Today’s social media landscape offers a lot of choices for consumers, but year after year, internet denizens continue to flock to a 20-year-old choice: YouTube. According to a survey of U.K. social media users conducted by YouGov, Google’s video hub is drawing more increased usage than any of its tech industry rivals.
28% of YouGov’s respondents said they use YouTube more than they did a year ago. That percentage compares favorably to the equivalent figures for Instagram (25%), TikTok (21%), X (15%), and Snapchat (8%).
As you might expect, Gen Z is responsible for much of YouTube’s gains. 38% of that cohort said they are now using YouTube more than they did a year ago. But recent research has shown that seniors are also embracing YouTube, especially on TVs, and that phenomenon is visible within the YouGov data. 53% of Baby Boomers said they have used YouTube in the past month.
When you add in a recent study from Ofcom — which found that one-fifth of Generation Alpha heads straight to YouTube after turning on the TV — the video platform’s cross-generation dominance becomes clear. YouTube is for everyone, from the five-year-old Alphans to the 85-year-old elders.
YouTube’s ubiquity is astounding, especially when the fractured state of modern media comes into consideration. “In 2025, the British media landscape is more dynamic and fragmented than ever before,” said YouGov Head of Digital Media and Technology Justin Marshall. “With content flowing across countless platforms and formats, understanding which type of media and how much different groups engage with has become essential for anyone seeking to connect with audiences in meaningful ways.”
How does YouTube do it? The platform’s innovations, especially in areas like generative AI, creator monetization, rights management, and TV viewership, are notable. But no matter how hi-tech YouTube gets, it still offers a simple value proposition to consumers: It is a one-stop shop for on-demand video.
As overly simplistic as that explanation may seem, it is increasingly relevant in an era when many tech companies alienate their respective bases by attempting to reinvent the wheel. As TikTok goes all in on shopping and Instagram goes all in on being TikTok, YouTube is staying refreshingly close to its original vision. That’s a big bonus for U.K. consumers, and if the named tech companies are paying attention, the YouGov survey can teach them a lesson, too.
At movie theaters across the world, fans of Netflix‘s buzzy animated hit will get the chance to seal the Honmoon in person. In partnership with chains like Cinemark and Regal, Netflix is bringing KPop Demon Hunters to movie theaters for a limited-time sing-along event.
The screenings will occur on August 23rd and 24th at theaters in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. Tickets can be purchased here for locations in the US and Canada.
The theatrical run looks to capitalize on KPop Demon Hunters‘ runaway success. Along with other Netflix originals like Squid Game, Sony’s animated musical has helped Korean culture maintain its place at the forefront of the global entertainment industry.
HUNTR/X and Saja Boys, the fictitious pop rivals from KPop Demon Hunters, have both found their way to the Billboard charts. The film’s lead single, “Golden,” reached the top of the Spotify pop charts, and the overall soundtrack peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 200.
Now fans will get the chance to sing along with the tracks they launched to international prominence. “In celebration of the global hit, which is currently the most-watched Netflix animated original film of all time, KPop Demon Hunters: A Sing-Along Event invites HUNTR/X and Saja Boys devotees alike to gather and belt their hearts out to a sing-along version of the wildly popular animated film,” reads a Netflix blog post.
For Netflix, a voluntary trip to theaters is an unusual thing. Since it began distributing original films, the streamer has sparred with the motion picture industry over its distribution tactics. While the cinematic establishment prefers exclusive theatrical windows for Netflix’s originals, the streamer typically does the bare minimum before bringing its films to its subscribers. The initial theatrical run for KPop Demon Hunters, for example, reached only a few theaters in major cities. That was enough to satisfy the requirements for entry into the Academy Awards, and nothing more.
Several trends, however, have convinced Netflix to bring Rumi, Mira, and Zoey back to the big screen. The film’s popularity is an obvious factor here, as is the popularity of kid-friendly IP at the multiplex. As KPop Demon Hunters content crushes the competition in our Tubefilter charts, Netflix is betting that the sing-along event can be the next Minecraft Movie. (Parents will be thrilled to hear there’s no chicken jockies in this one.)
Even if there’s some lingering animosity between Netflix and theater chains, the streamer has shown that it is willing to embrace other formats as a means of building homegrown franchises. If Stranger Things can be a Broadway show and Squid Game can be an interactive exhibit, then KPop Demon Hunters can be a fun family outing to the movie theater — at least for one weekend.
Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, Netflix, News by Sam Gutelle Comments Off on ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ has taken over Netflix and the pop charts. Now you can sing along in movie theaters.
Guinness World Records really digs content creators. It’s crowned numerous YouTubers with their own records: MrBeast has one for running the world’s most-subscribed-to YouTube channel, JackSucksAtLife has one for running the most channels with over 100,000 subscribers, the Velázquez siblings have one for earning the most Diamond Play Buttons in a single family, Airrack has two–one for making the world’s largest pizza, and one for visiting the most fast food restaurants in 24 hours.
And creators like Guinness, too. Creators often feature the book’s record certifiers in their videos, and the record is a sort of badge of honor–an undeniable “I did this first” for people who have spent their careers innovating online video.
But in case you didn’t know, we’ll let you in on a somewhat little-known fact of the Guinness record process: Anyone can submit a potential record for free, but if you want your record verified fast and/or by a specific date (such as, for example, in time for a YouTube video or Twitch stream), then you have to pay. Fees range widely, from $12K base to several hundreds of thousands of dollars.
So, what happens when creators don’t want to pay those fees?
That’s the question the organizers behind a recent wrestling livestream had to contend with. Canadian pro wrestler Evil Uno, his org Mystery Wrestling, and Ottawa-based C4 Wrestling set out to raise money for charity by holding the world’s longest wrestling match.
Sixteen wrestlers competed in a match that lasted 21 hours, 49 minutes, and 12 seconds, before former All Elite Wrestling pro Stu Grayson was declared winner. Per Dexerto, the event’s Twitch stream had over 400,000 unique viewers drop in, and peaked at over 15,000 concurrent viewers. Evil Uno hosted alongside expert guest commentators like Nyla Rose, Mike Bailey, Colt Cabana, and Adam Cole.
The match very narrowly beat Guinness’ current world record of 21 hours, 44 minutes, and 34 seconds. That was set in 2021, by Japan’s Ehime Pro Wrestling. But, if Mystery Wrestling and C4 wanted their record recognized in real-time, they would’ve had to pay $16,000, Evil Uno said on X (formerly Twitter).
“We were in contact with Guinness World Record to make our attempt official,” he said. “BUT…they’ve just told us it’s a minimum of 16000 USD to do so. We just can’t spend that in good faith. All to say, this will be an unofficial attempt at the world’s longest pro wrestling multiman match!”
That being said, their successful attempt can still be recognized. They would just have to wait in the queue for the standard application review process, which Guinness World Record says currently takes a max of 20 weeks.
But while Mystery and C4’s event was record-setting, setting the record wasn’t actually their goal. They set out to raise money for the Canadian Cancer Society, and viewers came through, donating nearly $27,000 for the Toronto-based research org.
The viewership their match achieved further shows how much of a foothold live sports have on platforms like YouTube and Twitch–and on streaming, too. We’ve talked about golf and Formula 1‘s popularity online, but wrestling is seeing a golden age, too. Paramount just paid nearly $8 billion for exclusive rights to stream all American UFC events on Paramount+, and Disney (through ESPN) bolted down a similar deal that has it paying $1.6 billion for rights to WWE.
Filed under: Homepage Feature by James Hale Comments Off on What happens when creators don’t want to pay for Guinness World Records?
The Fox Corporation is turning its ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) hub into a haven for creators, and it has appointed an experienced executive to oversee that effort. Kudzi Chikumbu, who spent more than eight years at TikTok and its predecessors, has joined Tubi as its VP of Creator Partnerships.
Chikumbu’s first role in the creator economy was an entertainment partnerships position at Musical.ly, the lip-syncing app that was bought by ByteDance and merged with TikTok. Post-acquisition, Chikumbu rose up the ranks at TikTok, eventually becoming its Global Head of Creator Marketing.
Tubi redoubled its influencer push earlier this year, when it announced a new hub called Tubi for Creators. That’s where viewers can turn if they want to watch hundreds of episodes of serialized content from YouTube and TikTok standouts like Kinigra Deon, FunnyMike, and Rhett & Link.
As Chikumbu joins Tubi, the platform is announcing the next phase of its creator hub rollout. A fresh slate of deals is bringing content from the likes of MrBeast, Jomboy Media, CelinaSpookyBoo, Steven He, and Alan’s Universe to Tubi. Chikumbu will guide Tubi as it looks to add even more YouTube and TikTok fare to its free-to-watch library.
“I’m thrilled to join Tubi at a time when creators are redefining entertainment,” Chikumbu said in a statement. “Tubi’s dedication to empowering creators with creative freedom and meaningful incremental audience reach is unmatched, and I’m excited to bring fresh, bold, and authentic storytelling to their passionate viewers.”
Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News, Tubi by Sam Gutelle Comments Off on Fox’s Tubi is doubling down on creators and bringing in a long-serving TikTok exec to lead to push
This week, YouTubelaunched a new age verification system. There are no tick boxes asking users to confirm they’re over 18; no forms to enter their birthdays. Instead, an AI will examine what sorts of videos you’ve been searching for and watching, and decide based on those whether or not you’re an adult.
YouTube already accounted for the possibility of some mis-aging. If an adult is mistakenly identified as a minor, they can submit either a government ID or a credit card to prove their age.
After this system was announced, numerous content creators expressed concerns that if they submitted an ID to YouTube, their real names and addresses may be exposed if their channels were ever compromised. This was especially of concern to VTubers, who generally don’t reveal their IRL names, faces, or locations, instead choosing to use their digital avatars as their online identities.
VTubers who raised this issue pointed to ongoing issues with hackers who purposefully target creators’ channels. This just happened to VTuber AmatsukaUto, whose ~600K subscriber channel was hacked and turned into a crypto-shilling farm directing viewers to scammy exchanges and “investment opportunities” (a common outcome for hacked channels). The hack lasted for days, and AmatsukaUto’s channel went offline before YouTube finally kicked the hackers out and returned it to her.
YouTube assures creators it can keep their accounts safe. But another recent incident showed YouTube can’t even keep its own channels safe.
Earlier this week, the official Google India YouTube channel was hacked–once again by crypto scammers. Like AmatsukaUto’s channel, Google India’s ended up being pulled offline–but while it was still live, the hackers flooded it with crypto propaganda. One livestream, called Michael Saylor: Bitcoin PUMP – Is Bull Run CONFIRMED?! BTC Price Prediction, had around 60 viewers, as you can see in screenshots from Android Authority.
YouTube says after it was “alerted to unauthorized activity on the Google India YouTube channel, we took immediate action to secure and restore the account.” Google India’s channel is now back to normal.
But this still raises questions about YouTube’s ability to keep creators’ channels–and information–safe. How was YouTube “alerted” that the Google India channel had been compromised? Were its systems not able to recognize unusual activity when the hackers logged in in the first place, and things only tripped when videos and livestreams began going up? Did a third party alert it?
In the cases of AmatsukaUto and other hacked creators, they’ve had to go tell YouTube their channels were compromised and wait days for responses. Why can’t YouTube detect hacks when they’re happening? Why does someone need to let it know when channels have been overtaken? What safeguards can YouTube put in place to keep all this from happening?
YouTube tells us that protecting creators’ privacy and security “is a top priority, and Google/YouTube has long used the world’s most advanced security to protect user data against threats.”
Addressing creators’ concerns about how secure their age verification information will be, YouTube adds that for users who choose to prove their identity with a credit card, it will submit a request for authorization to their bank, and, once successful, will store the card information on the user’s account. The user can manually remove the card anytime they like.
As for government IDs, YouTube will look at the ID and then store the user’s date of birth on their account. The submitted image of their ID is “deleted a short time after successful verification,” YouTube says.
Does that mean it’s possible for a hacker to capture the image of a creator’s government ID and use it to see their real name and address? We’re not cybersecurity experts, and we don’t know if those stored ID images will be accessible on the user/hacker side.
What we do know is that channels being hacked is a very real threat, and continues to happen–even to Google’s own accounts. If it wants to maintain creators’ trust, it has to find ways to preempt attacks–or, at least, respond more quickly when they’ve already happened.
Filed under: Homepage Feature, YouTube by James Hale Comments Off on Creators’ channels keep getting hacked by crypto shills. They want YouTube to protect them–but YouTube’s accounts are getting hacked, too.
This just in: The “life of a showgirl” involves blockbuster podcast appearances.
Taylor Swift likes to put on a spectacle, and her first-ever podcast appearance did not disappoint. The singer-songwriter drew more than 1.2 million concurrent viewers during the YouTube premiere of her appearance on boyfriend Travis Kelce‘s New Heights podcast.
Kelce, a star for the Kansas City Chiefs, hosts New Heights alongside his brother Jason (who is also a former NFL All-Pro selection). The brothers’ show was already one of the top podcasts in the game, and that was before Swift brought it to new heights (pun intended).
Just after midnight on Tuesday morning, Swift shared the title of her upcoming 12th studio album, which is called The Life of a Showgirl. The reveal was a two-pronged announcement, as it was also made public that Swift would appear on New Heights to talk about her upcoming release.
At 7 PM ET on August 13, the Swift-Kelce collab launched its premiere stream on YouTube, and the fanfare was as big as expected. The peak audience of 1.2 million concurrents compares favorably to iShowSpeed’s viewership from his record-setting stream in Indonesia. At the time of this post, the Swift-ified New Heights episode has more than 11 million aggregate YouTube views less than 24 hours after its initial upload time.
The episode proved so popular that it even broke YouTube, just as Caitlin Clark predicted. The stream cut to black 15 minutes before its conclusion, causing many viewers to miss the rapid-fire Q&A segment that concluded the interview.
Other curiosities from the episode included its lack of ads (the Kelces typically read multiple spots in each of their New Heights appearances) and its revelations regarding Swift’s recent move to reclaim her master recordings. The pop star was self-assured on her New Heights debut, even if it’s unlikely that her podcasting era is in her near future.
Instead, Swift will prepare for the release of The Life of a Showgirl, which she produced alongside the Swedish pop maestros Max Martin and Shellback. The album is due in October, so perhaps its star will perform another podcast sweep to take advantage of the medium’s burgeoning promotional potential.
Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle Comments Off on Views belong with me: Taylor Swift’s first podcast appearance (literally) breaks the internet
Roblox has permabanned and threatened to sue YouTuber Schlep for conducting child predator hunts on its platform.
Civilians trying to catch criminals is far from a new phenomenon, but it’s become increasingly popular on YouTube and other video platforms over the past few years. Creators have made careers out of documenting themselves doing things like scambaiting, reverse-hacking hackers, tracking extortionist call centers, and–last but perhaps most popular–hunting down people who try to engage in explicit talks with children online.
Schlep, a 22-year-old YouTuber with nearly a million subscribers across two channels, has been playing Roblox since he was in elementary school. But not everyone he met there had good intentions.
“When I was a kid, I was groomed on Roblox by a popular developer,” he explained in a recent YouTube upload. This developer “manipulated me, used power dynamics over me, and frequently exposed me to gore and NSFW material and loads of other stuff a kid should never see.”
Things, he said, got bad enough that he made an attempt on his life. While he was recovering in the hospital, his mother reached out to Roblox about the developer’s behavior, but “They brushed her off,” Schlep said. “That predator went on to groom more victims before Roblox finally banned him–years later, by the way.”
Despite this bad experience, Schlep continued using Roblox, and during the pandemic started his first YouTube channel, Maliboomer, where he plays the Roblox game Theme Park Tycoon 2.
“As I ran Maliboomer, I kept spotting these predators, even in an innocent sandbox theme park game,” he said. “Then I started Schlep, and the emails from victims got worse every single day. And that’s when I started catching predators on Roblox.”
Over the past couple years, Schlep has worked with fellow predator-hunting creators like JiDion to find adults trying to talk to children on Roblox. Schlep and co. do this by making fresh accounts and going into various Roblox games pretending to be kids. They say they never initiate discussions, especially not sexual discussions; if a potential predators pushes the conversation in that direction, Schlep collects the evidence and sends it to Roblox and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
He says his efforts have results in six arrests, at least some of them on felony charges.
But while law enforcement has acted swiftly in response to evidence, Roblox hasn’t done the same, both Schlep and JiDion allege.
“We go to roblox.com/support, submit a moderation ticket, and then fill out the prompt with all the information regarding our arrest, and give you guys the same Google Drive that we give to the cops,” Schlep said. “And in a lot of instances, Roblox won’t even ban after we reach out to them regarding felony arrests.”
He went on to say that after he reports information to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, that organization will “go on the news to show gameplay of our decoys with the predators on Roblox,” and then the platform might take action.
“I literally felt so lost in trying to get the attention of Roblox regarding these predators, I’ve created binders with all the chat logs and I’ve sent it to their headquarters in San Mateo,” he said.
“Every time we get the arrest on the dude, he reports them right away,” JiDion added in his own upload. “Roblox doesn’t do anything. Whenever the dudes bail out and stuff, he’ll literally see them go back online, doing whatever they do, playing games and stuff, and he’s already reported them. And he’ll tweet at [Roblox] and the only time they ban the person is when the [YouTube] video drops. So we’re doing it in the process that you guys want, reporting it, but you guys don’t ban them until the video drops and you feel the public backlash.”
And now, Roblox has permanently banned Schlep, accusing him of conducting “unauthorized and harmful activities on the Roblox platform” that “directly undermine Roblox’s safety efforts and, critically, are exposing our users to increased risk.”
In a cease and desist letter to Schlep, Roblox said those “unauthorized and harmful activities” include “engaging in simulated child endangerment conversations,” “sharing or soliciting personally identifiable information,” and “directing users to move conversations off platform.” (Once Schlep and co. had a potential predator on the hook, they would move conversations to Discord so it wasn’t as easy for the person to simply sign off and disappear.)
Roblox said if Schlep makes a new account–whether for personal use or predator-hunting–it will pursue legal action.
Tubefilter reached out to Roblox for comment, and got this statement from a spokesperson:
“At Roblox, we want all of our users to have a safe and positive experience and have robust Community Standards in place to prohibit content or behavior that may be inappropriate or harmful. While we maintain comprehensive on-platform abuse reporting tools, and actively encourage our users to use them to alert us to potentially harmful activity, we believe that safety enforcement should be left to trained professionals and proper authorities, not individual users, and we work closely with and actively seek law enforcement’s input on safety matters. In addition to dedicated internal teams that investigate safety threats and escalate serious issues, Roblox also has a trusted flagger program, where close and trusted partners can report suspected serious criminal activity to us, such as terrorism, violent extremism and possible child exploitation. Any reports we receive are promptly reviewed and, as appropriate, actioned within a short timeframe.”
Roblox also sent us a collection of 10 different quotes from researchers and members of law enforcement discouraging what it calls “vigilante groups.”
One of these quotes is from Christopher L. de Barrena-Sarobe, District Attorney in Chester County, Pennsylvania, who says, “Attacking someone so you can make money on social media is a crime…Life is not a comic book–people don’t get to be Batman. Police officers are entrusted with investigating and enforcing the law because they have the tools to get the facts right and stand these cases up in a court of law.”
This news comes shortly after a family in California filed suit against Roblox and Discord, alleging their 10-year-old daughter was “groomed and manipulated,” then kidnapped, by a 27-year-old man who met her on Roblox and used Discord to chat with her until she shared her home address.
Filed under: Creator, Homepage Feature, Roblox by James Hale Comments Off on Roblox banned a YouTuber for hunting child predators on its platform. What’s it doing to protect kids?
On August 13, a bold new form of age verification technology officially launched on YouTube. The platform has started using generative AI to estimate how old its users are; those who are determined to be under 18 will have their accounts automatically restricted.
At the end of July, YouTube announced its plan to bring an AI-powered age line to its platform. It is not the only tech company making that move, as Roblox has also employed AI to figure out which of its users are younger than they are pretending to be.
These types of guardrails can provide safer browsing experiences for kids who lie about their ages in order to access salacious material. Perhaps more importantly, the added layer of protection can help YouTube comply with regulators in D.C. Through the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the government has fined social platforms that fail to comply with established safety standards. With Congress threatening to come down even harder on those platforms, YouTube is taking action.
That effort is going into effect among a “small subset of users” at first, according to YouTube product exec James Beser. Beser explained that YouTube has already applied machine learning principles to its age verification tech in other countries, and it is now applying those developments in the U.S.
For YouTube, using technology to improve moderation is nothing new. But for as long as tools like ContentID and YouTube Ads Manager have existed, they have been criticized for the number of false positives they generate. Even before the rollout of the new age verification system, VTubers braced for the wave of erroneous restrictions they expect to see.
YouTube is hoping that data points like viewing history and account longevity will inform its age verification decisions with as much accuracy as possible. In cases where errors do occur, users can show government ID, credit card details, or selfies to set the record straight and lift the restrictions from their accounts.
Like with a lot of the active technology on social media platforms, YouTube’s age verification tool will likely go through growing pains as it comes into use. With a slow-but-steady rollout, YouTube can hone its new tech — and hopefully protect under-18 users along the way.
There’s a notable new streamer coming to Kick. The upstart rival of established hubs like Twitch will host streams from MrBeast as part of the YouTube star’s effort to promote his latest philanthropic campaign.
MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, has his first Kick stream slated for August 14. On a fresh account (which, at the time of this point, already has 36,000 followers), Donaldson will go live to support #TeamWater, a $40 million mission to bring clean drinking water to underdeveloped communities. Kick has pledged $2 million to support that effort, and Donaldson plans to use his inaugural Kick stream to add another $5 million to the fundraising tally.
“Me, Adin [Ross], and xQc are going live on August 14th for my first Kick stream,” Donaldson wrote on X. “We can’t end the stream until we raise $5 million for #TeamWater. Hopefully it doesn’t take days.”
Donaldson, who is best known for his YouTube videos, has treated streaming content like a curiosity up to this point. He went live on Twitch during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he donated thousands to streamers with no followers. But that account has been dormant for months, and based on Donaldson’s criticisms of Twitch, he doesn’t seem to be a likely candidate to return to the platform anytime soon.
Even if he’s done on Twitch, Donaldson has seen firsthand the power of a blockbuster streaming session. His 2024 Twitch collab with Kai Cenat generated millions of views, and streaming standouts like Cenat and iShowSpeed have translated their success to YouTube, where they are putting up numbers that rival MrBeast himself.
And that brings us to Kick. The Stake.com-affiliated hub has endured its fair share of controversy, especially related to badly behaved streamers, but it has also incubated a homegrown creator community. Donaldson’s collab with noted pot-stirrer Adin Ross will raise further questions about the overall tenor of Kick culture, but the man known as MrBeast can counter those claims with some of his usual deflections. Donaldson often uses his charitable missions as shields against criticism — his time on Kick may require him to keep his guard up.
In the British panel game show Taskmaster, comedian contestants must impress hosts Alex Horne and Greg Davies by coming up with clever solutions to eccentric challenges. Meanwhile, the show’s producer has completed a curious task of its own. U.K.-based studio Avalon is distributing Taskmaster for free in North America via YouTube, and that strategy has proven so successful that it is now informing Avalon’s upcoming plans.
In its native region, Taskmaster airs on publicly owned broadcaster Channel 4, but the show’s American fans don’t need a TV to access more than 180 episodes of quirky, resourceful comedy. Instead, those aficionados can turn to the official Taskmaster YouTube channel, where all 19 seasons — as well as compilations, bonus content, and behind-the-scenes featurettes — are available in a free, ad-supported format.
For most of its existence, YouTube has been a boogeyman for purveyors of linear TV. Countless lawsuits have framed the platform as a haven for IP pirates and freebooters, and those claims aren’t exactly unfounded. When traditional studios do utilize YouTube, it’s most often as a teaser. Making some episodes available for free is a way to entice viewers to pony up for a premium subscription.
But for Avalon, YouTube distribution is an endgame, not a promotional tactic. The official Taskmaster hub has attracted nearly two million subscribers while hauling in more than 1.1 billion lifetime views. Some individual episodes, such as the season one premiere, have millions of YouTube views all on their own.
Though this strategy has proven innovative, it began as an open-ended experiment. After Taskmaster‘s inception as an Edinburgh stage show, it arrived on TV in 2015. Avalon looked to capitalize on the program’s rising popularity — and reach more English speakers in the process — by producing a U.S. version that premiered on Comedy Central in 2018. Unfortunately, that spinoff was “unsuccessful,” according to Avalon Co-Founder and Taskmaster Executive Producer Jon Thoday.
Thoday told Tubefilter that Avalon “thought we’d blown our chance” with the failed Comedy Central show. But “almost by accident,” the Taskmaster producer found a new international window for the show online. Avalon resolved to “just put [Taskmaster] on YouTube and see what happens.”
What happened was that Taskmaster caught on with Americans. Thoday speculated that the globalization of the TV industry partially drove that trend. Other British panel shows, such as the annual trivia game known as The Big Fat Quiz of the Year, have also rolled up millions of views on YouTube. “The global barriers for TV have broken down,” Thoday said. He argued that Netflix “played a role” in that shift by distributing stand-up comedy specials. That move “created a global market for comedy.”
No matter the cause of the Taskmaster U.S. boom, the results were clear. The most recent season of the show features American comedian Jason Mantzoukas, who earned his turn in the cast after becoming a fan himself. “I watched it, I got really obsessed with it, I had some friends who were real superfans, and I came to know a couple of people who had been on past seasons,” Mantzoukas told Vulture.
Taskmaster‘s U.S. reach extends far beyond famous comedians. Thoday noted that Taskmaster drew a sellout crowd for a live recording in New York City. “If we had done that 20 years ago, we would have sold 20 tickets,” he told Tubefilter.
Emboldened by its success on YouTube, Avalon has adopted a multi-pronged approach to distribution. Traditional TV networks like Channel 4 will continue to lead the way. As Thoday puts it, that hub is “a great place for originating TV shows, and it has the finances to do it.”
Once a name brand is established, it’s off to YouTube, where Avalon can effectively scale up audience sizes. A dedicated, five-person team works closely with Avalon’s other employees to oversee that operation.
Thoday told Tubefilter that Netflix has come calling with regard to a Taskmaster deal that would cover the United States, but the Avalon founder sees YouTube as a more efficient option. While Netflix spends billions on content to amass a base of more than 300 million subscribers, YouTube reaches billions of homes at a fraction of the cost.
Avalon is certainly not the only production company getting excited about the growth potential that comes with YouTube distribution. Studios have dropped old movies and TV shows on the platform to create a new window, and Channel 4 — perhaps emboldened by Taskmaster‘s YouTube success — recently launched a new comedy channel on the platform.
The next step is to juice the ad revenue that comes from that free-to-view format. “We believe that by making the show successful on YouTube, the higher CPMs will follow,” Thoday said.
There are now “major brands” who want to get involved with Taskmaster, and Avalon is working with YouTube to concoct solutions that will allow it to sell ads directly on Taskmaster videos. What began as an experiment in free distribution has evolved into a premium access point. Now, Avalon can show the world that this isn’t just a Taskmaster phenomenon; it’s a strategy that represents changing appetites for entertainment.
Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle Comments Off on ‘Taskmaster’ is big on British TV. In the US, it’s a hit on YouTube.
The Meta Quest line of virtual reality (VR) headsets provides an immersive gaming experience, but streaming gameplay from those devices can be complex. A U.K.-based developer is looking to simplify that process. BeamXR has opened up early access for a Quest app that facilitates Twitch and YouTube streams from VR headsets.
BeamXR Live, as the app is known, is available on Quest 2, Pro, 3, and 3S devices. The streaming platform represents a technological innovation, as it allows broadcasting to Twitch and YouTube without the use of any device other than a VR headset. Though Twitch and YouTube both support Quest hubs, neither of those apps offer native live streaming.
BeamXR stated that its new app was “born out of frustration with existing tools” that support the “critical” enterprise of VR game streaming. The tech company also noted that BeamXR Live “will always have a free access tier for streaming with no usage limits,” though a Pro version is also in development.
Even with those struggles, there are still a lot of creators and brands that see the potential of virtual reality worlds. McDonald’s, for example, just launched McDonaldland, a VR experience that can be found within Horizon Worlds.
The future of VR could hinge on the ability to connect hardware like Quest headsets to broader gaming culture. Meta has connected Quest to the lucrative world of Roblox, and VRChat has also hooked into the creator economy by launching a store where digital designers can sell their homemade avatars.
With its new app, BeamXR is forging a new conduit between the VR and streaming ecosystems. If you’re interested in broadcasting from your Quest headset, you can check out the BeamXR Live listing on the Meta Horizon store.
To consolidate its position as the streaming industry’s premier preschool-age edutainment option, CoComelon is ramping up production on its live-action content. The Moonbug-owned kid video titan is getting set to launch The Melon Patch, a YouTube series led by the Ms. Appleberry character.
In The Melon Patch, which is set to premiere on September 23, Ms. Appleberry (portrayed by Allie Rivera Quiñonez) will be joined in her classroom by several other teachers. Together, the Melon Patch cast will take on subjects like art, dance, and nature, enriching their young audience along the way.
CoComelon introduced Ms. Appleberry last year, when it announced its intent to diversify its library by producing more live-action videos. With nearly 200 million subscribers and more than 200 billion lifetime views, CoComelon has drawn more traffic than any other kid-friendly YouTube channel, but its biggest hits have featured animated characters, including its blonde-tufted mascot JJ.
Quiñonez began playing Ms. Appleberry in a long-form series called CoComelon Classroom. Now, her world is expanding through the 25-minute Melon Patch episodes.
“With The Melon Patch, we’ve created a joyful space where kids can learn through music, play, and the warmth of a teacher they know and love, Ms. Appleberry,” CoComelon Senior Creative Executive Nicole Rivera told TheWrap. “She helps make every lesson feel like an adventure, blending songs, stories, and real-life learning in a way that’s as fun as it is meaningful.”
The Melon Patch is not just an expansion of the CoComelon universe — it’s also an effort to keep pace with the rising stars of the YouTube Kids landscape. With its long-form episodes, live-action look, and cheerful, musical tone, The Melon Patch has a lot in common with a typical Ms. Rachel video. The overalls-clad educator has become a force on YouTube, and she’s challenging CoComelon on paid subscription services as well.
Another big name on the kid-friendly side of YouTube is Blippi, whose namesake channel is also owned by Moonbug. Shannon Flynn, who worked on the Netflix series Blippi’s Job Show, is the director of The Melon Patch.
Though The Melon Patch will help CoComelon stay up to date with the latest YouTube trends, it will also deepen kids’ connections to a franchise that has several irons in the fire. A different type of live action content — a U.S. tour — hit the road in 2022, and a CoComelon-branded feature film is due out in 2027.
