Connor Hines is making the leap from the digital screen to television. The producer of the YouTube series Local Attraction has landed a pilot deal for a new comedy series with ABC.
According to Variety, who originally broke the news, Hines will write, executive produce, and star in a series currently titled For Now. Hines, who has guest starred on the TV show Person of Interest, will develop the pilot of For Now, a show set to explore the lives of several twenty-year-olds living in New York City. Variety notes this new ABC deal comes after Hines originally landed a pilot with the network for a half-hour comedy in the summer of 2014.
Hines is predominantly known for his work on the web series Local Attraction, a comedy production satirizing the world of Tinder dating. Hines wrote and directed six episodes of the series, also starring as the male lead in the extreme and often uncomfortable dating scenarios set up in each episode. The first episode of Local Attraction has garnered over 350,000 views to date on YouTube, and the last episode guest starred actress Glenn Close.
No release date has been announced as of yet for Hines’ pilot with ABC.
[Editor’s Note: Tubefilter Charts is a new 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. You can check out all of our Tubefilter Charts – with new installments every week – here.]
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It’s another installment of the Top 100 Most Subscribed YouTube Channels Worldwide and an old favorite is still in the #1 spot.
Chart Toppers
Felix Kjellberg‘s PewDiePie channel still sits atop the 100 Most Subscribed YouTube Channels chart. The twentysomething Swedish gamer with his very own upcoming video game and a penchant for charity scored 790,000 new subscribers during the 31 days of July. In a not-so-distant second place is fernanfloo. The Brazilian gamer barely beat out an international icon, ending the month with 607,000 new subscribers.
That international icon is Taylor Swift. The country-turned-pop-star took a 21% hit in her channel’s subscriber acquisition rate to drop into third place with 606,000 new subs during the month. In fourth place is elrubiusOMG. The Spanish gamer stayed relatively constant, adding more than 547,000 new subscribers on the month. And rounding out the Top 5 is the top-ranked US gamer on the chart, MarkiplierGAME, who shot up 51% to close the month out with over 530,000 new subscribers.
Top Gainers
The honor of one of our our Top Gainers this month goes to Achievement Hunter.
The shiny new YouTube channel from Rooster Teeth had a fantastic first month on YouTube. The gaming-centric subsidiary of the long-standing-but-still-burgeoning Austin, Texas-based new media company got its very own YouTube destination (and physical office space) in July. And a lot of subscribers followed the entity to its new digs. YouTube.com/AchievementHunter was witness to a month-over-month increase of 210% in its subscriber acquisition rate, topping out at more than 468,000 new subs and the #11 spot on the chart.
Channel Distribution
The Top 100 Most Subscribed YouTube channels in the month amassed in aggregate a total of 31,754,581 new subscribers. Here’s a look at the distribution of a few of those channels broken down by the most-represented YouTube Multi-Channel Networks on the chart:
VEVO: 16 channels in the Top 100 Most Subscribed, with Taylor Swiftthe top channel in the network at #3.
Maker Studios:13 channels in the Top 100, with PewDiePie at #1.
Collective Digital Studio: 11 channels in the Top 100, with Roman Atwood Vlogs at #23.
BroadbandTV, Fullscreen, Machinima: 5 channels each in the Top 100, with BBTV’s fernanfloo at #2, Fullscreen’s canalcanalha at #26 and Machinima’s HolaSoyGerman at #8.
Stylehaul: 3 channels in the Top 100, with MyLifeAsEva at #13.
Big Frame, BuzzFeed, Divimove, Rooster Teeth, WMG: 2 channels each in the Top 100, with Big Frame’s Miranda Sings at #77, BuzzFeed’s BuzzFeed Videos at #14, Divimove’s elrubiusOMG at #4, Rooster Teeth’s Achievement Hunter at #11, and WMG’s Ed Sheeran at #48.
And here’s a look into the distribution of the this month’s Top 100 by country of origin:
The United States:53 channels in the Top 100.
Brazil: 11 channels in the Top 100.
Great Britain: 8 channelsin the Top 100.
Spain: 6 channels in the Top 100.
Canada: 4 channels in the Top 100.
Netherlands: 3 channels in the Top 100.
Australia, Chile, Mexico, Sweden: 2 channels each in the Top 100.
Argentina, Colombia, El Salvador, Ireland, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Ukraine:1 channel each in the Top 100.
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.
An investment that has been the subject of rumors for the past month has now been made official. NBCUniversal has announced a $200 million equity investment in BuzzFeed, which delivers shareable content to its audience of more than 200 million users each month.
NBCU’s interest in BuzzFeed was reported in July, when the Comcast-owned media company was revealed to be pursuing deals with both Vox Media and BuzzFeed. The Vox investment, which also totaled $200 million, was completed a week ago. While the size of NBCU’s two investments may be the same, the company’s valuations of its two new partners are believed to be very different. Before either of the deals were closed, Recode reported that BuzzFeed would be valued at around $1.5 billion, with Vox valued closer to $850 million.
By investing in BuzzFeed, NBCU gains another strong ally in the digital media industry. On the flipside, NBCU is a fitting partner through which BuzzFeed can explore its TV and film ambitions. “BuzzFeed and NBCUniversal will be great strategic partners and we both have a lot to offer the other,” said Kenneth Lerer, BuzzFeed’s Executive Chairman, in a press release. “We look forward to collaborating on television content, movies, the Olympics, and joint partnerships with ad agencies and brands.”
The NBCU deal joins other previous investments in BuzzFeed, including a $50 million round led by Andreessen Horowitz in 2014.
BuzzFeed first came to prominence thanks to its text and image-based content, but in recent years, it has poured more resources into its video operation, and as a result, Ze Frank’s BuzzFeed Motion Pictures division is now a thriving network that receives 1.5 billion video views each month. One would think Frank is doing a little dance today to celebrate his company’s big payday.
The annual Teen Choice Awards aired on FOX on August 16th, and a number of “Choice Web Stars” went home with their own surfboard trophies. The big winners were Bethany Mota, who won Choice Web Star: Female for the second year in a row, and Cameron Dallas, who won Choice Web Star: Male.
Dallas, whose 8.2 million followers are good for 11th-best on Vine, also won the award for Choice Viner. His wins come eight months after he rode his teen heartthrob status to the box office with Expelled, a film that sold well on video on demand platforms.
The Teen Choice Awards also give out a “Choice YouTuber” award, which this year went to Kian Lawley. Additional categories highlight specific web genres like music, comedy, and fashion/beauty; the 2015 victors in those areas were Shawn Mendes, Colleen Ballinger, and Zoe Sugg, respectively. Mota, oddly enough, was nominated in multiple categories, but only managed the one big win. The voting patterns of kids these days can be so strange.
As they are decided by fans, the Teen Choice Awards are a good barometer of who’s hot on the Internet right now. Clearly, Dallas’ stock is still rising, and Mota, who is still somehow just 19 years old, remains on top of her game.
A full list of Teen Choice Award winners is available via Variety.
The cutest animated feline on YouTube has brought its creator a major investment. Production company Endemol Shine UK has purchased a controlling stake in Simon’s Cat, the animation company best known for its titular web series.
In the Simon’s Cat videos, animator Simon Tofield uses slapstick humor to chronicle the relationship between a mischievous cat and his exasperated owner. Episodes of the series are typically one to three minutes long, and Tofield releases a new one every couple of months. Recently, he also went to Indiegogo, where he raised money for “Off to the Vet,” an 11-minute episode that will be animated in full color.
By joining forces with Endemol, Simon’s Cat will become part of the Endemol Beyond network, which includes content from a number of top creators on YouTube, Vine, and other digital platforms. “Simon Tofield is a creative entrepreneur and has built his business into an international online success,” said Laurence Jones, commercial director at Endemol Shine UK. “Simon’s Cat is a brilliant example of how an original brand created on YouTube can reach and delight huge audiences.”
Last year, Anna Akana wowed her fans with a series of shorts that ranged from psychological drama to horror to comedy. 2015 has brought more of Akana’s scintillating films, and her latest work is her biggest undertaking thus far. She has released “Loose Ends,” a 23-minute video shot in a Blair Witch-esque found footage style.
“Loose Ends” follows a filmmaker named Alex (Akana) who is documenting the post-college life of her friend Maddie (Amy Holt). The film covers a broad range of topics, with mental illness and the coming-of-age hurdles faced by Millennials serving as the two most common themes. As it goes on, “Loose Ends” gets progressively darker, leading up to a grim conclusion.
As with Akana’s other short films, “Loose Ends” is brimming with talent. Dylan Meyer, the daughter of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan director Nichloas Meyer, wrote the script. In front of the camera, both Akana and Melissa Hunter (who co-stars as Alex and Maddie’s third roommate) are coming off major roles in digital pilots released by NBC.
Over the past year-and-a-half, Akana’s short films have shown her growth as a filmmaker. “Loose Ends” is easily the most ambitious project she’s distributed on her YouTube channel. If you’re at all a fan of her work, you should check it out.
The guys who rose to prominence by dishing out Internet spoilers and collecting reactions to viral videos will soon connect the dots between disparate topics. The Fine Bros, whose 13 million subscribers make them two of YouTube’s biggest stars, will premiere the first episode of their second TV series, Six Degrees of Everything, at 9:30 PM EST on August 18th on TruTV.
Six Degrees of Everything, as its title implies, which give its subjects the Kevin Bacon treatment by linking them through a series of intermediate topics. The first episode, for example, will somehow find a connection between Albert Einstein and breast implants, while checking in with Elvis Presley and The Incredible Hulk along the way. The goal, as Benny and Rafi Fine explain in a video they made with TruTV, is to provide high quality “edutainment” for viewers. “With every topic we’re touching upon,” says Benny Fine in the video, “we’re going to give you something that [makes] you go, “Woah, I didn’t know that, and I gotta tell someone.”
Six Degrees of Everything, which was announced in March, is the second TV series led by The Fine Bros. Previously, they brought ReactToThat, a program based off their React franchise, to Nickelodeon. Six Degrees seems more important than The Fine Bros previous TV effort, since it represents a completely original concept. “This is one of the first TV shows from a YouTube creator to not be based on anything they did online,” explains Rafi Fine in a YouTube video. “This is just a brand new idea we had, and if it’s a success, it can continue to show there’s no reason for online creators to not be taken seriously, just like anyone else in the TV and film industry, and get bigger opportunities like this.”
The conclusion, as Benny and Rafi put it, is that it is very important for Six Degrees to do well, since it has the potential to open up new opportunities for digital content creators. If that’s important to you, you can do your part by tuning in beginning on the 18th.
NBC has shown a modest amount of interest in digital video production, and once a new competition concludes, the Peacock will get to work on its first original web series. NBC has shared five pilots on YouTube, and the one that receives the most votes from viewers will receive a full digital series order.
The five pilots are all part of NBC Playground, a talent search that recently awarded TV pilots to its two winners. The shows vying for the digital series spot are all finalists in the Playground program, having outlasted a pool of more than 2,100 applicants.
So what are the competing pilots like? For the most part, they all adopt the standard web series starting point of “young people trying to make it in the big city.” The most unique plot synopsis within the group belongs to Wolfgirl, which stars Melissa Hunter (the creator of the web series Adult Wednesday Addams) as a woman raised by wolves who moves to Los Angeles to make something of her life.
Another fresh concept can be found in The Bar Mitzvah Club, which infiltrates a ritzy private school through the eyes of a poor, ambitious student. The other pilots, however, put more work into their characters than their settings. Stunted focuses on a trio of young, technology-obsessed friends (and features YouTube star Anna Akana as one of its leads), Bobby & Izafollows the misadventures of a young couple, and Brokercenters on wisecracking real estate agents.
NBC’s competition is very similar to the “pilot season” format Amazon uses to help decide which original programs it brings to series. The main advantage of this strategy is that it brings viewers into the production process at an early stage, thus theoretically increasing the likelihood that each completed project will resonate with fans. Already, commenters on YouTube have left plenty of input on NBC’s pilots.
As explained on the NBC Playground website, viewers can use Facebook and e-mail to vote for their favorite pilots ten times per day. The polls will be open until September 3rd, and the winner will be decided sometime thereafter.
[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.]
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It’s another installment of the weekly Tubefilter Chart of the Top 50 Most Viewed U.S. YouTube Channels and a semi-realistic sport has claimed the top spot.
Chart Toppers
WWEFanNation now sits comfortably atop the US chart. The YouTube home of World Wrestling Entertainment dropped 4% in views this week, but still has the #1 spot in a chokehold with more than 95.4 million views. Up next is BuzzFeedVideo. Video iterations of listicles and animated GIFs gave the popular website’s YouTube channel nearly 85.6 million views on the week.
Next up in third place is DisneyCollectorBR. The internet’s prime destination for videos featuring adults playing with children’s toys was up 3% on the week to top out at almost 75.6 million views. Up next is Taylor Swift. The international country-turned-pop star’s channel’s view count dipped 10% to bottom out at nearly 67.6 million views in the week.
And rounding out the Top 5 is PopularMMOs. The top gamer on the US chart scored more than 58.2 million views during the week.
Top Gainers
The honor of one of our Top Gainers in the U.S. this week goes to Fox Movies.
The YouTube home to trailers and sneak peeks from upcoming 21st Century Fox feature films took home the top gainer title in the US and the world this week thanks to a Marvel character with an attitude. Not only did the trailer for Ryan Reynold’s upcoming Deadpool flick rack up an eight-figure view count, but the trailer for the trailer did, too. Both videos helped Fox’s YouTube channel to a 122% week-over-week increase in views, more than 34.2 million views on the week, and the #21 spot on the US chart.
Channel Distribution
The top 50 most viewed U.S. YouTube channels this week amassed a total of 1,8807,585,835 views. Here’s the distribution of a few of those channels by multi-channel network:
VEVO: 12 channels in the U.S. Top 50, with Taylor Swift the highest-ranked channel of the network at at #3.
Maker Studios: 4 channels in the Top 50, with markiplier at #6.
Fullscreen: 3 channels in the Top 50, with PopularMMOs at #5.
BuzzFeed, Collective Digital Studio, MovieClips: 2 channels in the Top 50, with BuzzFee’ds BuzzFeed Video at #2, CDS’ Roman Atwood Vlogs at #37, and MovieClips movieclipsTRAILERS at #10.
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 children’s nursery rhymes are getting a lot of play.
Chart Toppers
Littlebabybum is at the top of the charts this week. The YouTube channel that’s home to every toddler of the English-speaking Western world’s most favorite songs came up just shy of the 100-million-views-a-week mark with nearly 96.6 million views. WWEFanNation is next up in a very close second place. The online video outpost of World Wrestling Entertainment slammed down more than 95.4 million views during the seven-day stretch.
TheDiamondMinecart is up next in third place. The top gamer on the chart scored almost 93.7 million views on the week. BuzzFeedVideo occupies the #4 spot. The flagship YouTube channel from the site known for listicles, animated GIFs, and hard news ended the week with almost 85.6 million views.
And rounding out the Top 5 is ItsBabyBigMouth. The Canadian YouTube channel dedicated to the innards of Kinder Surprise Eggs cracked 80.5 million views in the week
Top Gainers
The honor of one of our Top Gainers this week goes to Fox Movies.
The YouTube destination for trailers of movies made under the banner of 21st Century Fox had a fantastic week on YouTube thanks to an irresponsible comic book character. The trailer for the highly-anticipated February 2016 release of Deadpool starring Ryan Reynolds easily amassed an eight-figure view count, helping the studio’s channel to a 122% week-over-week increase in views, more than 34.2 million views on the week, and the #43 spot on the worldwide chart.
Distribution
All in all, the top 50 most viewed YouTube channels accounted for 2,476,310,880 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 Studio’s TheDiamondMinecart at #3 and Vevo’s Taylor Swift at #7.
BroadbandTV, BuzzFeed, Fullscreen, XMediaDigital: 2 channels each in the Top 50, with BroadbandTV’s Major Lazer at #31, BuzzFeed’s BuzzFeed Video at #4, Fullscreen’s PopularMMOs at #11, and XMediaDigital’s mashamedvedtv at #9.
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: 3 channels in the Top 50.
Spain, Russia: 2 channels each in the Top 50.
El Salvador, Ireland, Jamaica, Japan, Netherlands, Philippines, Puerto Rico, South Korea, Sweden, Thailand: 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.
Who better to poke fun at the eccentricities of daily life than a bunch of crudely-drawn cartoons? Jaggy Lines, a web series from creators Steve Gallant and Scott Spivack, uses short, static episodes to illustrate awkward moments.
Jaggy Lines features an improvisational style, and its characters barely move as they banter with one another. The series’ awkward moments can happen anywhere–from a funeral to a high school reunion to a wedding–but Gallant and Spivack seem to have a particular fondness for food, which shows up in many of their sketches. The most-watched Jaggy Lines installment takes place in a Denny’s:
In an e-mail, Gallant refers to animated TV series like Home Movies and Dr. Katzas inspirations. Both of those shows left the air before the launch of YouTube, but they would’ve done great on the Internet, where short, amusing videos are preferred. Jaggy Lines continues the legacy of its televised precursors, and it is a well-executed spiritual successor. 15 episodes are currently available.
OTHER UNDER-THE-RADAR SERIES TO CHECK OUT
Teenagers. This buzzy web series rolled up solid view counts in its first season. Now its second has begun.
Shades of Bad. A suburban woman navigates her life through a series of tense twists.
Dog House. A pair of men, both recently dumped by their wives, team up for bizarre adventures.
There’s no denying the importance of Disney’s Maker Studios deal, but right now, the main question about it concerns the amount of money Disney will actually pay for the MCN. The base price of the transaction was $500 million, but if Maker hit certain performance targets, the total could rise as high as $950 million.
The end date for those targets is the end of 2015, so Maker Studios’ final price tag will soon become official, and if a new report from Recode is to be believed, Maker isn’t likely to achieve its ultimate $950 million goal. Instead, the rumor is that Disney’s payout will be somewhere in the $700 million range. That would still be a massive haul, but Maker’s failure to hit all of its performance targets would raise questions about how much it has actually grown since the Mouse House took control.
Not helping matters, according to reporter Peter Kafka’s sources, is a fair amount of friction between Disney and Maker. Among other issues, Kafka cites corporate reshuffling at Disney and a lack of cohesiveness between the creative communities of the two companies. “They’re frustrated about how difficult it is to penetrate into the Disney creative community,” said one source, referring to Maker’s executives. “They thought they would have an unimpeded way to create new material with Disney assets.”
According to Kafka, these issues could cause big changes among Maker’s executive team. “There’s lots of speculation that Maker CEO Ynon Kreiz and other top execs will leave Disney at the end of this year — the same time that Maker’s earn-out period wraps up,” he writes. If the ongoing friction continues, the upcoming payout could lead to a big shakeup. We’ll get a more definitive answer at the end of the year.
