Understanding YouTube’s Multi-Channel Networks
YouTube is an online video streaming website where users can create their own profile (channel) and share their created videos with anyone on the internet. The website is incredibly popular, boasting over a billion users with millions of hours of multimedia content watched each day.[1] With such high traffic, YouTube has had great success with its advertisement program, which allows users to display advertisements with their videos and split the revenue with YouTube. These ads have allowed some users to turn their channels into viable businesses – YouTube celebrities, such as Swedish gamer Felix Kjellberg (who goes by the name of “pewdiepie” online), have previously reported annual incomes of up to $12 million USD before tax. [2]
However, few of the top channels on YouTube are entirely independent endeavors. In recent years, companies have begun making partnerships with various YouTubers, providing them marketing, legal, and production resources to help expand their brands in exchange for a percentage of their ad revenue. These companies are known as “Multi-Channel Networks” or MCNs. MCNs are large operations that can contain thousands of channels within them. For instance, Maker Studios, an MCN owned by Disney Interactive, claims 26,169 members at the time of writing as a part of its network.[3]
It is important to note that each channel within an MCN still retains a degree of independence. From makeup tutorials to video game playthroughs, each creator in a MCN’s portfolio can be seen as an independent node that’s connected to other channels through its affiliation with the MCN. In this way, one can visualize the YouTube creator network as a graph, with individual channels serving as nodes and edges connecting nodes as their MCN ties. This graph is exciting to study, as it is constantly changing. For instance, a YouTuber can break away from their previous MCN and sign with a new one, effectively changing which component they are a part of in the graph. In addition, MCNs can develop subnetworks, which may eventually split off to form their own MCNs, such as with The Yogscast’s departure from Maker Studios gaming focused subnetwork, Polaris[4].
The proliferation of MCNs is an interesting development considering YouTube’s focus on individual channels. However, from our understanding of networks so far, perhaps it is not an entirely unexpected one. We know that certain networks, such as social networks, exhibit behavior that results in a greater balance for the network as a whole, such as Triadic Closure. If examined through this lens, perhaps the development of MCNs is a response to keeping the network balanced as channels grow in popularity and subscriber counts. In addition, one could arguably make the case that MCNs are also the result of individual players (channels) making decisions that result in larger payoffs for them, which may involve mutual cooperation with other players and the formation of these networks. Whatever the case may be, MCNs are an integral part of YouTube’s creator network today, and only time will tell how they continue to develop.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html
[2] http://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2015/10/14/the-worlds-highest-paid-youtube-stars-2015/#76e11324542c
[3] http://socialblade.com/youtube/network/maker
[4] https://www.reddit.com/r/Yogscast/comments/4d7bk8/theyve_officially_left_maker_say_hello_to_yogcast/