It’s Tuesday and a viral animated film has become an anti-AI symbol—despite grossing the equivalent of just $50 on its opening day.
Today’s News
🎵 TikTok finds the beat
🚀 A four-way tie rules YouTube
📈 This week on the branded charts…
🏀 All Hail Bball sponsors a team
👩❤️💋👨 Short wife meets short-form video
CAN’T STOP THE BEAT
Music On Stage is making its triumphant return.
As YouTube airs Eurovision, TikTok is bringing back its in-house music contest
The competition: What do you get when you combine the Eurovision Song Contest, American Idol, and the SoundOn program? The answer is Music On Stage, a worldwide event that brings emerging artists to viewers via TikTok LIVE.
TikTok first introduced Music On Stage last year. According to a blog post, that go-around generated 8.2 billion impressions while drawing 1.4 million viewers throughout the broadcast of the Global Finals (which culminated in a win for Anyelique Solorio).
One year later, TikTok is uniting creators from over 20 regions to compete for shares of a prize pool that includes developmental opportunities through SoundOn and on-stage opportunities at festivals like TikTok LIVE Fest, Breakaway Carolina Festival and All Things Go NYC.
Auditions for Music On Stage began on August 15, with the Global Finals set for September. As in 2025, the competition will be split between the EMEA and APAC regions. The former show will be hosted by British singer-songwriter Cat Burns, while Thai singer-songwriter Songkarn will anchor the latter.
The context: Between its international scope and focus on rising pop talent, Music On Stage has much in common with Eurovision. Viewers looking to stream coverage of the European Broadcasting Union’s 70-year-old contest, however, might want to head over to YouTube.
The official ESC channel has long had a strong presence on Google’s video platform. In 2026, YouTube took its support to the next level by becoming an official Eurovision broadcaster. Now, as the contest expands to Asia, YouTube is expanding its coverage in kind.
If TikTok wants to continue emphasizing its impact on the music industry, it will need an answer to YouTube’s Eurovision coverage—and that’s where Music On Stage comes in. In addition to celebrating emerging talent, the event serves as an advertisement for SoundOn’s capabilities and TikTok LIVE’s diverse revenue streams.
HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰
Four channels snagged one million new subs during the week that was.
Our latest weekly ranking of the top 50 most-subscribed YouTube channels ended in a four-way tie, with Lucan Pevidor, MrBeast, Zee Music Company, and WWE coming out on top. (Tubefilter)
Instagram director of product design Jasmine Probst addressed negative responses to the platform’s new wordmark in a recent interview, noting that “we very much take input to heart.” (Variety)
Reddit has officially begun rolling out audio and video features in a “limited experiment” that will allow some users to listen to and watch posts. (Engadget)
ABC has formally announced Searched, a livestreamed show focused on the biggest stories from across social media. (The Verge)
GOSPEL STATS 📈
MrBeast is back on top. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images.)
Top Branded Videos of the Week: MrBeast and the Mouse House
Has World Cup fervor finally quieted down on YouTube? For the first time in quite a while, Gospel Stats’ weekly ranking of most-viewed branded videos doesn’t include a FIFA-backed clip in the top five. Instead, MrBeast is back at #1 thanks to a dose of Disney magic.
🥇 #1. MrBeast x Disney: I Granted 100 Kids Their Biggest Wish! (59M views)
Disney doesn’t often sponsor YouTube content, but we can see why the Mouse House wanted in on MrBeast’s wish-granting project. Over the course of a single video, YouTube’s most subscribed-to creator granted sick kids’ wishes by organizing a private meet-and-greet with Stray Kids, an unlimited shopping spree, a trip to Hawai’i to meet The Rock and Auliʻi Cravalho, and more…and then he made a $6.5 million donation to Stand Up To Cancer.
🥈 #2. Quenlin Blackwell x Google Play: Your emcee has arrived ✨ Join me at The Auction by Google Play #GooglePartner #GoPlay (12.4M views)
Last month, YouTube took on San Diego Comic-Con with a Google Play-inspired activation hosted by emcee Quenlin Blackwell. People who traversed the installation earned tokens to spend during an auction for collectibles, merch, and gamer swag. Of course, Blackwell also made a point to say that anyone who wasn’t able to make it to Comic-Con could still earn rewards online.
🎰 #3,154. Designed to the Nines x Factor: I Turned Thrift Store Finds Into HIGH-END Christmas Decor! (50.5K views)
Further down the rankings, the “Christmas in July” trend managed to snag some views just before YouTube users turn their attention to spooky season. With support from meal kit maker Factor, Designed to the Nines got a jump on the holidays with a few thrifty DIY projects.
Check out the full branded ranking here and head over to Gospel Stats for more YouTube sponsorship insights.
SPORTS STUFF
All Hail Bball’s deal with RMU involves more than a patch.
This creator didn’t just sponsor a NCAA team. He became its official media partner.
The deal: As digital content and sports grow more and more entangled, creator sponsors are becoming a familiar phenomenon. Partnerships between John Green and AFC Wimbledon, KSI + Logan Paul and Arsenal, the Sidemen and Farnham Town FC, and MrBeast and the Charlotte Hornets have all put creator brand logos on teams’ jerseys.
Now, Cullen Honohan’s basketball-focused digital media brand, All Hail Bball, is sponsoring a team too—but Honohan’s plan for Robert Morris University‘s Division 1 men’s basketball team goes way beyond a simple patch.
The creator told Tubefilter that he plans to embed with the team and serve as its official media partner, creating on-the-court and behind-the-scenes content to document the Colonials’ rise as “the next Cinderella story in college basketball.”
He added that he chose the Colonials as All Hail Bball’s first sponsored team “because of what this school means to Pittsburgh.”
“This is one of the best sports cities in the country, but basketball has never been prioritized the way it should be here. Our mission has always been to help put Pittsburgh basketball on the map.”
The details: All Hail Bball’s partnership with RMU was facilitated by Honohan’s agent, Amir Novin of THE•TEAM. Honohan ultimately hopes his company’s support and the content he creates will make RMU “a nationally recognized brand in college athletics”—and that his brand will grow alongside it.
He’d eventually like to expand this same sort of All Hail Bball sponsor x media partnership to other sports, but said “to start this process we are going to give our whole effort into RMU Men’s Basketball.”
The 2026-27 NCAA season kicks off in November. The Colonials’ first game will take place on the second day of the month, when they face the University of Nevada’s Wolf Pack at the Lawlor Events Center in Reno.
WATCH THIS 👀
One of India’s favorite wife guys is climbing the YouTube charts.
Short wife, meet short-form video
The wife guy: India is dominating the Global Top 50. More than half of the entrants in this week’s ranking of YouTube’s most-viewed channels hail from the world’s most populous nation—thanks in large part to their owners’ savvy use of universal themes.
Take Tera Trigun. These days, the most-watched Shorts on the Indian creator’s channel—including this one—revolve around the contrast between his own impressive height and his wife’s petite stature. It’s not hard to see why those simple skits attract global attention; after all, you don’t need to speak Hindi to understand the humor of a short person driving a toy car.
For Tera Trigun, that universal form of comedy has opened up new doors. During the second week of August, he collected 419.4 million weekly views to claim a place at #18 in the Global Top 50.
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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Drew Baldwin, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen.