YouTube Launches 60 New ChannelsIf you want to see how important a single video can be to a YouTube channel, then look at what happened to The NOC and Awesomeness TV in the week that ended on October 3. A musical send up of football’s replacement refs, set to Flo Rida’s tune Whistle, helped kick The NOC — an entertainment channel about athletes — up 20 slots to No. 9, with nearly 3M views, up 2.4M, according to our weekly tally of Google-funded YouTube channels.  And pop entertainment channel Awesomeness TV attracted millions to a candid camera prank video showing a guy dressed as a delivery man who drops boxes supposedly filled with new iPhone 5s in front of people waiting in line for the Apple smartphone. The channel rose 3 spots to No. 2, with 5.2M additional views for a total of 7.8M. The performances in views and rank were personal bests for The NOC and Awesomeness TV since May when we began monitoring YouTube-funded channels.

They stood out in an unusually strong week: The number of views for the 104 channels on our list increased 35% to nearly 86.7M, the highest we’ve seen. The top 10 channels accounted for 53% of the views. Joining that group, in addition to The NOC, was Motor Trend, up five slots to No. 6. But Clevver News and Nuevon dropped out of the top 10, each slipping three spots respectively to No. 11 and No. 12.

The week’s biggest winners measured by increased views vs the previous week were: Awesomeness TV, The Warner Sound (+2.8M to 10.8M), NOC, Motor Trend (+1.4M to 3.3M), and Redbull (+1.2M to 3.5M). Measured by rank, we saw the most upward movement from: Everyday Health (+40 to No. 38), NOC, Crash Course (+19 to No. 20), Kick (+17 to No. 36), and Wigs (+15 to No. 54). On the flip side, biggest decliners by views were: YOMYOMF (-401,099 to 563,421), H+ Digital Series (-182,981 to 636,397), Above Average Network (-143,633 to 491,289), iamOTHER (-120,806 to 154,972), and Shut Up Cartoons (-113,649 to 1.3M). Those falling most by rank: eHow Pets (-21 to No. 82), YOMYOMF (-18 to No. 37), iamOther (-18 to No. 64), Monotransistor (-14 to No. 70), and a three way tie — each dropping 13 — between Hello Style (to No. 56), Bowery Presents (No. 63), and Above Average Network (No. 41).

Blayze supplies the data for our tally with one exception: YouTube provides views for the shows it funds on Mondo Media. Channels highlighted in beige are the ones that were launched before Google introduced its original channels program in November. Here’s our latest ranking: