Two of the top five global MCNs decided to merge themselves in one, brand new channel that promises to bring a new wave of original contents to the Pacific markets. Yoola is the largest Russian MCN accounting for more than five billion monthly views, while UUUM is the top Japanese one that connects all top Asian YouTube channels, with over 6.5 billion monthly views. The idea is not just to increase their views and revenue streams all across Asia and Eastern Europe, but to expand their audience to the United States and South America as well. Many new content creators did, in fact, flock to the rapidly growing channels to bring their ideas and creative potential, and the two companies decided to coordinate themselves on brand promotions, creator collaborations to build attractive lineups for their viewers.
As part of their plan, new original productions have been announced, including a new “Social Media Boy Band” reality show. Top social media influencers and digital creators will be integrated into the new formats and will be granted additional resources in the form of millions of dollars budget to help them maximize their exposure. These will include an extensive sound effects and music library, various forms of channel promotion and distribution, rights management protection and direct monetization opportunities.
We asked Eyal Baumel, CEO of Yoola, how the upcoming partnership is actually going to provide greater international opportunities to the two channels in a brief interview. “We are looking to create original content that will draw from the popularity of social media using international formats,” he explained, adding that they already hired “top online creators and influencers who create great content on their channels.”
We asked if users are going to be able to join the development of the new formats, too. “The simple answer is yes” he said. “Users will have the opportunity to participate in shows by voting, similar to competition shows on TV. They will also be able to become amateur creators and actually join the shows.”
Our last question was if they were planning to market the new project on social medias by making, for example, specific videos on Facebook live, or Vines.
“Our main focus will be to use the popularity of social media via specific pages of influencers and creators that will participate on the different shows. The partnership with UUUM will also be key here as it will join together two of the biggest YouTube MCNs, where we will be able to market across an enormous amount of channels.”
The imminent Yoola-UUUM partnership can be one of the first major steps towards the evolution of the next generation media channels, as traditional television loses ground every day against the unstoppable force of the Internet.
