YouTube wants creators to build 'fanbases'

YouTube’s global head of entertainment Alex Carloss has encouraged channel-owners to focus on building “fanbases” rather than simply audiences on Google’s video service, The Guardian reported.

“An audience tunes in when they're told to, a fanbase chooses when and what to watch,” said Carloss at the MIPTV television industry conference in Cannes. “An audience changes the channel when their show is over. A fanbase shares, it comments, it curates, it creates.”

Carloss’ speech was light on YouTube’s strategic vision in favour of a roll-call of popular celebrities and channels on the service in recent years, from Susan Boyle and Psy to gamer PewDiePie, who with 25m subscribers is YouTube’s biggest channel.

Carloss also cited YouTube as the new “battlefield” between US late-night talk-show hosts Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and Conan O’Brien, suggesting that their existing viewerships had peaked.

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