Boardistan

According to a story in the New York Post some of those Youtube-sponsored video content channels that were funded with $100 million in January 2012 may be cut from the team before even finishing out the year.

“They’ll cull the herd and work with the best,” said one source who suggests YouTube execs will be deep in discussions on its original-content initiative 2.0 plan over the next few weeks — and that the ax will fall on the less popular channels before Dec. 31, The Post has learned.

Depending on what Youtube designates “less popular” it could mean some business model changes for Redbull Media House, Network A, The Ride Channel, and Alli Sports.

Let’s see how the channels have done since our last Youtube Action Channel Tote Board action channels on March 15, 2012 (remembering of course, that Transworld.TV is not a Youtube partner site).

 
             Subs Mar      Views Mar   Subs Aug    Views Aug   Subs Inc    Views Inc
Redbull       386,626    259,389,937    513,402   317,789,299   126,776   58,399,362
Alli Sports    28,240     10,134,195     47,629    16,325,205    19,389    6,191,010
Transworld TV  10,526      5,470,641     17,617     7,613,161     7,091    2,142,520
Ride Channel   32,329      4,164,433     92,663    17,309,062    60,334   13,144,629
Network A      28,320      1,951,528     64,732     7,210,656    36,412    5,259,138

Based on these numbers (taken from the header of each channel) the channels have the following average views per month and would generate the monthly revenues at the “oft quoted quality content” CPM of $20:

                     Monthly Views   Monthly Revenue
Redbull Media House     11,679,872          $233,597
Ride Channel             2,628,925           $52,578
Alli Sports              1,238,202           $24,764
Network A                1,051,828           $21,036 
Transworld TV              428,504            $8,570

We don’t know what Youtube’s expectations were, but we’d guess that Redbull Media House may be in the proper revenue generation range. When you compare the revenue being generated to the $1 million Youtube fronted each channel the gaps between the become even more apparent. Redbull would earn its investment back in a little over 4 months. At the Ride Channel it would take a year-and-a-half, while at Alli Sports and Network A it will take well over three years. Depending on how Youtube is thinking that could be a long, long time.

For a clearer view on how all these channels stack up check out Ad Age’s Top Original Channels of All Time.

[Link: New York Post and Ad Age]

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