With an insanely large amount of daily viewers Youtube is the current haven dujour for comedians to showcase everything from their sketch writing to clips of them doing stand-up. At the beginning of the year the company announced they’d take a shift in tone and launched 160 channels of original content that features anyone from viral video makers to realtime producers. Basically it’s their intention to turn themselves into a TV network.
Some would argue that it’s a step away from the DIY, Joe-public can become viral vibe the site had since its launch so with the new news that they are going to act even more like a network and go ahead and
cancel 60% of its channels
that aren’t “doing well” in the ratings department and will no longer be funded by Youtube.
While it’s still unclear as to which of the 60% of channels are going to be canceled there’s definitely a lot of comedy programming that could see the axe.
Math time!
There are 160 official channels. If 60% of them are said to be getting the funding axe that means 96 channels are on the chopping block. What are the top 96 channels on Youtube? Looking at
Deadline’s most recent
original channel rankings, it includes brands like Red Bull, Warner Bros, and WWE. While it also includes comedy heavyweights like
The Onion
(#19),
Nerdist
(#41),
The Comedy Shaq
(#43),
Latham Entertainment
(#44),
My Damn Channel
(#56), and
Official Comedy
(#72),
Smart Girls at the Party
(#92).
What does this mean for those 96? Well it means it’s a continual uphill battle for eyeballs. Youtube investing $200 million dollars is a Godsend for some. But it also means the window for trying to figure out a new business model for monetizing and virility of these channels is coming to a close and quicker than some might have expected.
