“On demand and online video are no longer competing with each other, they’re competing with every other sources of entertainment,” pointed out Alex Carloss, global head of entertainment for Youtube, in his high-powered mastermind keynote titled “The Power of Choice” at MipTV.
Citing the innovative digital efforts developed by late night hosts in the U.S., Carloss said the battlefield for ratings has completely shifted as passive audiences have evolved into potentially highly-engaged fans.
“Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon and David Letterman have all realized that the size of their late night audience has peaked and (…)they’ve realized that if they’re going to succeed they have to find younger audiences,” said the exec, joined Youtube in 2011 from Paramount where he headed digital distribution
Using YouTube to create easily sharable sketches that have a life well beyond their time slots has proven effective path to help traditional TV shows bolster their brands and lure the young auds.
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Carloss also said YouTube conducted a research with Nielson which revealed that when consumption for a show goes up on YouTube so does TV ratings.
Case in point: When Jimmy Fallon took over Jay Leno as the new host of The Tonight Show in mid-february, 10 million people tuned in to watch its debut. And for that same show, the views on YouTube reached 20 million. During the first two weeks of the show, Fallon’s YouTube channel generated 90 million views, according to Carloss.
Letterman, meanwhile, has uploaded nearly 3000 videos on his YouTube channel and he’s just reached half a billion views.
But the best late night show advocate for YouTube is Kimmel.
“(Kimmel) spends his time with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, and for the last three years he’s generated over 108 million views on a channel where he asks parents to upload their kids reactions when they pretend they’ve giving them their Halloween candy,” quipped Carloss.
Carloss also discussed Ellen DeGeneres’ innovative way of tracking down talent behind Youtube’s most popular clips, bringing them on air and turning them into stars. DeGeneres for instance spotted the two little girls Sophia Grace and Rosie on YouTube in 2011 and has been bringing them regularly into her show.
Sophia Grace and Rosie are so popular to Youtube and TV audiences that DeGeneres recently announced she was developing a talent show around them.
Another building trend highlighted by Carloss during his keynote was the globalization of YouTube content and its fanbase.
“Today no one cares where the content comes from as long as it is good — In fact more 60% of views for our creators’ videos come from outside of their home country,” explained Carloss.
As an example, Carloss cited K-pop, which he said has gone from being a local phenomenon to a five billion dollar industry.
“Today, 91% of people watching K-Pop videos live outside of South Korea,” claimed Carloss.
