T-Series has now become the world’s most viewed video channel on YouTube, reports the New York Times, a daily. The music label’s YouTube channel has accumulated a record 53 billion views since it first began in 2006.
“The channel gains over 100,000 subscribers a day and is about to pass the controversial personality PewDiePie to become the most subscribed to channel on YouTube,” the report said.
PewDiePie was recently in the news for his Twitter fracas with Ekta Kapoor. The controversial YouTuber satirised Kapoor’s famed television serials resulting in Kapoor taking to Twitter to start an argument with him online.
In comparison, Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran, two of the most popular musicians on the international market, have 15 billion views each. Additionally, Justin Bieber has 18 billion views.
As for T-Series, the report quotes that the channel has seen a rapid increase since the implementation of cheaper digital access by Reliance Industries’ Jio plan for 4G networks in India.
The report quotes Neeraj Kalyan, president, T-Series as saying, “The recent growth in internet usage in India has really helped us grow exponentially.”
The channel boasts a record 70 million subscribers as of today, and videos averaging ‘6.5 million views’ according to the report.
T-Series is one of the many Indian music labels targeting the YouTube market. Yash Raj Films, Zee Entertainment, Balaji Telefilms and Sony Music India are among the other competitors in the zone.
However, according to New York Times, India still has only 34% of its population online in comparison to the 89% of the United States population. Yet, India seems to have a more active usage of the YouTube platform as compared to the international markets.
The report also states: “Just less than half of T-Series’s traffic comes from India, with 12% coming from the United States. In 2016, the company signed a licensing deal with Amazon for film releases.”
T-Series is headed by Bhushan Kumar, and was founded by his father, Gulshan Kumar in the early 1980s.