Church of the Customer Blog
« Subscribers trump page views | Main | “Ubiquity is the new exclusivity" »
January 15, 2007
Subscribers trump page views
At CES, YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley said (about 2:27 into this video) that in the first three months of having CBS content on YouTube more than 40,000 people subscribed to the CBS channel. Plus, it had tallied 75 million total views of the 700+ CBS-uploaded videos.
Nice numbers. Let's play them out: If CBS continues to post 200 clips or more per month on YouTube, more than Brookers, Smosh or Lonelygirl15 could ever imagine, that might allow us to optimistically extrapolate CBS' growth rate a full year later: 160,000 channel subscribers and 300 million total views of its content.
Three hundred million views would be impressive, but I would be more excited about the 160,000 subscribers.
Why? If I were a CBS exec, it means I would have 160,000 tech-savvy and buzz-spreading early adopters ready to help determine the next hit show, not just watch what my subscribers had already missed. Subscriber growth is really the new keystone measure of success because it's the best indicator of your ability to create loyalty.
A subscriber base is a tangible asset. Page views and site visitor measures are ephemeral.
Other blogs that reference Subscribers trump page views:
The old quality over quantity adage is still true! Fantastic numbers of eyeballs garners headlines and buzz, but where's the contribution the bottom line?
Thanks for a post that needed posting.
Jodie, www.QNNtv.com
