Nearly a year-and-a-half after acquiring Maker Studios, Disney is still figuring out new ways to leverage its relationship with its proprietary digital media network. The latest partnership between the two brands is Disney XD by Maker, a talent search that will combine Maker’s creative partners with Disney’s resources.
The goal of Disney XD by Maker is to find content creators who can produce winning shows to be distributed across Disney XD’s network, which spans digital, mobile, and TV. According to a press release from Disney, “the best of the best may also be developed further into television pilots for Disney XD.” The Disney XD TV channel, which is available in more than 80 million households, is an offshoot of Disney’s primary television hub.
Maker has already announced several partners who will work on projects created specifically for Disney XD by Maker. That group includes gamer CaptainSparklez, Hispanic vloggers Luzu and Lana, and toy unboxer EvanTubeHD. “We’re truly excited to build this bridge between TV and digital in alliance with two of the most respected names from those worlds,” said Jared, the father of EvanTubeHD, in a statement.
Disney XD has worked with digital video stars on previous projects. Earlier this year, it premiered Two More Eggs, a series of short animations engineered by The Brothers Chaps, best known as the creators of the beloved web cartoon Homestar Runner.
The announcement of Disney XD by Maker comes at a critical point in the two companies’ relationship. As Recode recently reported, Disney will deliver its payouts for the Maker deal at the end of the year, and if the payouts result in the departure of top Maker execs, as is rumored to be a possibility, a tighter partnership between the companies could help guide them through an uneven period. We’re looking forward to seeing what projects come out of the Disney XD by Maker initiative–and whether any of them make it to TV.
[Editor’s Note: Tubefilter Charts is a weekly and monthly 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 timeframe. You can check out all of our Tubefilter Charts with new installments every weekby clicking right here.]
It’s time for another monthly installment of our Tubefilter Top 100 Most Viewed YouTube Gaming Channels Chart and a new channel is in the top spot.
Chart Toppers
Felix Kjellberg‘s PewDiePie channel is in the unfamiliar position of being in second place this month. The new reigning champion of gaming on YouTube is TheDiamondMinecart. Great Britain’s (and the world’s) most viewed gaming channel in July saw a massive 23% uptick in views to end the month with almost 402.7 million of them. PewDiePie is behind in a somewhat distant second with nearly 373.1 million views on the month.
PopularMMOs is next up in the #3 spot. The top gaming channel that calls the U.S. home witnessed a modest 5% increase in its view count to score more than 282.4 million views during the month. JackSepticEye is up next in fourth place. The Irish gamer’s view count was up 23% on the month to close out July with more than 257.1 million views.
And rounding out the Top 5 yet again is markiplierGAME. The second U.S.-based gamer in the Top 100 was up 51% in views to top out at nearly 253.5 million views on the month.
Top Gainers
The honor of one of our Top Gainers this month goes to Challenge Accepted Inc. aka Aphmau Gaming aka Aphmau.
The YouTube home of the twenty-something Texan and mother of two whose online handle is Aphmau, but whose friends call her Jess had a great month on YouTube. A steady stream of mostly Minecraft uploads (including a series of roleplay vids) helped Aphmau’s channel to a 275% month-over-month increase in views, almost 45.2 million views in the month, and the #53 spot on the Gaming Chart.
Channel Distribution
The Top 100 Most Viewed YouTube Gaming Channels this month amassed in aggregate a total of 7,318,383,114. Here’s a look at the distribution of those channels broken down by the most-represented YouTube Multi-Channel Networks on the chart:
Maker Studios:25 channels in the Top 100, with TheDiamondMinecart at #1.
Machinima:17 channels in the Top 100, with VanossGaming at #6.
Fullscreen, OmniaMediaCo: 9 channels each in the Top 100, with Fullscreen’s popularmmos at #3 and Omnia Media’s iHasCupquake at #26.
BroadbandTV: 7 channels in the Top 100, fernanfloo at #10.
Divimove: 4 channels in the Top 100, with elrubiusOMG at #8.
IDG, Jetpak, QuizGroup, XMediaDigital, ZoominTV: 2 channels each in the Top 100, with IDG’s Gronkh at #97, Jetpak’s Seananners at #63, QuizGroup’s eeoneguy at #20, XMediaDigital’s TheBrainDit at #32, and ZoominTV’s JackSepticEye at #4.
And here’s a look into the distribution of this month’s Top 100 by country of origin:
United States: 30 channels in the Top 100.
Great Britain: 15 channels in the Top 100.
Spain: 9 channels in the Top 100.
Brazil: 7 channels in the Top 100.
Ukraine: 5 channels in the Top 100.
Canada, Russia: 4 channels each in the Top 100.
Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Japan: 2 channels each in the Top 100.
Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, El Salvador, France, Italy, Romania, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Vietnam:1 channel each in the Top 100.
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.
Tiltify is the first online platform created to allow gamers to crowdfund for the charity of their choice using their favorite games.
Viewers who tuned into MTV’s Video Music Awards on August 30th may have noticed several appearances from Todrick Hall, a YouTube superstar known for his elaborately-choreographed music videos. As companies like Virgin America can attest, Hall is in general a strong creative partner for brands, but his appearances at VMAs served a greater purpose. They acted as promotions for Todrick, his upcoming TV show, which will air its first episode on July 31st at 10 PM EST on MTV.
Todrick, first announced last October, will follow Hall behind-the-scenes as he works with his team of dancers, singers, actors, and crew members to create memorable musical hits. The first video in the spotlight, as revealed in an MTV sneak peek, will be “Who Let The Freaks Out?,” which we can only assume will marry the 2000 Baha Men “Who Let The Dogs Out?” to the sort of pop culture embellishments for which Hall is known.
Connecting his song and dance routine to pop culture has always been Hall’s specialty, and that made him an ideal candidate to contribute to MTV’s VMAs coverage. Before the awards were handed out, Hall performed brief covers of a few songs from the nominees. Here he is belting out Beyonce’s “7/11”:
The only thing left for Hall to prove is that he belongs at the head of his own TV show. In early reviews, publications like The New York Times seem to gravitate toward the 30-year-old Texan’s undeniable charm. You’ll have a chance to formulate your own opinion Monday night at 10.
Vine, in spite of its six-second time limit, has become a valuable tool for musicians looking to produce, remix, and distribute tunes. In order to assist its community of songsters, the Twitter-owned video platform has rolled out a number of new features that enable its users to create, discover, and identify musical tracks.
Vine introduced its new tools in a blog post on a freshly-minted landing page called Music on Vine. Up first is a discovery aid called Featured Tracks, which lets its users search a listing of songs people are using in their Vines. From there, users can add tracks they like into their own Vines.
Another one of the new tools hones in on tracks played within specific Vines. By tapping on a music note icon to the right of a video’s title, users can identify the songs used in that video, Shazam-style. Vine used a six-second video of its own to display this function in action.
The final of the three new features is called “Snap to Beat,” and it provides a selection of backing tracks that users can match up with the music they create within their Vine videos. “They sound like they never end, feel like magic, and are only possible on Vine,” the platform wrote of its backing tracks.
All of these tools will assist the content creators who have chosen Vine as a home for musical expression. In its introductory post, Vine highlighted a number of these creators, including 17-year-old Shawn Mendes, who has gone from a kid making six-second riffs in his home in Ontario to a mainstream star. Music on Vine will assist established musicians like Mendes while also facilitating the rise of a new wave of short-form songmakers.
[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 timeframe. We’re starting things off simply with a Tubefilter Top 50 of the Most Viewed YouTube Chaniframenels This Week, but look for a lot more fun charts to come in the near future. Check out all of our Tubefilter Charts – with new installments every Friday – here.]
Scroll down to see the Tubefilter Chart.
It’s another installment of the weekly Tubefilter Chart of the Top 50 Most Viewed U.S. YouTube Channels and a channel all about an entertainment sporting event remains in the top spot.
Chart Toppers
WWEFanNation is still at the top of the US chart this week. The YouTube home of World Wrestling Entertainment saw a modest 2% uptick in views, but that was enough to push the channel up over the 100-million-views-a-week threshold to top out at nearly 101.9 million views. Despite an 8% dip, BuzzFeedVideo is next up in second place. The main channel of the popular social website known for its listicles and animated GIFs amassed almost 78.1 million views on the week.
Next up in third place is DisneyCollectorBR. The internet’s go-to destination for videos of adults playing with children’s toys was down 4% on the week to bottom out just shy of 75.4 million views. Up next is Taylor Swift. The international country-turned-pop star’s channel’s view count took an 8% hit, but still received almost 65.4 million views.
The honor of one of our Top Gainers in the U.S. this week goes to Disney Music.
Barring any breakout viral hits from other channels, the Disney Music VEVO channel and its collection of music from some of your lesser-known Disney franchises and releases had one of the best week-over-week view count increases on the chart. A music video from the Mouse House’s TV film Descendants featuring Sofia Carson helped to give the channel an 11% uptick in views, more than 40.4 million views on the week, and the #11 spot on the chart.
Channel Distribution
The top 50 most viewed U.S. YouTube channels this week amassed a total of 1,753,019,814 views. Here’s the distribution of a few of those channels by multi-channel network:
VEVO: 13 channels in the U.S. Top 50, with Taylor Swift the highest-ranked channel of the network at at #4.
Maker Studios: 5 channels in the Top 50, with DisneyCarToys at #6.
Fullscreen: 4 channels in the Top 50, with FamilyFunPack at #8.
BuzzFeed, MovieClips: 2 channels each in the Top 50, with BuzzFeed’s BuzzFeed Video at #2 and MovieClips’ MovieClipsTrailers at #12.
OpenSlate is a video content analytics platform that tracks more than 250,000 YouTube video channels and measures their ability to attract, engage and influence an audience. By providing one consistent measure of quality – the SlateScore™ – OpenSlate helps marketers, producers and agencies hone their online video marketing strategy.
[Editor’s Note: Tubefilter Charts is a weekly rankings column from Tubefilter with data provided by OpenSlate. It’s exactly what it sounds like; a top number ranking of YouTube channels based on statistics collected within a given time frame. Check out all of our Tubefilter Charts with new installments every week right here.]
Scroll down for this week’s Tubefilter Chart.
It’s another installment of the weekly Tubefilter Chart of the Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide and wrestling is apparently still a very popular sport.
Chart Toppers
WWEFanNation is back up to occupy the #1 spot on the chart this week. The YouTube home of clips of World Wrestling Entertainment racked up almost 101.9 million views in the seven-day timeframe. In at somewhat distant second place is Littlebabybum. Videos of everyone’s favorite rhymes for infants helped the channel to more than 84.8 million views during the week.
ItsBabyBigMouth jumped up one spot to third place. The Canadian YouTube channel dedicated to surprises inside Kinder Surprise Eggs was down 3% on the week, but still cracked north of 82.8 million views. TheDiamondMinecart is next up in fourth place. The top-ranked gamer on the chart scored just shy of 82.3 million views on the week.
And rounding out the Top 5, once again, is BuzzFeedVideo. The flagship YouTube channel from the incredibly popular site known for listicles, animated GIFs, and hard news took an 8% dip in its view count to end the week with nearly 78.1 million views.
Top Gainers
The honor of one of our Top Gainers this week goes to One Direction.
The YouTube home of the official music videos for the supergroup that’s down one Zayn Malik, but is still four members strong had a very good week on YouTube. One of the first official music videos released by One Direction in a post-Zayne world was uploaded to the web on August 20, 2015 and quickly amassed an eight-figure view count. Drag Me Down helped to give the band’s channel an impressive 199% week-over-week increase in views,53.9 million views on the week, and the #17 spot on the chart.
Distribution
All in all, the top 50 most viewed YouTube channels accounted for 2,461,822,925 views last week. Here’s the distribution of a few of those channels by multi-channel network:
Maker Studios, Vevo: 7 channels each in the Top 50, with Maker Studios’ TheDiamondMinecart at #4 and Vevo’s Taylor Swift at #8.
BroadbandTV, BuzzFeed, Fullscreen, XMediaDigital: 2 channels each in the Top 50, with BroadbandTV’s Major Lazer at #35, BuzzFeed’s BuzzFeed Video at #5, Fullscreen’s FamilyFunPack at #21, XMediaDigital’s mashamedvedtv at #7, and ZoominTV’s JackSepticEye at #15.
And here’s the distribution of the this week’s Top 50 YouTube channels by country of origin:
United States: 21 channels in the Top 50.
Great Britain: 5 channels in the Top 50.
Canada, India: 2 channels each in the Top 50.
Japan, Russia, Spain, Thailands: 2 channels each in the Top 50.
El Salvador, Ireland, Jamaica, Netherlands, Philippines, Puerto Rico, South Korea, Sweden: 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.
Many modern independent web series creators turn to platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo to raise thousands of dollars to fund their production. These People, however, shows that a high-quality web series can be made on a tight budget. The first season of director Jamie Heinrich and writer Zac Hug’s family web series was made for under $500, but despite its price tag, it is a polished dramedy.
Hug stars as Todd, an exasperated man who must deal with his crazy family and a cast of oddball characters as he looks to take care of his younger brother, who is in a poor mental state–or at least appears to be that way. Along the way, Todd becomes increasingly frustrated, and his relationship with his boyfriend suffers as well.
These People isn’t the funniest web series, nor is it the most insightful, but it has a nice combination of stakes and laughs, and it’s clean and well shot. Throw in some guest appearances (Keith Powell, who just released a web series of his own, shows up in a few episodes) and you have yourself a nice little watch. There’s also a second season on way. It will follow Todd’s sister Jenny (Claire Downs) and will feature its own notable guest star, Community’s Jim Rash. I’ll be tuning in.
OTHER UNDER-THE-RADAR SERIES TO CHECK OUT
VC. Shark Tank-style venture capital pitches are played for laughs in this web series.
Stoop55. Discussions with interesting people occur on the stoop of a brownstone in Brooklyn.
Happy Guys. Two dudes try to makes themselves happier. They’re part of the problem.
H.I.V.E. Militias do battle in a dystopian future.
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.
According to a new report, two long-awaited updates from the world’s most popular video site will roll out before the end of 2015. As The Verge reports, YouTube “is preparing to launch its two separate subscription services”–YouTube Music Key and a separate, ad-free subscription service–“before the end of 2015.”
The Verge’s headline claims the new service will change YouTube “dramatically,” but the video site has insisted from the start that it plans to keep its current ad-based model as the primary format for its users. At the same time, the new services will provide more options. The oft-delayed YouTube Music Key will organize the site’s music videos in one convenient location while also offering additional amenities to consumers who pay $9.99 per month for a premium option. The other subscription service doesn’t have a confirmed price tag, but its subscribers will be able to browse all of YouTube’s videos ad-free.
The new report also includes some reactions from insiders who are familiar with YouTube’s plans. One source says Music Key feels like it is “too little too late,” though he noted it could give YouTube a bargaining chip when it renegotiates its contracts with major record labels in 2016.
[Editor’s Note: Tubefilter Charts is a new weekly and monthly 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 timeframe. You can check out all of our Tubefilter Charts – with new installments every week – here.]
Scroll down for the Tubefilter Chart.
It’s time for another installment of our monthly Tubefilter Top 100 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Chart and a gaming channel is at the top, but not the one you’re used to seeing there.
Chart Toppers
TheDiamondMinecart climbed all the way from the #6 spot up to the very top of the charts this month. The UK-based gamer scored nearly 402.7 million views in July. In a not-so-distant second is WWEFanNation. The YouTube outpost that’s home to clips and special footage from World Wrestling Entertainment’s events was up 32% on the month, amassing almost 399.3 million views.
LittleBabyBum and its repository of classic Western songs for your English-speaking kids is next up in third place, closing out the month just shy of 391.2 million views. BuzzFeedVideo is up next in a semi-close fourth place. The YouTube offshoot of the popular website known for animated GIFs, listicles, and actual news received more than 382.2 million views in the 31 days of the month.
And rounding out the Top 5 is Taylor Swift. The country-turned-pop star’s music video library’s view count dropped a significant 51% on the month, but still racked up more than 380.8 million views.
Top Gainers
The honor of one our Top Gainers this month goes to Warner Bros. Pictures.
The movie studio that has the rights to the DC Comics library is prepping for a theater battle with Marvel. And if its numbers on YouTube are any indication, the Time Warner subsidiary is going to put up a helluva fight. Suicide Squad – Comic-Con First Look officially hit the Warner Bros. Pictures YouTube channel on July 13, 2015, and very soon after amassed an impressive eight-figure view count. The three-or-so-minute peek at the highly anticipated flick (and the first real glimpse of Jared Leto as the Joker and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn) helped the YouTube channel to a 294% month-over-month increase in views, more than 130.5 million views in the month, and the #57 on the worldwide chart.
Channel Distribution The Top 100 Most Viewed YouTube channels this month amassed in aggregate a total of 17,293,575,112 views. Here’s a look at the distribution of those channels broken down by the most-represented YouTube Multi-Channel Networks on the chart:
VEVO:20 channels in the Top 100. Taylor Swift is the network’s highest ranking channel at #5.
Maker Studios: 13 channels in the Top 100, with TheDiamondMinecart at #1.
BroadbandTV, Fullscreen, Machinima:3 channels each in the Top 100, with BroadbandTV’s Major Lazer at #36, Fullscreen’s PopularMMOs at #10, and Machinima’s VanossGaming at #23.
BuzzFeed, Collective Digital Studio, MovieClips, WMG, XMediaDigital: 2 channels each in the Top 100, with BuzzFeed’s BuzzFeed video at #4, Collective Digital Studio’s Good Mythical Morning at #81, MovieClips’ MovieClipsTrailers at #20, WMG’s Ed Sheeran at #68, and XMediaDigital’s Mashmedvedtv at #9.
And here’s a look into the distribution of the this month’s Top 100 by country of origin:
The United States: 51 channels in the Top 100.
Great Britain:7 channels in the Top 100.
India: 6 channels in the Top 100.
Canada, Spain: 4 channels each in the Top 100.
Brazil, Japan, South Korea: 3 channels each in the Top 100.
Ireland, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Russia, Sweden, Thailand: 2 channels each in the Top 100.
Argentina, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, France, Jamaica, Netherlands:1 channel each in the Top 100.
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 220,000 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.
Out of all the podcasts led by YouTube stars, we’re particularly partial to Ear Biscuits, hosted by the inseparable duo of Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal. Each week, we will bring you a recap of the latest Ear Biscuits episode, as well as an invitation to listen in and join the conversation.
YouTube vloggers must often consider how much of their personal lives to share online, and no one understands that concept better than Charles Trippy. Trippy is YouTube’s iron man, having releleased a daily video every day for more than seven years. Throughout that streak, he’s had his fair share of ups and downs, and as he has lived through them, he has allowed his fans to live alongside him. This incredible openness was on full display when Trippy sat down with Rhett and Link to record an episode of their Ear Biscuits podcast.
Trippy’s online video origins go back to the pre-YouTube era, when he shared his life on mid-2000s relics like Myspace and Google Video. At the time, he says he had “no idea what I was f**king doing,” but he would soon discover a routine that would come to define him as a content creator. In 2008, he began releasing daily vlogs. More than 2,200 videos later, he’s still at it.
Keeping up such a rigorous schedule has required Trippy to continuously experiment with new formats. When he started, he claims “the technology wasn’t there,” but his videos evolved as YouTube did. He has changed up his titles, thumbnails, and runtimes over the years, and has gathered hundreds of thousands of fans along the way. Now, when it comes to vlogging, he’s an expert. “I can do it in my sleep,” he brags.
Trippy’s best known daily vlog came in 2013, when he filmed his own brain surgery. The shocking nature of the video caused it to get picked up by multiple media outlets, but when Trippy talks about it, he sees it as inspirational material for viewers, who, like him, are also trying to understand cancer. “That’s something I think very few people understand,” he says, “and that’s why I continue doing these videos, because there’s a lot of people watching these videos who are going through that or have family members.” “If they’re going through the same thing, he adds, “they can see it’s not a death sentence.”
Looking back, he is grateful to the Internet for its “moral support,” but at the same time, he still manages to keep his situation in perspective. When talking about it, he compares himself to stage four cancer patients–compared to them, he didn’t have it so bad. He’s still not cancer-free, but he has not let his misfortune break his spirit. “This situation sucks,” he says of his own tumor, “but it’s life.”
Trippy shared another unfortunate update with his viewers in 2014 when he announced his divorce from his wife Alli, who had appeared in his videos for several years. On the podcast, he opened up about divorce and the way it affected his videos. As Trippy sees it, his breakup was a bump in the road, and by announcing it candidly to his viewers, he upheld his channel’s mission to catalog the full experience of his life. “That’s the whole point of these videos,” he says. “[I] went through a brain tumor, went through a divorce…this is life. I didn’t want to stop, didn’t want to hide it…you have to explain things.”
He ended up explaining in a video he describes as “just one of those spur of the moment things.” In retrospect, he characterizes his divorce vlog as “genuine” and apologizes to everyone–family, friends, and viewers–who were hurt by the situation.
Now, as Trippy puts it, “life is moving on.” His new girlfriend, also named Allie, currently appears in his videos, and his streak is still going strong. Every day, his fans have a chance to learn a little bit more about who he is, what’s going on in his life, and how he is affected by everything. It’s been an interesting journey so far, and he didn’t share any plans to end it anything time soon. As he tells Rhett and Link: “You’ll never know, guys.”
Check out Trippy’s Ear Biscuits episode on iTunes and Soundcloud.
A pair of entertainers best known for their YouTube videos will guide viewers through the online video industry’s premier awards show. YouTube stars Grace Helbig and Tyler Oakley, who reach millions of adoring fans on their respective channels, have been announced as the co-hosts of 2015 Streamy Awards.
Helbig, whose Internet popularity recently afforded her the opportunity to move to TV with a show on E!, will host the Streamys for the second year in a row. Last year, she co-led the ceremonies alongside Hannah Hart, her friend and frequent collaborator. “It’s amazing to be back hosting the Streamy Awards for the second year in a row,” said Helbig in a press release. “There’s no one better to do this with me than Tyler Oakley as we take over VH1 on September 17. This year will be bigger, better and even more surprising as we celebrate all the Internet has to offer.”
Helbig also offered a more humorous comment via Twitter:
Oakley, known for his vlogs, his charity work, and his status as a role model in the LGBT community, will join Helbig on stage. Last year, he was one of the Streamys’ big winners, taking home the Audience Choice Award for Personality of the Year. “I’m so excited to be co-hosting this year’s Streamy Awards alongside my buddy Grace,” said Oakley. “I am so proud to be a part of such a wonderful night celebrating the talents and accomplishments of online creators and #TeamInternet as a whole.”
This year’s Streamy Awards will mark the first time the show has been broadcast on TV. It will air on VH1 on September 17th beginning at 10 PM EST. For more information, including a list of nominees and instructions on how to vote in the Audience Choice categories, check out the Streamys website.
Full disclosure: The Streamy Awards were founded and are co-produced by Tubefilter. We’re very excited about them.
Photo of Baratunde Thurston by the very talented Stuart Tracte.
On September 28th, South African comedian Trevor Noah will officially begin the unenviable task of replacing Jon Stewart as host of The Daily Show. Noah will have to deliver his own unique spin on fake news in order to distinguish himself from his predecessor, and this week, his Daily Show regime announced a hire that gives us a glimpse at how he will accomplish that goal. Baratunde Thurston, political humorist and former director of digital at The Onion, will be The Daily Show’s head of digital content.
In his new role, Thurston will be tasked with the creation of Daily Show-related content on platforms like Snapchat and Instagram. This strategy will be a marked departure from The Daily Show’s approach to digital platforms under Stewart; while episodes were made available on the Comedy Central website, The Daily Show did not have much digital presence beyond that.
“There’s more to what The Daily Show can make than what people have seen,” said Thurston. “This is a 21-and-a-half-minute show that airs on a box in your house, and it can also be a great experience on these other platforms.”
The Daily Show’s decision to expand its digital output is as much a product of the times as it is a way for Noah to distinguish himself. These days, it is simply bad business to ignore the millions of late-night TV fans who consume all their content online. Stephen Colbert, for example, has embraced YouTube as he prepares to begin his role on The Late Show, and other satirical news programs, such as Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, have delivered exclusive videos for web viewers.
Given Thurston’s platforms of choice (he said he wants “to make things that land on Instagram and Snapchat”), The Daily Show’s digital content could look very different from other late-night programs. It will be interesting to see what sort of stuff Thurston develops–and how those digital updates affect Noah’s popularity.
