Sport Shorts

Good morning. A lot of people are feeling good after this weekend, including the marketing team at Coinbase, fans of 90s hip-hop, and the Rams—but maybe no one more than Drake, who finally broke his notoriously bad betting streak.

—Hannah Doyle

Shorts Creator Reps YouTube at the Super Bowl

YouTube tapped lifestyle creator Katie Feeney to make Shorts content throughout Super Bowl weekend, interviewing players and documenting her experience. 

Feeney, who has over 8 million followers between TikTok and YouTube, is a freshman at Penn State and is currently the social media intern for its football team. Her game day content has amassed significant viewership, with up to 1 million views on her videos.

Over the last two weeks, her YouTube channel has brought in daily viewership numbers similar to network YouTube channels like NBC Sports and the Olympics during their Winter Games programming.

By the Numbers

40+ → how many Shorts Katie Feeney shared over Super Bowl weekend.

100,000 → average views of each Super Bowl Short.

2.4 billion → how many views her channel has received over the last eight months.

Our Take

Feeney found herself a niche by building a following almost exclusively on Shorts. Much like how YouTube brought Emma Chamberlain and Liza Koshy to the Met Gala, the Super Bowl has been a trial run for Feeney to step into more mainstream entertainment.

Vinnie Hacker Starts a Hot Wings Show

The TikTok creator and Hype House member started uploading more frequently to his YouTube, testing out new types of content apart from the lip sync videos he’s known for. 

One of his recent experiments is the Hot Wing Show (not to be confused with Hot Ones). The first episode features Jeff Wittek, and shows more sides of Hacker’s personality. 

Hacker has 13.5 million followers on TikTok, while his YouTube channel has 27x less subscribers at 537,000. Despite the relatively small size, his views per video is exceptional, averaging around 550,000.

Our Take

On TikTok, platform trends largely dictate content, leaving little room for creative expression and freedom. Content on YouTube is less trends-driven and leaves more up to the creator. TikTokers looking to get their start on YouTube should develop a format they can replicate consistently to find success.

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David Letterman Heads to YouTube

The TV personality and interviewer started a YouTube channel earlier this month to showcase archive clips from his Late Night and Late Show series, together spanning 26 seasons.

According to Socialblade, the channel's views have increased since going live on February 1st, from ~100K in the first few days to 400K–500K more recently. Given the numbers exceed the total number of channel subscribers, it’s a good sign of audience engagement.

Our Take

Internet video is becoming an asset class that can appreciate over time, especially in the talk show and interview format. By putting old episodes on YouTube, Letterman is providing higher quality footage for his fans, gaining a new audience, and monetizing his library of work. It’s network syndication, without the network.

🔥 Press Worthy

• Midnight Society is hiring for its community team.

• Mythical partners with Ghetto Film School.

• Pearpop launches dynamic NFTs that gain value as content goes viral.

• Markiplier starts a sports podcast.

• Max Fosh becomes the world’s richest man for 7 minutes.

• Colin and Samir interview Comedian Andrew Schulz. 

• Allison Holker, Kat Blaque, and Lexi Riviera are among featured creators at this year’s VidCon.