Hey guys, I hope you're have a fantastic Monday. Uh, this, just from the get-go, I want you know
that this is not a regular Philip DeFranco show.
In fact, I won't be posting until next Monday.
I'll explain more on that later.
This video is an extremely frustrating, but also exciting, video for me to put out.
I'll start with what is frustrating, which is that as of right now
with the current state of YouTube, the Philip DeFranco show
cannot thrive. In fact,
I think very, very soon the Philip DeFranco show may not be able to
survive, and it all really boils down to the increased crackdown from YouTube against this channel.
I mean if you've watched the show for a while, you know that I've talked about YouTube cracking down
on the channel as far as
monetization, but this is a lot more.
Back then we noticed that the Philip Defranco show had started being demonetized
at a higher rate than normal. And so to of offset that, of
course, we tried to include more sponsors,
we launched the paid subscription service, Defranco Elite.
People sign up for $5, $10 a month tiers,
they get exclusive videos, early videos, exclusive live streams,
there's a lot more. And it helps insulate us from the
demonetization issue, it allows us to really thrive as a channel and
also use that money to build out everything
we've been doing behind the scenes.
So the demonetization issue on YouTube really isn't of the highest priority to me.
Unfortunately, we're being hit by what I would call a sister algorithm.
Often when you see YouTube comments about demonetization
they often separate it from suppression of views. And it's accurate,
but also at the same time very misleading.
Technically demonetization and the rating of a video,
let's say, as mature, where it's unable to be on trending,
on the front page, watch next,
the recommended tab. Think of those as separate
but very, very similar levers.
While the video being demonetized does not
100% of the time mean that that video will be suppressed,
now when we see that little dollar sign
it's kind of like a canary in a coal mine.
Unfortunately, because YouTube is not transparent with how they rate our videos or why or
what is in that video,
You don't know for sure
But it's usually reflected in the views and in the rate of the views.
As a side note, YouTube needs to change the backend to let us know
what our videos are being rated. In an ideal world, we'd love to also know why.
Right, so an example, last week. Several of our
videos were suppressed. Tons of comments saying 'The video's not popping up
where it normally does. What's the deal?'
Next morning, the videos have around three hundred to four hundred fifty thousand less views
than the average videos normally have.
One of the biggest problems is this is now happening at an alarming rate.
And usually what happens is when we bring it to YouTube that they look into it.
They either say like 'Okay?
Well you talked about this thing, you showed this thing in relation to the story,'
which I would understand demonetization, sure.
Me talking about Syria, Russia, United States relations.
Maybe Pepsi doesn't want that ad there.
But it doesn't make sense to people that watch my show on a regular basis that I'm not
popping up on the homepage, recommended, watch next.
YouTube built the system so that they feel comfortable knowing
Oh, if they'll post a new video. That's where it's going to be. Or they say, 'well
you know, the algorithm's learning, the AI is learning.'
That's the problem. Because this is popping up more and more,
it appears that the algorithm has learned to crack down on my videos now.
That said, I don't want this to be just a video of me whining.
Part of this is also
One, I want people to know that I have been posting videos, you may not just have seen them.
And two, to really just send my
plea out to YouTube. Please help me.
I want to be able to talk about the news here. World news, serious issues
And I, honestly...
I honestly now, based off of the way YouTube has set itself up
don't believe that I can thrive on this platform anymore.
That's incredibly disheartening for me. Especially as a creator
who's been on the platform for over a decade who
really, like, I love saying that I'm a YouTuber.
But not what the way things are now. Now, that said, to flip it over to the
exciting, this may be news for a lot of people that are not members of
DeFranco Elite, also people that haven't seen certain little snippets
we've included in vlogs.
What we've been doing behind the scenes for these many many months has been
building up to be able to launch the new news network.
And having to deal with all of this
stupid, ridiculous YouTube bullshit is not stopping me from
launching any of that. When I left group 9 / Discovery
I brought a little small team with me. Behind the scenes, we've hired a ton of people so we can expand.
We built out a six person research and
Investigative team that is most likely gonna go to ten in the near future.
Even bringing on and testing a stable of hosts on brand
new shows. Many with journalism, reporting backgrounds, also just from different walks of life.
This is for a variety of new shows
we've talked about in the past, deep dive, short social videos.
What is a sanctuary city?
How did they come to be, and why should we even care?
Today we're talking about a word you've probably heard and seen all over the media these last couple months,
tariffs.
Today we're breaking down how Spotify became the most powerful music company in the world,
the price of a billion streams, and whether or not your favorite musicians are getting stiffed.
We've been working on a semi-daily live news show where we go in, we give all the facts
and then we all kind of talk about it and debate it.
Also, a big part of the reason we want to do that
live is so that we can bring back the
conversation with you guys and actually
include you in those videos.
Along with that at the same time building out the support structures so that we can bring back the
Interview Show which of course we recently tested with Sean Evans.
"Military grade butt- hole right here!" On top of that
we've been testing and creating a morning podcast
you know so you can get it on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, Google Play, SoundCloud
whatever, and as of May we are going to be moving out of the lifeboat
that has been this office. If you remember when I
bought back my channel, I left the previous company.
We were filming out of Airbnb's.
We had a very short term lease. We are now moving into the big studio to accommodate
all the things we've been building behind the scenes.
Multiple soundproof sets. We can be shooting six different pieces of a content at the same time
There's plenty of room to expand and grow into it.
We're also, I completely forgot before, we're starting an O&O website.
It's going to be part, phase one, phase two, and that's also a thing I want
to note is that these are gonna be incremental releases.
I don't want to throw everything at the wall at the same time, that seems
like guaranteed failure. And really all that is now
changing is that none of that will go to YouTube first.
I am tired of trying to work with the alcoholic, negligent stepfather that is Youtube.
At this point, it really doesn't matter if you're swerving this car into a tree on purpose
or you're just asleep at the wheel and that's what happened.
Now as far as why there won't be videos this week
I am taking a one-week vacation off.
It's kind of a consolidation of multiple things, my anniversary with my wife, her birthday
It's also gonna be one of (laugh) one of the last vacations
I can take for a very long time because when I come back,
especially once we do this move and we start launching these shows
my schedule is going to be insane.
So, it's kind of me taking a massive gulp of air before I go free diving
into all of this new content.
On a personal note as far as where I'm going,
I'm going to Japan for the very first time. I am very excited.
Also I'll let you know in advance
I'm gonna try not to do anything that makes
Youtubers or Americans or people named Phil look horrible to Japan. It's going to be nothing
but "arigato gozaimasu" from me. Well that and gaining all the weight
I've lost over the past month by eating delicious, delicious food.
But all of that said, if there is a note that I can end this video on, it's just thank you.
Thank you for watching the show. Thank you for sharing the show
Thank you to all you beautiful bastards that signed up to the DefrancoElite.com.
I mean you're the reason that any of this is even possible, so just thank you.
That said, I love your faces, and I will see you next Monday.