Cassey Ho’s Blogilates channel is not just about teaching its viewers how to stay in shape; it is also a place where Ho can share a positive message and inspire her fans to feel as fulfilled as possible. That mission extends to Ho’s new podcast, Sheroic, on which she and co-host Lisa Bilyeu discuss “what it really takes to create your own happiness and define your own success.”

That description comes from a fact sheet that shares basic details about Sheroic. The podcast will discuss “entrepreurship, love, relationships, body acceptance, health & fitness, eating disorders, and pretty much anything that will challenge you to face your fears and follow your dreams,” with Ho and Bilyeu engaging in intense discussions both among themselves and alongside guests.

The first three episodes of Sheroic are currently available on iTunes, Stitcher, and a new YouTube channel. In their first chat, Ho and Bilyeu share their tips for “turning jealousy into admiration and hate into inspiration.”

This is not the first partnership between Ho and Bilyeu, who is the co-founder of Quest Nutrition. Ho previously hosted three seasons of Cooking Clean with Quest, a web series on the health food company’s YouTube channel.

While she empowers her listeners through Sheroic, Ho will also continue to produce content for her Blogilates channel. That hub, which is chock-full of rigorous exercise routines, has more than 3.7 million fans.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, News by Sam Gutelle
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At long last, those of us who have spent far too much of our time watching YouTube videos can quantify our accumulated knowledge. The world’s top video site has launched a game called Deja:View that tests how quickly and accurately players can recall facts about viral videos, popular channels, and hit web series.

Deja:View pits two opponents against one another across a series of ten multiple-choice questions. The faster you can remember Casey Neistat’s motto, the specifics of individual Carpool Karaoke episodes, and the basic twist of this BBC video, the more points you will receive.

Beyond serving as a fun diversion for a few minutes of your hump day, Deja:View is also a reminder of the wide breadth of content available on YouTube. Once you complete a round, you’re invited to challenge your friends, so make sure to establish yourself as the YouTube king of your social circle before you go through Deja:View’s entire question pool.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, News, YouTube by Sam Gutelle
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In the first season of Freakish, popular social media stars and young actors got the chance to portray high school students who fought (and in some cases, succumbed) against a zombie onslaught. Now, the survivors are returning for season two, and they will be joined by several more familiar faces. New cast members for Freakish’s second season include online video standouts Amanda Steele and Niki DeMartino.

Steele, a teenage fashionista whose looks have attracted more than 2.8 million subscribers to her channel, and DeMartino, best known as one half of the sisterly duo Niki and Gabi, will portray students who will contribute to Freakish’s brand of high school drama, which is set against the backdrop of an undead invasion. Steele and DeMartino will join other online video stars in the Freakish cast, including Liza Koshy, Meghan Rienks, and Melvin Gregg.

The new additions to the Freakish cast were announced on YouTube via the channel of AwesomenessTV. The youth-focused network serves as the show’s producer and has a lot of experience working with the young stars cast in it.

A firm premiere date for the second season of Freakish has not yet been announced. Whenever the teen horror-drama, its new episodes will be available on Hulu.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, News by Sam Gutelle
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On June 20, during an event at the Cannes Lions conference in France, FOX Networks announced its plan to begin showing six-second ads, particularly on digital and on-demand platforms. By adopting those spots, it will get a chance to experiment with a format that has been hailed as a positive experience for viewers.

The company celebrating right alongside FOX, however, is YouTube, which has spent the past year championing six-second ads as a big part of its own future. After adopting that format for some of its own videos in 2016, the world’s top video site has supported its decision with research that shows the power and efficiency of shorter ads. Two months ago, it noted that “bumpers,” as it calls its six-second spots, deliver a “significant” brand awareness lift in 70% of cases. With figures like that encouraging it onward, YouTube plans to further promote bumpers while phasing out its more annoying “30-second unskippable” ads in 2018.

The external validation of these bumpers outside of Mountain View is a sign that other companies are on board with YouTube findings regarding the ad viewing habits of its users. According to AdAge, FOX even wants to bring some six-second ads to TV, though the spots are not expected to become a dominant format on the tube in the short term.

YouTube was more than happy to cheer on FOX as the media giant announced its adoption of six-second ads. “We are excited to see Fox embracing six seconds as a valuable ad format for a cross-device world,” said Tara Walpert Levy, vp of agency and media solutions for Google & YouTube, in a statement. “Since we piloted this format last fall, we’ve seen on YouTube that six seconds is both long enough and short enough: it’s great for on-the-go users who appreciate the succinct message, for creatives who appreciate the constraint, and for brands who value the consistent results.”

The channels operated by FOX Networks include FX and Fox News.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, News by Sam Gutelle
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[Editor’s Note: Tubefilter Charts is a rankings column from Tubefilter. It’s exactly what it sounds like; a top number ranking of creators, channels, and broadcasters based on statistics collected within a given time frame from a growing number of online video and social media platforms. Check out all of our Tubefilter Charts with new installments every week right here. For just the Live.me Top Broadcaster Rankings, click here.]

Scroll down for this week’s Tubefilter Live.me Top Broadcaster Rankings.

It’s our 24th installment of our weekly Tubefilter Chart of the Top 50 Live.me Broadcasters. For anyone new to the Top Live.me Broadcaster Rankings, check out our brief explanation of how this chart came to be (Spoiler Alert: It has a lot do with the booming soon-to-be $70 billion industry that is live video) and the methodology behind the rankings in our first post of this new series right here.

And for those unfamiliar with Live.me, below is a quick intro to the live broadcasting platform that’s now home to hundreds of thousands of hours of live broadcasts per day. The platform was born inside the Beijing-based Cheetah Mobile in April 2016 before being spun off into its own entity in May 2017 with the help of a $60 million funding round.

Broadcasters

As we enter our 23rd week of coverage, here are the rankings’ most familiar faces. There are still only two broadcasters who have had a presence in the Top 50 every single week. They are still in order of appearance:

• TheRealKatherinRojas at #2
• Kristina Plisko❤️💋 at #16

TurnUpKing is back in the top spot for the second week in a row, showing a dominance on the Top 50 Rankings the likes of which have never before been seen (except from the two broadcasters noted above). TUK’s streak on the Rankings is climbing steadily at 18, while 10 new broadcasters appeared in the Top 50 for the first time ever this week. JustinaValentine is the highest ranked of the bunch, clocking in at #26.

All in all, the individuals behind the channels above have proven they have a sustained ability to maintain an engaged and active fans in their broadcasts. Everyone in the Top 50, and especially those towards the top, are at the very least highly adept at building an audience and keeping that audience tuned in and engaged to their broadcasts. These are the established, burgeoning, and upcoming stars of live broadcasting who you should keep an eye on.

If you don’t yet have Live.me, you can download the app right here. Just search for the Broadcaster listed below in the application and tune in.

Launched in April 2016, Live.me is a fast growing live broadcasting community which lets people discover new content, build a following, and earn cash rewards, no matter who they are. Live.me is geared towards surfacing daily entertainment and provides the tools to make the most of being live, in the moment. The mobile app is available on both iPhone and Android.

Filed under: Articles, Live Streaming, live.me, News, Statistics, YouTube, Youtube Chart by Joshua Cohen
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In 2017, it turns out, a game show about emoji might be a pretty good idea. Emogenius, the program hosted by YouTube videomaker Hunter March, earned 336,000 viewers during its June 14 premiere, which was good enough to make it Game Show Network‘s top premiere of the TV season.

Emogenius pits two teams against one another across a series of emoji-themed competitions. After it was first announced in March (how fitting), it received a June 7 premiere date back in May, though it was later pushed back a week. Here’s a clip from the show, with March’s hosting chops on full display.

March, best known for hosting videos on the AwesomenessTV channel, is a second-generation game show emcee; his grandfather, Hal, led The $64,000 Question more than 60 years ago. Given the nice returns Emogenius has delivered early on, and the positive reviews it has received from a few game show blogs, don’t be shocked if the younger March sticks around at his new gig for quite some time.

New episodes of Emogenius will air on Wednesdays at 9 PM ET.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, News by Sam Gutelle
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GoldieBlox, a toy and entertainment company that encourages young women to get excited about STEM, has recently devoted some of its resources to original programming on platforms like YouTube. As the latest step in that initiative, it has launched a pair of web series: Hack Along with Goldie Blox and Scrappy Robots with Simone Giertz.

Hack Along lends the GoldieBlox name to its host, a girl who loves power tools and lifehacks. The series looks to take a video category that is popular among female viewers — DIY — and reframe it as a form of engineering that a lot of viewers can get excited about.

“When I created Goldie, I wanted her to be relatable and real to young girls to remove the intimidation factor that is often associated with STEM,” said Debbie Sterling, Founder and CEO of GoldieBlox, in a press release. “Creating a strong role model for girls in STEM was important and something that didn’t exist in children’s entertainment. With the launch of this series, I’m excited to see Goldie come to life on screen and inspire the next generation of makers and engineers.”

Scrappy Robots takes its name from the signature creations of Giertz, a YouTube star with more than 30 million views to her credit. While those gadgets go by another name on Giertz’s channel, here they have been accessible for young tinkerers. The first episode shows off a machine that feeds popcorn to its wearer; Giertz previously built that contraption last year in a video posted to Adam Savage’s Tested channel.

Giertz previously starred in Toy Hackers, a GoldieBlox series that, according to the company, has pulled in more than four million views to date. Bolstered by the success of that show, the GoldieBlox YouTube channel currently has close to 40,000 subscribers.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, News by Sam Gutelle
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Today, on World Refugee Day — an initiative established in 2001 by the United Nations to raise awareness about the more than 66 million refugees across the globe — YouTube has launched a video campaign to share the stories of those who were forced to flee their homes in the wake of crisis and disaster.

The campaign, created in collaboration with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) — a nonprofit that responds to humanitarian crises the world over — has been dubbed ‘#MoreThanARefugee’. As part of YouTube’s Creators For Change program, seven channels traveled to Jordan, Serbia, Uganda, Greece, and across the U.S. to film collaborations with refugees and put faces to their stories.

Participants — who have over 21 million subscribers combined — included: ASAPScience (see below), Fly With Haifa, Tyler Oakley, Suli Breaks, The Young Turks (News), The Young Turks (Sports), Jouelzy, and the Eh Bee Family. Each video will feature a donation card that will allow viewers to support the IRC — with YouTube pledging to match up to $500,000 of all funds raised.

“We’re humbled to be a platform where refugees and creators alike can share their personal stories through video,” said YouTube CMO Danielle Tiedt, ”and in doing so, help create empathy for the brave people who are experiencing life as a refugee.”

Filed under: YouTube by Geoff Weiss
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Above Average has made a significant addition to its executive team. The digital comedy network launched in 2012 by Saturday Night Live producer Broadway Video has brought on Marc Hustvedt, an experienced online video exec and one of the co-founders of this publication, as its CEO.

Hustvedt announced his move to Above Average on his Linkedin page. “We all know the lines between digital and traditional media have blurred, especially for consumers,” he wrote. “I love that this company is uniquely positioned to thrive in this new world — partnering with top comedic talent both in front of and behind the camera while approaching it from digitally native understanding of the audience. We do this on the studio side when we partner with the top digital (and yes, even TV) platforms to produce high quality comedy that connects.”

At Above Average, Hustvedt will work alongside the rest of the executive team, including President Jennifer Danielson, who has served as Above Average’s President since the network’s inception. Hustvedt’s duties will span multiple verticals. Above Average continues to churn out comedy programming on platforms like YouTube, where one of its newest projects is the interview series Your Biggest Fan. Its sports destination, The Kicker, has grown steadily since its 2015 launch.

Before joining Above Average, Hustvedt co-founded Supergravity Pictures, a studio best known for creating feature-length project led by online video stars, which was acquired by Gunpowder & Sky in January 2017. He also worked at the Reach Agency. Prior to that, he was a major figure at Chill, a company that sold premium projects directly to consumers. Of course, we should also restate that Hustvedt — full disclosure — is a co-founder of Tubefilter and the Streamy Awards. We wish him all the best at his new gig.

Filed under: Uncategorized by Sam Gutelle
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Awesomeness, the Gen Z-leaning digital media outfit, has announced a slew of additions to its creator network — including influencers from the worlds of online video and traditional entertainment.

In the digital realm, actress and lifestyle vlogger Teala Dunn has re-joined Awesomeness after signing with Fullscreen last year. Dunn counts 2 million subscribers on YouTube and 2.2 million followers on Instagram.

Awesomeness also announced that it has signed Viner-turned-YouTube star Christian Collins, who inked a management deal to be represented by former American Idol judge Randy Jackson in December. Collins, who counts over 25 million followers and 4 billion views across all social platforms, is also a Youth Ambassador for the United Nations. In addition to Christian, Awesomeness has pacted with three of his siblings, who also boast an active social media presence, including: Crawford (323,000 YouTube subscribers), Karisma (86,000 subscribers), and Kirsten (58,000).

Furthermore, Awesomeness’ Awestruck division, which targets millennial mom viewers, has signed 19-year-old Acacia Brinley, who welcomed her first daughter in May. Brinley is an influencer, actress, and singer, who also releases music alongside her boyfriend, Jairus Kersey, under the name A&J. Their debut single, which doubled as a pregnancy announcement, is called Times Like These (below).

And finally, Awesomeness has signed two actors from the traditional sphere, who also boast massive social followings. They include Nickelodeon star James Maslow (411,000 YouTube subscribers), of iCarly and Big Time Rush fame, as well as Alyson Stoner (790,000 subscribers) — a Disney Channel star who rose to viral renown for appearing in Missy Elliott’s Work It music video. Stoner has since appeared in feature films like Cheaper By The Dozen and Step Up, and she most recently appeared in Fullscreen’s 24-city Girls Night In tour.

Other creators signed to Awesomeness in recent weeks include: Chris Reinacher, Jill Cimorelli, Avery, Tessa Netting, Nick And Jazmine, Simmi Singh, Gabriella Whited, Cameron Fuller, Olivia Rouyre, Madysyn Rose, Glamour, Jason Farone, Matthew Taylor, Daniella Monet, Neriah Fisher, Carlie Craig, Blake Steven, The Genta Siblings, Derek Luh, The Bell Twins, Noah Urrea, and Molly Tarlov.

Filed under: AwesomenessTV by Geoff Weiss
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When it launched in 1980, CNN revolutionized the TV news industry (for better or for worse) by providing 24-hour coverage of top stories. Now, the Atlanta-based media company is hoping the same format can work wonders for one of its digital enterprises. It has announced a $40 million investment in Great Big Story (GBS), which will be used to build a 24-hour streaming video hub that will be initially distributed on over-the-top and digital TV devices.

AdAge notes that the $40 million injection of fresh funding will be spread out across two years and will catalyze the construction of a channel that will be available on platforms like Sling TV and DirecTV Now. Whether the new destination will eventually come to TV hasn’t yet been determined, though GBS has linked up with the traditional media world in the past. It announced its plan to produce TV programs during its presentation at the 2016 Newfronts.

GBS launched in 2015 as CNN’s attempt to compete with the offbeat, millennial-skewing news coverage of companies like Vice and BuzzFeed. So far, returns are strong, as GBS currently has more than 4.3 million followers on Facebook and over one million subscribers on YouTube. It continues to output curious and engaging stories, including this recent tale of a Portuguese pastry whose recipe is a closely-guarded secret.

On its 24-hour channel, GBS will distribute long-form pieces, with live programming and feature-length productions potentially added in. Don’t be surprised if the hub’s lineup ultimately resembles that of Viceland, the TV venture Vice launched last year.

The GBS streaming channel is expected to launch in the summer of 2018.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, News by Sam Gutelle
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For the fifth year in a row, YouTube is proud of its LGBTQ community, though in 2017, it has mixed in some apologies alongside its uplifiting rhetoric. The video site has launched the latest edition of its #ProudToBe campaign while also providing an update on its efforts to restore videos from the LGBTQ community that had previously been incorrectly removed from YouTube’s Restricted Mode.

#ProudToBe, first launched as #ProudToLove in 2013, is a celebration of queer creators across the online video community that doubles as YouTube’s reaffirmation of support for LGBTQ empowerment around the globe. At the time of this post, four Pride Month-themed playlists are available on the YouTube Spotlight channel. Through the videos YouTube has collected there, viewers can look back at the history of the LGBTQ movement, prepare for Pride festivities, and recognize the work that still needs to be done.

This year’s #ProudToBe campaign will not be limited to Pride Month. Instead, YouTube plans to install a permanent playlist on its Spotlight channel full of videos from queer creators. That list will be updated year-round on a weekly basis.

In a blog post discussing #ProudToBe, YouTube also updated consumers on the progress it has made regarding Restricted Mode. Back in March, several creators from the LGBTQ community noted that their videos had been shut out of Restricted Mode, even though that content wasn’t violent, profane, or sexually explicit. YouTube apologized for that apparent error days later, and a month after that, it added 12 million videos — including many that discuss LGBT topics — to restricted mode.

“Our teams worked with dozens of volunteer LGBTQ employees and select LGBTQ creators to get feedback on our policies and we incorporated that feedback into our processes moving forward,” reads the blog post. “We’ve published and broadened Restricted Mode guidelines to ensure that non-graphic, personal accounts of difficult events are available.”

Filed under: Articles, Featured, News by Sam Gutelle
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