There is a good article in The National Catholic Register. It discusses the various uses of Catholic media in the Church in the United States. One segment states:
[I]t’s the medium’s advantages that have people such as Atlanta couple Greg and Jennifer Willits excited. They are trying to capitalize on the advantages of online video by using YouTube to evangelize. They hope to catch non-Catholics or lapsed Catholics unawares.
The Willits first began podcasting in 2005. Working with podcasting priest Father Roderick Vonhögen, the Willitses raised $50,000 in order to launch an online video series to teach the faith. The result is the humorous yet reverent “That Catholic Show“. [More…]
“That Catholic Show” is a well-produced video series. I would like to interview the Willits about it in the future for a podcast. They deserve the kudos they are receiving.
I do take exception to a bit of shallow reporting done by Tim Drake. He writes:
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s Cardinal Justin Rigali became the first Church leader to make regular use of YouTube. Every week of Lent, Cardinal Rigali presented a weekly two- to four-minute video reflection on the Gospels called “Living Lent.”
“Cardinal Rigali’s first video received 3,000 hits in 24 hours,” said Palmo, a Philadelphia resident. “It was one of the five most-watched videos on YouTube. The archdiocese was stunned by the response.”
The article goes on to site the fact there there have been over 30,000 downloads of the series combined. Pretty good. Right?
Well, on one hand yes, but if you scratch the surface a bit you get a different story. According to YouTube’s own statistics, the first of Archbishop Rigali’s reflections has been viewed a total of 20,849 times. This means the remaining twelve episodes share the remaining 10,000 views. This is an average of just over 833 views per episode. Still, even this paints a rosy picture.
The real story here is how terribly the show is doing. Yes, it is true there have been 30,000 downloads, but let’s take a look at the stats on all of the shows through Lent and up until Good Friday:
1st Sunday Lent 20,849 views
2nd Sunday Lent 4,632
3rd Sunday Lent 1,904
4th Sunday Lent 1,293
5th Sunday Lent 890
Palm Sunday 1048
Holy Week Special 236
Holy Thursday 175
Good Friday 236
You get the idea. The stats for the last two in the series have been in the low double digits.
My point here is not to just bash a well-intentioned video series, but as the question as to why the show has lost 99.9% of its audience (20,849 down to 21) since it’s inception on February 21, 2007?
I look at the numbers and recognize there was definitely a pent-up demand for good Catholic content. I interpret following the numbers as evidence that whatever the viewers were look for, they did not find it with Archbishop Rigali’s video series.
I also note that “That Catholic Show’s” (TCS) week 2 numbers were half those of week 1. I believe it is too early to identify trends with TCS, though it is clear there is a definite one for Archbishop Rigali’s. Frankly, the show is in Hospice, but I would guess, the producers of the show don’t recognize that yet.
This of course begs the question, ‘What is it Catholic viewers are looking for online?’ I don’t have the answer. I’d like to hear your insights.
Tags: Video, YouTube, Video Podcast | 3 Comments »
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