Indian music label T-Series set to beat PewDiePie, rule YouTube universe

Indian music label and film production major T-Series is set to beat PewDiePie on YouTube to become the most-subscribed channel in the video-sharing website.

PewDiePie is a YouTube channel belonging to Swedish gamer and jokester Felix Kjellberg, who has so far been the most-subscribed channel on YouTube.

Currently, the monthly subscriber of T-Series is growing at a rate of three million per month. T-Series, which started with just 30 million subscribers at the start of the year, now ranks among the most-watched YouTube channels globally with total subscribers at 114 million through its assortment of 29 channels.

On November 21,the T-Series YouTube channel had over 70 million subscribers in comparison to PewDiePie's 71 million

With this, T-Series is now competing with other leading YouTube channels run by personalities such as Kjellberg or Justin Bieber. Five out of the 20 most-viewed videos of T-Series are reportedly non-film songs.

The company is banking on an innovative programming strategy to expand its subscriber base across the world.

"The T-Series team has been innovative in their programming strategy on YouTube. It optimises release cycles and formats that work on YouTube and focusses on programming and engagement," Satya Raghavan, Head of Entertainment, YouTube India, told The Financial Express reported.

If the channel crosses this milestone, it will become the first non-English channel to reach the number one spot on YouTube.

T-Series uploads key music genres including Bollywood music, pop, devotional and classics on its 29 channels catering to different Indian languages such as Hindi, Punjabi, Bhojpuri, Telugu, Tamil, Haryanvi, Kannada, Marathi and Gujarati.

The channel is also tapping individual talents on YouTube to leveraging their influence. "T-Series has also been tapping into the creativity of independent YouTube creators and leveraging their influence to amplify their releases. It partners with creators to produce songs and dance covers, and also sign key YouTube music talent as artists such as Shirley Seitia," Raghavan said.

The phenomenal growth of T-Series may add to the channel's brand value and reach. "Though from the revenue standpoint it doesn’t benefit music labels a great deal, from an audience standpoint, it has a massive impact in terms of brand and promotion," Jehil Thakkar, partner, Deloitte India, said.

Thakkar added that being prominent on a platform like YouTube, or being an important part of a content ecosystem on any of the social platforms, has a huge multiplier effect for any content company, both in terms of direct and indirect revenue.