Insights & Trends - page 5

If your retention graph keeps falling and you can't tell why, read its shape before you look at the final percentage. In one of AIR Media-Tech's channel audits, two videos on the same topic, both about six minutes long, ended at 41% and 34% watched. What differed was how fast each one got to the point: within the first 15 seconds in one, at 1:43 in the other.

YouTube Studio shows three numbers for how long people watch your videos: watch time, average view duration (AVD), and average percentage viewed (APV). All three come from the same viewing data, but each one answers a different question. Read the wrong one, and you'll fix the wrong thing.

Until February 1, 2027, a new channel needs 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 qualified watch hours in the last 12 months to apply for ad revenue in the YouTube Partner Program. From that date, new applicants need 8,000 hours, and channels already in the program keep their place. So a channel under the bar has until January 31 to apply against the lower number.

Kids Diana Show has 138 million subscribers and more than 126 billion views. Only two kids' channels on YouTube have more subscribers: Cocomelon and Vlad and Niki. Add Kids Roma Show and the family's channels in other languages, and the count passes 400 million across more than 30 channels.