’s unclear if this action will require their compliance with the updated terms or if it will allow creators to keep monetizing their videos on the free version of YouTube.

Here’s the email creators received from YouTube about the new partner agreement for their individual channels:

Dear YouTube Channel,

For years, YouTube’s fans have been telling us they want more—more choice when watching their favorite content, more ways to support their favorite creators and, above all, the option to watch their favorite videos uninterrupted.

To give fans more choice we will be launching a new ads-free version of YouTube, available to fans for a monthly fee. This service will create a new source of revenue over time that supplements your advertising revenue. That’s why an overwhelming majority of our partners — representing over 95% of YouTube watchtime — have asked for and signed up for this service.

As you heard in our previous emails, we want to ensure that fans who choose to pay for an ads-free experience can watch all the same videos that are available on the ads-supported experience. That’s why we’re asking you to update your agreement to reflect the updated terms for the ads-free service.

To accept, simply log into YouTube.com from a desktop or laptop and follow the prompts by October 22nd.

If you haven’t signed by that date, your videos will no longer be available for monetization in the United States. Of course, at any time, you can decide to re-enable monetization by navigating to your Account Features page. Common FAQs can be found here.

We believe these new terms will greatly strengthen our partnership for the future. We went through a similar process three years ago when we began distributing and monetizing your content on mobile devices. Today, mobile represents over half of all watchtime and mobile revenue is up 2x in just the last year. Just as with mobile, we’re confident this latest update will excite your fans and generate a previously untapped, additional source of revenue for you.

If you have questions or encounter technical difficulties, we’re here to help: reach out to us for support here.

The YouTube Team

No pricing has been announced for the ad-free, paid YouTube subscription service as of yet. YouTube is still working on lining up as many channels and content partners as possible, so fans can choose to watch the same content with or without ads. In July 2015, Google’s online video platform originally had about 90% of its creators signed up with the subscription service. YouTube now claims a massive portion of creators, who account for 95% of watch time on the site, are on board.

Filed under: Uncategorized by Bree Brouwer
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If you are not one of the 40 million people who subscribe to the YouTube channel of Swedish gamer Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg, you may not know that his video game, PewDiePie: Legend of the Brofist, has arrived on the App Store and Google Play. The side-scrolling adventure allows gamers to play as PewDiePie, and as expected, his fans have eaten it up. In two days, it has reached the top spot on the iTunes App Store’s list of the most popular paid apps.

Legend of the Brofist, which PewDiePie previewed earlier in 2015, was developed by Canadian studio Outerminds. It follows PewDiePie and his gamer friends as they track down a villain who has kidnapped PewDiePie’s fans in hopes of acquiring the titular brofist. Beyond PewDiePie, YouTube stars who contribute their voices and likenesses to the game include Markiplier, CutiePieMarzia, and jacksepticeye. They can all be heard in a new preview of the game PewDiePie offered on his YouTube channel.

The game’s rise up the App Store charts should not surprise anyone familiar with the passion of PewDiePie’s “bros,” but the numbers are still kind of shocking. On the paid charts, Legend of the Brofist is measured against other apps that require a fee to download. Most of the other apps on the list cost between $1-3. Legend of the Brofist, on the other hand, retails for $4.99, but despite that comparatively hefty price tag, it is still outselling everything else.

Legends of the Brofist’s big debut wraps up a strong week for PewDiePie. A day earlier, we learned the popular Swede will appear on the October 1st episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Perhaps he’ll convince Stephen to give his game a spin.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, News, PewDiePie by Sam Gutelle
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Woven Digital and American Honda have a new original series aimed at millennial music fans. The two companies teamed up to launch Uncharted: Power of Dreams on Woven’s UPROXX site and its digital outlets on September 24, 2015.

Uncharted is a web series which introduces viewers to up-and-coming or undiscovered musicians no one’s heard of yet. Each episode will feature a new artist, with the debut episode highlighting Los Angeles-based hip-hop artist A-F-R-O. Uncharted was created as part of Honda’s Music Stage program, which boasts its own (but not yet well-watched) YouTube channel for behind-the-scenes music content.

“Partnering with Woven Digital to launch Uncharted is a great opportunity to amplify the reach of Honda Stage while sharing the powerful stories of young artists pursuing their dreams,” said Tom Peyton, AVP of Marketing for American Honda Motor Co., in a release. “A deep appreciation for music has been a common thread between Honda and our customers for decades now, and pairing that with the power of artists pursuing their dreams and how their musical journey has positively affected their lives and those around them is incredibly moving and important to share.”

“Having a personal passion for music, popular culture and just strong storytelling in general, I’m really proud of our Uncharted journey with young, undiscovered artists from all genres,” added Jarret Myer, GM of Publishing at Woven. “Working with Honda, a brand that has had a historical impact on and mutual affinity for music, allows us to tell a story in a meaningful way, striking a chord with the UPROXX audience.”

In addition to Uncharted, UPROXX has launched several other web series over the last few months. Its first original content Luminaries arrived in January 2015. In March, UPROXX released the satirical daily news show The Desk.

You can watch the first episode, plus all future episodes, of Uncharted: Power of Dreams on UPROXX, its Facebook page, or its YouTube channel starting September 24.

Filed under: Articles, Branded Entertainment, Channels, News, Production Companies by Bree Brouwer
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AOL’s video department has lost one of its top executives. President of AOL Video and Studios Dermot McCormack has left the digital media publisher and online video brand.

McCormack’s departure comes less than a year after the executive joined AOL in October 2014. The former AOL video president is also leaving the company only a few months after it was acquired by Verizon. McCormack oversaw both AOL’s original content studios as well as the video syndication platform AOL On. However, as AOL Chief Executive Tim Armstrong told the Wall Street Journal, the company has slowly decentralized its video initiatives to its various properties, like The Huffington Post and TechCrunch. Armstrong said McCormack’s role had become a third of what it was back in October, and the overall change “was a very natural progression.”

When Variety contacted AOL for comment, a rep simply said, “We thank Dermot for his many contributions to AOL and wish him all the best in his next endeavor.”

Prior to AOL, McCormack worked for six years at Viacom Music and Logo Group’s Connected Content Group, which included overseeing digital projects for brands like MTV and VH1. McCormack also worked as SVP of Interactive Product Management at Cablevision Systems.

McCormack is only one example of an executive to recently exit a high-level online video company. Erin McPherson and Jeremy Welt left Maker Studios in late August 2015. More recently, Endemol Beyond’s Will Keenan joined the live streaming startup Streamup after leaving Endemol in August.

Filed under: Articles, Channels, News by Bree Brouwer
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ESPN’s 30 for 30 series is great. The Worldwide Leader in Sports’ documentary program, which covers a wide range of sporting topics, has earned Emmy, Peaboy, and Streamy nominations. 30 for 30 has been such a big success that ESPN’s competitors are looking to put their own spins on its formula. Specifically, Sports Illustrated has now launched the first two of six planned films that will explore intriguing sports topics in a high-quality documentary format.

Sports Illustrated’s documentary series, known as SI Films, was previously teased at a Newfronts presentation hosted by the publication’s parent company, Time Inc. The six films will follow 30 for 30’s lead by offering a wide variety. The first two entries, for example, are very different. One “Brett Favre in Autumn,” follows the former quarterback through his post-NFL days. Meanwhile, for those of us who are still sick of the media circus Favre generated with his infamous string of retirement announcements, SI Films has offered “Goals, Goons, and Garbage,” which profiles a now-defunct hockey team called the Danbury Trashers.

The SI Films series is available via a landing page on the Sports Illustrated website. There, viewers can also access several other videos produced by the 61-year-old sports magazine.

“With changing consumption habits, especially among millennials, and the plethora of popular distribution outlets at hand, there are limitless opportunities to offer an independent voice and quality video programming,” said Sports Illustrated group editor Paul Fichtenbaum. “Sports Illustrated Films aims to capitalize on all of that.”

Sports Illustrated is legendary for the high quality of its reportage, so for sports fans, it’s a safe bet that the videos in the SI Films series will be worth watching. Check back in the coming months to catch new installments as they arrive.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, News, Sports Illustrated by Sam Gutelle
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Lifestyle vlogger Meg DeAngelis is one of YouTube’s rising stars. Recently, we learned that she would extend her reach beyond YouTube by starring in a feature film produced by YouTube and AwesomenessTV. Now, she has struck a deal with a popular retailer as well. PBTeen–the teen-focused retailer derived from Williams-Sonoma’s Pottery Barn brand, has announced a product line created by DeAngelis.

The product line includes furniture, bedding, rugs, lighting, decorative accessories, and wall décor, according to a press release. It continues a partnership between PBTeen and DeAngelis that began with Revved Up Rooms, a six-episode home decor web series sponsored by the retailer, led by the YouTube star, and distributed by AwesomenessTV.

“I’ve always loved finding ways to make any space feel like my own,” said DeAngelis in the press release. “It’s an absolute dream to partner with PBteen and work together on this line.  I can’t wait for my viewers to have some fun decorating their own rooms with pieces from this collection!”

When it launches, MayBaby by Meg DeAngelis for PBTeen will be available in PBTeen stores around the country and on the retailer’s website. Prices will vary widely depending on the item, with some items selling for $18.50 and others running as high as $1,299.

Filed under: Articles, Channels, Featured, News by Sam Gutelle
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Awestruck has a new partnership with a well-known celebrity. AwesomenessTV’s upcoming lifestyle network aimed at millennial moms signed a digital content deal with Cinestar, the production company founded by actress Zoe Saldana and her sisters Mariel and Cisely.

Known for her work in Star Trek and Guardians of the Galaxy, Saldana will executive produce scripted and unscripted programming along with her two sisters for Awestruck. Content from Saldana’s Cinestar company will appear on all Awestruck distribution platforms, including YouTube, Facebook, and Verizon’s upcoming Go90 mobile service.The three Saldana siblings will also develop the Cinestar YouTube channel for Awestruck’s network.

“Zoe epitomizes the talent we are seeking for Awestruck. She marries a strong creative vision and an existing fan base with the experience of being a new mom,” said Sarah Penna, new mom and Head of Awestruck, in a release. “We are thrilled that Zoe, Mariel, and Cisely will be making their first foray as online creators with Awestruck.”

“With modern moms on-the-go and online, the opportunity to create content specifically for them is exciting,” added Zoe Saldana, who’s no stranger to online video. “The team behind Awestruck has already proven their expertise in reaching young audiences with AwesomenessTV, and we are thrilled to partner with them to collaborate on this new promising venture.”

Awestruck was originally announced in April 2015. At the time, no release date was announced for the network, which will boast female-centric scripted and unscripted programming featuring both digital stars and traditional celebrities. Now, AwesomenessTV expects to release Awestruck sometime in the fall of 2015.

Filed under: Articles, AwesomenessTV, News by Bree Brouwer
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At first glance, Ophir “Kutiman” Kutiel and Samantha “Princess” Shaw seem to have little in common. Kutiel is an Israeli musician and composer; Shaw is a nurse who lives in New Orleans. Despite these disparate backgrounds, Kutiel and Shaw’s paths crossed in 2014 when Kutiel included a clip of Shaw in a mashup video he created for YouTube. This unlikely partnership is the main story within Thru You Princess, a documentary that made its North American premiere on September 12th at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Shaw has a passion for singing and a strong, soulful voice, and in 2013, she started posting videos of herself on YouTube. A year later, Kutiel plumbed the depths of YouTube to find musicians who he could fit together to form coherent songs. Many pages into his search, he found one of Shaw’s clips. “When I found Princess,” he tells Wired, “it was just magic.”

Shaw’s voice ended up becoming the centerpiece of “Give It Up,” one of seven tracks from Kutiel’s 2014 release Thru You Too. The album is a follow-up to 2009’s Thru You, which gained attention from the media surrounding its release. Thru You Too, like its predecessor, received international press coverage, and “Give It Up” emerged as the album’s most popular song. Shaw gained a significant boost as a result; she went from total YouTube anonymity to more than 68,000 views. That total is a drop in the bucket for today’s top-tier YouTube stars, but for Shaw, who has now shared her passion with many new viewers, it is a significant amount.

The story of these two strange bedfellows caught the attention of Israeli filmmaker Ido Haar. Thru You Princess is Haar’s 80-minute profile of Kutiel and Shaw, who during the course of the film meet in real life for the first time. The film has received a warm reception from the media since its premiere, with MTV calling it “a total delight.” An article about the film from Wired includes a clip:

Beyond its status as a heartwarming tale of two people who unexpectedly managed to enrich each other’s creative pursuits, Thru You Princess is also a reminder of YouTube’s power as a great unifier. No matter who you are, you can find an audience, so long as you display your talent and get some good fortune along the way. If you’d like to check out the film, you can see it at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam, which runs from November 18-29.

Filed under: Articles, Channels, Featured, News by Sam Gutelle
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Netflix (and its CCO Ted Sarandos in particular) is notably dismissive of ratings, to the point where it has been known to withhold viewership numbers from the showrunners of its own original programs. At the same time, Netflix is happy to share data about one of its best-known viewing innovations: Binge-watching. In a report shared by Variety, Netflix takes particular shows and, for each one, reveals the episode at which the average viewer decides it is time to binge watch an entire season.

For each show it measured, Netflix revealed the point at which 70% of viewers stuck around for the whole season. This point varied significantly depending on the show. For Breaking Bad, the second episode serves as the binge-watching event horizon. For How I Met Your Mother, it takes until episode eight to reach that point.

Here, via Variety, are the binge-watching tipping points for the 25 shows Netflix measured.

• “Arrow”* – Episode 8

• “Bates Motel” – Episode 2

• “Better Call Saul”* – Episode 4

• “Bloodline” – Episode 4

• “BoJack Horseman” – Episode 5

• “Breaking Bad”* – Episode 2

• “Daredevil” – Episode 5

• “Dexter”* – Episode 3

• “Gossip Girl” – Episode 3

• “Grace & Frankie” – Episode 4

• “How I Met Your Mother” – Episode 8

• “House of Cards”* – Episode 3

• “Mad Men”* – Episode 6

• “Marco Polo” – Episode 3

• “Orange Is the New Black” – Episode 3

• “Once Upon A Time” – Episode 6

• “Pretty Little Liars” – Episode 4

• “Scandal” – Episode 2

• “Sense8″* – Episode 3

• “Sons of Anarchy”* – Episode 2

• “Suits”* – Episode 2

• “The Blacklist”* – Episode 6

• “The Killing” – Episode 2

• “The Walking Dead”* – Episode 2

• “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” – Episode 4

* Denotes series that are not currently available in all Netflix territories.

You may notice that it takes at least until episode two for any of these shows to suck in the majority of viewers. Some outlets have taken this to mean that the pilot, long thought of as the critical point for grabbing viewer attention, may not be as important as it seems.

If anything, though, Netflix’s data only affirms the importance of the pilot. Since at least 30% of all Netflix viewers are giving up on shows after the first episode, it is very important to hook them right from the start, in order to keep that initial percentage as low as possible. The reason Breaking Bad hooks people from the second episode isn’t because the second episode is so good – it’s because the pilot is so good, and therefore the retained viewership must be much closer to the 70% benchmark than, say, with How I Met Your Mother.

It would be very interesting to see how this data correlates with viewership numbers. For example, does How I Met Your Mother have fewer Netflix viewers than Bates Motel because it takes viewers six more episodes to get hooked? This is an interesting question, though we won’t get it from Netflix. As I mentioned earlier, the streaming video on-demand platform refuses to reveal its viewership numbers.

So, in the meantime, all we can do is speculate. Binge watching may be an important innovation, one that successfully entices viewers to watch more TV. In the end, though, the pilot is still king. Get viewers interested early, and they won’t stop watching.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Netflix, News by Sam Gutelle
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Lele Pons has a new mobile destination for fans. On September 24, 2015, the most-looped Vine star of all time launched her Official Lele Pons app using Victorious, the mobile platform which builds superfan and community-based apps for digital creators.

As the first Viner to use Victorious, Pons created her mobile app as a go-to hub for all her offline and retail projects. The Vine star, who boasts over 9.4 million followers and more than 6.9 billion loops, will also use her app to debut exclusive mobile programming and host fan-created content. To celebrate the launch of the Official Lele Pons app, the Vine creator is hosting a giveaway dubbed #firstfan for the most-engaged user on her app on its release date.

“There isn’t a place we can all be together and create different kinds of content 24/7. It’s about giving my fans somewhere to go between videos, and connecting with them,” Pons said in a release. “My fans enjoy the content I create, but I want to see all the funny things they make, and give them a positive space to make friends with each other. These features were really important to me when I built my app.”

Pons isn’t the first digital star to release a personal brand app using Victorious. YouTuber Ryan Higa and digital news network The Young Turks were some of the first creators on board with the mobile app platform. More recent networks and YouTube stars to use Victorious to release apps were Lilly Singh (aka IISuperwomanII), Machinima, and FailArmy.

You can download the Official Lele Pons app from the iTunes Store or Google Play.

Filed under: Articles, Celebrity, News, Victorious by Bree Brouwer
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When Stephen Colbert’s guests arrive on stage, the Late Show host usually greets them with a handshake or embrace. On October 1st, Colbert might want to opt for a bro-fist instead. On that day, he will welcome YouTube star Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg as one of his Late Show guests.

We can’t say for sure what Colbert and PewDiePie will talk about, but there are plenty of relevant topics they could potentially cover. Recently, one of Colbert’s competitors in the late night arena, Jimmy Kimmel, caused a stir when he poked fun at current trends like ‘Let’s Play’ videos and Twitch streams. After receiving backlash from his viewers, he invited YouTube gamers Markiplier and MissesMae onto his show to instruct him about the world of gaming videos. PewDiePie, who is known for his own Let’s Play videos, could give Colbert his own late night video game lesson.

YouTube’s creative community also had another recent moment in the spotlight on late night TV. In August, James Corden, whose Late Late Show follows Colbert’s Late Show on CBS, came to YouTube Space LA to film an entire episode dedicated to YouTube and its homegrown stars.

We praised Corden’s YouTube episode for the host’s respectful-yet-humorous interactions with his guests. Colbert, who has already positioned his Late Show as a place where even the most controversial guests can freely speak their minds, would be wise to adopt a similar tone with PewDiePie, whose histrionic style has made him one of YouTube’s most polarizing stars. No matter what approach Colbert chooses, though, many views are bound to follow. PewDiePie has nearly 40 million subscribers, and you can bet a big portion of those “bros” will tune in to see their man make his late night debut.

Filed under: Articles, Channels, Featured, News, PewDiePie by Sam Gutelle
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Welcome to the Fund This column! Each week, we’ll look at a planned web series or other online video project currently in search of funding on crowdfunding sites. We’ll tell you what the series is all about and explain why it is worth your money. Do you have a project that’s currently being crowdfunded? Contact us to let us know and we may feature it in upcoming installments and check out previous installments right here.

Project Name: Easy Abby

Asking For: $10,000 on Indiegogo

Amount Raised Thus Far (At Time Of Post): $860

Days Remaining In Campaign (At Time Of Post): 33

Description: Easy Abby lays out its premise right in the title. The central character is a lesbian named Abby, and she’s easy. When we first heard about Wendy Jo Carlton‘s web series way back in 2012, Carlton described it as “lesbian Nurse Jackie, but instead of being addicted to the pain pills, she needs to have random sex to calm down and make herself feel better.”

A lot has happened to Easy Abby since we first heard about it. With some help from Indiegogo, Carlton was able to create an entire first season of Easy Abby, and it was a hit, garnering millions of views.

Now, Carlton (and Abby) are back for more, and once again, they’re turning to Indiegogo for help. Should Carlton raise the $10,000 she seeks, she will launch a second season of Easy Abby, which, as she puts it, will “offer new storylines about getting the travel bug, how to deal with anxiety disorders, and the secrets of female orgasm!”

Creator Bio: In addition to Easy Abby, Carlton, who is based in Chicago, has helmed a number of other projects within the LGBT community. A 2011 film, Jessie and Jamie Are Not Together, received praise from local media.

Best Perk: Backers who kick in at least $50 will receive a pair of underwear. It’s a perk that fits Easy Abby‘s sexy-but-casual vibe.

Why You Should Fund It: Easy Abby has changed a lot since we first heard about it three years ago, but its themes have remained constant. At its core it is simply trying to explore the life of its lesbian protagonist without coming off as overly glamorous, melodramatic, or stilted. More than any other quality, Easy Abby possesses a down-to-earth mood, at that is one of its great strengths.

While a lot has changed for LGBT persons since Easy Abby‘s first run, mainstream media still has a tendency to sensationalize LGBT characters and their situations. If you need proof of this, you only need to read reviews for the disastrous new movie Stonewall. While Hollywood often misrepresents the LGBT community, independent filmmakers show it as it truly is, and Easy Abby is one of the best examples of that trend.

Got a crowdfunding campaign you’d like to see featured in Fund This? Be sure to contact us here.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Fund This, Indiegogo, News, Web Series by Sam Gutelle
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