Demi Lovato chose Google YouTube (GOOGL) as the official home for her four-part docuseries, “Dance with the Devil.” He describes too many of the singers in 2018, and the turbulent events that followed.
The bombshell documentary follows a similar track to “Seasons,” “This is Paris,” starring Paris Hilton and Ariana Grande’s “Dangerous Woman Diaries,” which also aired on the video-sharing platform.
In 2017, YouTube released “Demi Lovato: Simply Complicated,” a documentary about Lovato’s life and career.
But with traditional climbers from Netflix (NFLX) to Hulu (DIS) getting their teeth into celebrity-focused programming, including “Surviving R. Kelly,” “Framing Britney Spears,” “A ‘ Leaving Neverland ”and“ Operation Varsity Blues, ”YouTube seems to be a dark horse candidate for such an obvious offering.
Or is it?
“YouTube has billions and billions of viewers,” Morningstar analyst Ali Mogharabi told Yahoo Finance. He said that while some YouTube Originals require a high subscription, the platform can “help [celebrities] more aggressively attacking some of the other things they may have in the future such as attracting more subscribers to their own dedicated channels. “
Currently, Nearly 17 million people subscribe to Lovato’s YouTube channel. According to the company, more than 2 billion logged-in users visit the YouTube platform every month, with visitors consuming more than a billion hours of video per day.
It’s a staggering number, especially compared to the user bases of both Netflix and Disney +, which have over 203 million and 95 million global subscribers, respectively.
However, Mogharabi does not believe that YouTube sees itself as a direct competitor to these major OTT players. Instead, the platform creates a space within the longer content space.
“My opinion is that Google offers a combination of what we call AVOD (on-demand advertiser video) and SVOD (on-demand membership video) to monetize its users in any way they prefer the content eat, “he explained.
YouTube virtual circle”
YouTube accounts for more than 41% of supported streaming among U.S. households – more than any other support platform, according to recent data from Comscore.
In addition, YouTube ads made nearly $ 7 billion in the last quarter of 2020 – up 46% year-on-year and making up just over 12% of total revenue. -Advertising of $ 56.9 billion for the quarter, the company said in their latest earnings report.
This means YouTube can pay bigger budgets, attract more profitable content and offer bigger payloads.
“It’s something of a network impact,” Mogharabi said, explaining that “those are the biggest brand advertisers [Youtube] they can attract, the more capital or monetization opportunities it needs to attract in these celebrities and help them strengthen their own channels. “
“That vicious circle just keeps going – and if you think about it, that’s another reason why it took some of those longer pieces of shape,” he continued.
The influence of the network positions YouTube better as a full-fledged video streaming player.
Now, not only is it a platform that hosts user-created content, but it is also a climber that is better equipped to attract large advertisers. an attraction who, historically, has been careful to engage with the service because of the various risks posed by the customers.
This, Mogharabi notes, is not only beneficial for YouTube but also the celebrities who want to host professionally created content on the platform.
why YouTube is ‘all of the above’
As for the future of YouTube, its identity seems a bit dirty: Is it a place for music, docuseries, longer format content, traditional video sharing, or a platform for creators?
“Everything is above,” Mogharabi told Yahoo Finance, adding that YouTube’s Music and Premium options are just a few factors driving subscriber growth.
“It’s up to, ‘Hey, we have about 2 billion viewers on Youtube. See if we can figure out many different ways or a combination of different ways to monetize those users,’ “” he said.
“In the long run, this will benefit Youtube and Google as a whole,” he said.
Mogharabi currently has an alphabetical price target of $ 2,605 dollars a share and describes it as an “attractive” purchase.
Alexandra is a Producer & Entertainment Group at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @ alliecanal8193
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