Embassy Row's POPTUB Enjoys Biggest Month Since Launch

POPTUB, Embassy Row's daily YouTube™ show, hosted by Maria Sansone, enjoyed its strongest month ever in April, gaining over 3,300,000 views while successfully targeting the show's key demographic of millennials. POPTUB's audience has been steadily growing since its launch in September 2008, and is emerging as one of the most successful branded entertainment channels on YouTube. A guest editorship on the YouTube homepage in April amplified this success, leading to the strongest month so far.

POPTUB, a daily show that highlights YouTube's best content and producers, is produced out of Embassy Row's studios in downtown Manhattan. What began as an innovation in content distribution on YouTube has proven to be a successful branded entertainment business model. At its inception in September 2008, POPTUB quietly appeared with little fanfare on YouTube, before launching into syndication by way of the Google Content Network. Via Google's gadget format, episodes find the user wherever he or she is - premium websites, YouTube watch pages, Facebook, RSS pages and blogs - and syndication is targeted to best serve the show's key demographic.

Combining Content Network syndication with the analytic tools of YouTube Insight, POPTUB was able to triple its audience in three months. Via Insight, POPTUB has real-time means to check viewer demographics, and is tapped into an online focus group that reveals the segments and types of content that keep the audience engaged. This data allowed the production team to immediately identify which parts of their videos resonated most strongly with their core audience and by delivering more of that content, POPTUB has shown dramatic growth.

"Now, just eight months since we have launched, there is significant evidence that this new content and distribution model works," said Michael Davies, President of Embassy Row and the creator and executive producer of POPTUB. "With five original shows every week and a daily average of 75,000 views a day, POPTUB delivers content and brand messaging to a significant, targeted audience and provides a phenomenal service to the YouTube community."

In recognition of its growing stature on YouTube, POPTUB was granted a guest editorship on YouTube's homepage on April 14th 2009. For one day, POPTUB featured 12 video selections on the homepage, highlighting up-and-coming, emerging producers whose work isn't normally exposed to a massive audience - a sweetspot for POPTUB. The videos of these featured producers aggregated over 800,000 views for their creators.

"My spotlighted video received around 70,000 views, by far the most attention I've ever received on YouTube in a day," commented PrussianSunsets, whose video parodying the recently leaked Wolverine footage caught the eye of the POPTUB editorial team. "I have never been featured or recognized on YouTube before, and having such exposure was excellent for an aspiring filmmaker and writer."

ABOUT EMBASSY ROW - Embassy Row, a Sony Pictures Entertainment Company, is a New York City-based global format and digital production studio dedicated to developing cutting-edge original concepts and the most creative international formats for television networks, online and wireless distribution in the U.S. and around the world.

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SOURCE: Embassy Row

CONTACT: Victoria Katsarou of YouTube, +1-650-336-4096,
victoriak@youtube.com; or Tracey Bowen of Embassy Row, +1-212-507-9700,
tlb@embassyrow.com