Scripted entertainment channel Wigs had a breakout week following the introduction on June 11 of its second series, Blue. The drama stars Julia Stiles as a single mom trying to prevent her son from discovering her secret life as an escort. The channel had 3.5M views in the week that ended on June 20, up 2.2M from the previous week. That made it the No. 4 channel on our tally, up from No. 10. Not including a change we made for Mondo Media — explained below — the total number of views for the services we monitor was up 3.5% to 57.2M with the top 10 channels accounting for a little more than 59% of all views, down four percentage points from the previous week. No change in the channels that made the top 10 although, per usual, there was a little shuffling in the order.
In addition to Wigs, channels gaining views included The Pet Collective (+781,890 to 1.2M ), The Warner Sound (+627,650 to 5.6M), Car and Driver (+579,065 to 938,870), and I Am Other (+502,476 to 829,706). Measured by rank, those making the biggest jumps were American Hipster (No. 43, +26), I Am Other (No. 17, +22), Car and Driver (No. 14, +21), The Pet Collective (No. 12, +17), and Food Farmer Earth (No. 62, +16). On the flip side, channels with the biggest drops in views were Sourcefed (-909,880 to 6M), ENTV — owned by Deadline parent Penske Media — (-871,061 to 2.6M), Nerdist (-739,482 to 161,702), Motor Trend (-596,047 to 2M), and SB Nation (-403,225 to 397,251). Those losing the most ground by rank were Nerdist (No. 57, -43), Kick (No. 47, -23), The Moms View (No. 66, -16), SB Nation (No. 31, -14), and Digs (No. 81, -14).
VidStatsX supplies our data — with one exception: We changed the way we account for views on Mondo Media, jumping it to No. 19 from 81. Previously we just counted views for one of its services, Mondo Beyondo, which is supported by YouTube. (That’s the criterion for being included on this list.) But Mondo Media is a special case because while YouTube doesn’t support the channel itself, Google’s video service does fund some of its shows. Beginning this week, we are using YouTube-provided data that accounts for the views on Mondo Media for videos that YouTube supports. Since we don’t have comparable data for its “Total Views,” we decided to go with a figure (more than 1.2B) that includes all views for MondoMedia’s funded and unfunded programming. This is a work in progress; don’t be surprised if we make additional tweaks to make our list as accurate and useful as possible.
Channels highlighted in beige are the ones that were launched before Google introduced its original channels program in November. Here’s our latest ranking:



WIGS is going to take over. The shows have been steller.
Agreed. Really quality content on Wigs and a quality promotional campaign. They had me immediately with their first promo featuring Santigold for music. A great channel that shows people that the YTOP isn’t messing around.
If you haven’t checked out Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl yet on I Am Other channel, you’re missing out. Best show not on TV!! That’s why I Am Other jumped so many views: ABG Season 2 premiered on June 14.
That drop from Nerdist is bizarre.
These numbers are such a joke compared to non-sponsored channels which granted can be amateurish at times (so are many of these) but have actual huge numbers. Where’s Vevo… and Machinima… yeah not part of their sponsored channels since they were successful prior to this new initiative…so its not on the list or worth reporting on? That’s retarded. Seems ridiculous to be reporting on these without including the actual big boys that dwarf many of these channels which many will fail.
And why has youtube taken the channel approach that forces you to subscribe to all shows rather than just the ones that you like. Just flipped through one channel. Hated everything but one that was more documentary in nature rather than crappy parody comedy of the others… but since they a part of the same channel, I have to get updates on all their crap rather than just the show I like. A real step backward in the digital age. Even Time warner does this better.
LOUD is the next big thing
Why would Youtube spend millions of dollars on these channels if Youtube isn’t going to promote and feature them, therefore actually protecting their investment and ensuring these channels secure the views they need to survive??
This is the first time I have seen a list of these “premium” channels, which I have been looking for. I found this via WillofDCs channel. I have tried searching for this list of channels before with no success.
I am only subscribed to a few of these already (SourceFed, G&S, Scishow, MyMusic & Crash Course) because I found out directly form their creators from their original channels or blogs etc.
I found fewer still because of recommendations or discovering them on my own. (Nerdist and Numberphile)
How was I ever going to discover the rest? Youtube’s front page design is considered broken by many and does not lead naturally to new content discovery. Nowhere on the site is a big flashing red button screaming “CLICK ON ME FOR QUALITY CONTENT THAT WE SPENT BIG MONEY ON”
I only have ever watched MyMusic and Wigs (well i found Wigs because they sponsored Buck one time and I really like the film!) I found out about MyMusic from TheFineBros (aka the creators) it is such a fun show! I mean it has comedy, drama (well now it has poor Intern 2) and you can interact with the characters via most social media sites and it gets so addicting! I am sure if these where real people I would be considered a stalker probably! xD Also one can follow the real people and I really Jack from JackFilms because of MyMusic I now have another funny channel I subscribe to!
(Hope I didn’t bore you! Very sorry if I did!)