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Next up for YouTube: Grooming new comedians

Janko Roettgers — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 17:00:38 +0000

YouTube is continuing its efforts to improve the output of new talent on the site with its YouTube Next Comic program: The site announced Thursday that it had selected 16 comedians to participate in three months of online training, as well as personal mentorship by an established YouTube star, and receive $5000 worth of video equipment and $10,000 to spend on Google ads.

Recipients include a South African teenager, Jason Horton, who claims to be the world’s first and only white male comedian, and a comedy group with the not so subtle name Dr. Coolsex.

YouTube Next Comic follows a number of similar programs aimed at grooming the next generation of YouTube talents. Last year, YouTube organized an ambitious University program, sending 20 lucky winners to hands-on classes at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts and Columbia College Chicago’s Television Department. And two weeks ago, it started a summer-long series of Google+ Hangouts to teach video production skills.

Investing in on-site talent makes sense for YouTube: Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal reported that the site has been able to recoup on the investment it made into about 100 new channels, the owners of which received a total of $150M in advances.

However, not every one of these channels has been a success. Some outside producers new to YouTube’s community have been struggling, and some have been demanding that YouTube pay higher advances.

Homegrown talent on the other hand has been key to the new channel’s success story. One example is YouTube star Phil DeFranco, whose Sourcefed channel was the first of the new channels to surpass 500,000 subscribers this week.

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How Phil DeFranco plans to save YouTube

Janko Roettgers — Fri, 25 May 2012 12:00:46 +0000

Phil DeFranco’s new YouTube channel Sourcefed is expected to hit 100 million views this Friday, just three months after it launched as part of YouTube’s new professional channel initiative. His own Philip DeFranco Show continues to rack up millions of views as well, and his little company is about to hire more folks and add another show to its roster. You’d think that’s enough to keep anyone busy, right? But for DeFranco, there’s one more thing left to do: Empower the next generation of YouTubers by founding his own network of content creators.

Do we need to #saveyoutube?

Ever since YouTube embarked on its ambitious plan to bring more TV-quality content on its site by giving content producers a reported $100 million in advances and rolling out an ambitious redesign, there has been talk whether this will hurt small-time producers. Some content creators have actually taken issue with the site’s new design. Others have alleged new algorithms rolled out this spring are hurting their views, and a few even started a #saveyoutube Twitter campaign this week.

For its part, YouTube has said that recent changes have overall been positive for creators. “Net daily subscriptions are up 50% since January and watch time has been increasing in the past 2 months,” the YouTube team wrote in a blog post in response to the #saveyoutube campaign a few days ago.

So when I caught up with DeFranco during a phone call this week, I wanted to know what he thought about the whole controversy: With YouTube becoming more professional, are people left behind? “I don’t think this is hurting people that aren’t part of it,” he told me with respect to the new channel initiative, and added: “Most of these troubles that people are seeing right now are normal YouTube troubles.” YouTube content creators always had to be flexible enough to adjust to changes on the site, he explained.

Time to found a new network

So is all well in YouTube land? Not exactly. “Smaller YouTubers need to evolve, because it is a very toxic world out there,” DeFranco told me. It’s hard for up-and-coming producers to get noticed at all, he said. And when they finally catch a lucky break and one of their videos goes viral, they’re bound to get offers of help from all the wrong places.

DeFranco is particularly critical of networks and third-party service providers that promise YouTube producers the big breakthrough but do not deliver. “You see all these people with their services, which for the most part take advantage (of content creators),” he complained.

He’s heard the tale of people being fed up with networks that tied them up with long-term contracts all too often – and has started to think about alternatives: “How do we bring up the next batch of YouTubers without hurting them? Without taking advantage of them?” The answer: Phil DeFranco is going to start his own network on YouTube.

Give artists an audience, and money

He didn’t share many details on how this network is going to look like, and instead only said that it would be fairer than many of the efforts that are out there already. But if you want to get an idea of its spirit, you may have to look no further than to a show that Sourcefed is scheduled to launch in two months.

The show will focus exclusively on music, art and other forms of creativity, with the goal of establishing direct connections between artists and their audience. One example: DeFranco’s team will capture the making of a mural via stop-motion animation, then turn it into a short clip and also sell prints of the artwork on YouTube itself. The idea is to give artists a big boost for their audience, but also offer them a chance to actually make money with their art.

In other words: DeFranco wants others to benefit from his massive audience as well. “We are in a really fortunate situation to fix things that are broken,” he told me.

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5 Questions With…YouTuber Phil DeFranco

Liz Shannon Miller — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 07:01:39 +0000

Time for this week’s 5 Questions With…, featuring Phil DeFranco, a YouTube star who regularly tops the Most Viewed page with his fast-paced video commentaries. DeFranco’s much more than a vlogger, though — as the CEO of DeFranco, Inc., he and his partners have expanded his brand to both independent original shows as well as an interactive series in partnership with a major Hollywood producer. Below, Phil talks about the power of being an Internet personality, how he manages to keep up with his own YouTube channel as well as his other projects, and his modest roots.

1. What’s the one big issue/law/attitude/restriction that you think is holding back the industry?

Holding back the industry? Nothing. If it doesn’t work, it’s because you aren’t trying hard enough or you don’t know the right people. We have the least restrictions of any medium, so to say something is holding us back is just an excuse. Many people will say funding, but I’ve made everything I have starting with a $30 webcam. You darn kids these days!!! *shakes fist*

2. What industry buzzword do you never want to hear again?

Transmedia. It just sounds weird and most of the people using it are talking about it in a hypothetical sense. No offense to the trannies out there.

3. If someone gave you $50 million to invest in a company in this space, which one would it be? (Mentioning your own doesn’t count.)

That’s a hard one for me, but I would invest that money in one of the tools I already use, whether its the Blippys, Dailybooths, or pretty much anything else.

I can’t pinpoint any one service. People fail to realize the power of an Internet personality, especially an honest one. If I use a service and enjoy it, I might as well start investing in the ones I really believe in because I’m going to get my audience involved and we make things popular. It didn’t start as a marketing model, but it turned out me liking stuff is one.

4. What was the last video (that you weren’t personally involved with) that you liked enough to spread to others?

Reckless Tortuga. That guy/those guys/whoever is involved make me giggle. Most of the stuff I watch on YouTube is video game related.

5. WILD-CARD: Over the last few years, you’ve evolved your brand online from the typical YouTube channel to a thriving production company behind projects like Like Totally Awesome and Cute Win Fail. What inspired you to push beyond traditional vlog-style commentary, and what have you found to be key in keeping all your different projects sustainable?

If there is any one truth in our industry it is that if you are not growing you are dying. I mean that in viewership, production value, properties, and revenue.

I realized after I started LTA that I could only stretch myself so far. I mean I had 400k+ subscribers on that channel, but I also had 2 other channels that were far more popular. I was making 12+ videos a week and that just wasn’t sustainable. So rather than dropping LTA, I started putting people on the projects. Too many people at first, then too few, until I started to realize how many people it takes for each property to remain profitable and more importantly GOOD.

As far as why the different formats, I just get bored easily and the vlog format only works with certain personalities. But if there is any one thing that keeps me making new shows, giving channels their start, and producing good content it is that I love cool things and want to share them with people. And I bust my ass to do so.

Want to meet Phil DeFranco in person? Well, he’s one of our featured speakers at this year’s NewTeeVee Live! If you don’t already have your ticket, now’s definitely the time to fix that.

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Vin di Bona, Phil DeFranco, Toby Turner Team for CuteWinFail

Liz Shannon Miller — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 20:30:34 +0000

In the early days of user-generated content online, the only point of comparison many people had for popular viral videos was America’s Funniest Home Videos, that institution of adorable pets, amazing feats and the always-classic nutshot. The production company behind AFHV as well as other reality series, Vin di Bona Productions, is embracing that with CuteWinFail, produced in partnership with popular YouTuber Phil DeFranco’s production company and distributed through multiple YouTube channels.

Vin di Bona’s digital arm Fishbowl Worldwide Media has teamed with DeFranco Inc. to create both a YouTube channel and an original series under the CuteWinFail brand.

The CuteWinFail show, hosted by comedian Toby Turner (YouTube user tobuscus), features three videos a week drawn from Fishbowl’s massive library of user-generated content. Like the title implies, one is cute, one’s a win, one’s a fail, and in the proud tradition of AFHV, each features commentary and voice-over by Turner. Viewers vote on their favorite video, with the most “epic” video announced the following week. There are 22 episodes set for the first season, and a revenue-sharing plan is in place that splits the profits between DeFranco Inc., Turner and Fishbowl.

While the CuteWinFail YouTube channel officially launches next Monday, the first episode of CuteWinFail was posted this last Monday to Turner’s YouTube channel (which has over 450,000 subscribers). Turner’s deal with Fishbowl gives him a one-week window for each episode, prior to it posting on the CWF channel. Turner’s posting of the video currently has over 160,000 views.

In addition to the official Cute Win Fail show launch, this weekend the DeFranco Inc. team will be adding 150 clips provided by Fishbowl to the channel (in addition to the six already there). This will create a massive back catalog of content drawn from the company’s nearly two decades of soliciting user-generated content — something they were doing before the term UGC even existed.

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