India’s top 10 YouTube channels

T-Series is India’s top ranked YouTube channel; its content, largely music and movie videos, have managed over 9 billion views on YouTube

---

Livemint

ChuChu TV is probably India’s largest content creator you’ve probably never heard of, sandwiched between some of the biggest names in the business of entertainment.

Today, we’ve featured India’s third-largest YouTube channel, the Chennai-based ChuChu TV, which boasts a subscriber count of nearly 5 million and over 5.1 billion views since its launch in February 2013. ChuChu TV is probably India’s largest content creator you’ve probably never heard of, sandwiched between some of the biggest names in the business of entertainment.

Here’s a list of India’s top 10 YouTube channels, ranked by subscribers.

1) T-Series: India’s top ranked YouTube channel, according to Vidooly data, is the entertainment company T-Series. Even though T-Series was relatively late to the YouTube game, joining the platform in 2011, it has successfully garnered nearly 11.1 million subscribers. Their content, largely music and movie videos, have managed over 9 billion views on YouTube.

2) SET India: One of India’s largest entertainment channels, Sony Entertainment Television or SET, has been a relatively early YouTube adopter, joining the platform in 2006. The channel’s content largely revolves around some of Sony’s ongoing shows, with latest episodes, or even past episodes which it has made available for viewers. SET India has 6.31 million subscribers, and its videos have been seen 2.76 billion times.

3) ChuChuTV: Third on the list, comprehensively profiled by Mint, is the Chennai-based ChuChu TV. To quote from the article, “ChuChu TV’s 115 videos have got, all put together, 5.19 billion views. That’s more than half of T-Series’s 9.31 billion views, with around 82 times fewer videos. SET India is at a paltry 2.7 billion views. Which makes ChuChu TV the second most viewed YouTube channel in India. Plus, ChuChu TV is famous all over the world—the US, the UK, Ireland, Middle East and South-East Asia, and several other countries and regions. On average, the channel adds 7,000+ subscribers daily. Its monthly estimated earnings are between $61,200-979,200.”

4) Eros Now: Eros Now is a subsidiary of one of India’s largest film distribution company and production houses—Eros International Media Limited. The Eros Now channel offers a wide range of movie-related content, including trailers and full-movies, which are available as a paid-only feature. The channel has nearly 4.5 million subscribers (4.42m to be precise) with over 3.6 billion views.

5) Colors TV: Colors TV, again, is one of India’s most-watched entertainment channels since its launch in 2008. The Network18-owned channel rose to prominence due to its primetime show Balika Vadhu. Colors TV is currently ranked fifth among the most subscribed Indian YouTube channels, with 4.22 million subscribers and 1.77 billion views.

6) Zee TV: Unsurprisingly, Zee TV, also one of India’s biggest television networks, finds itself among the top ten YouTube channels. It was also among the earliest Indian channels to set up shop on YouTube, launching its channel in 2005. While Zee TV has a healthy subscriber base of 4.1 million, its nearly 60,300 videos have been watched at least 5.1 billion times.

7) YRF: With nearly 3.32 million subscribers, YRF or Yash Raj Films is ranked 7th in the list. Yash Raj Films, founded by producer and director Yash Chopra, is one of India’s biggest production houses, since it was set up in 1970. On YouTube, YRF has been an early adopter, much like some others in the list. Its content mostly consists of film trailers, music videos and web serials, a new offering. According to Vidooly, YRF’s YouTube channel currently has nearly 2.02 billion views.

8) Star Plus: Since it joined YouTube in 2006, Star Plus, again one of India’s popular general entertainment channels, has managed nearly 3 million subscribers and is ranked 8th. With entertainment content as its core offering, the Star Plus channel has been viewed nearly half a billion times during the last decade (471.14 million to be precise).

9) CVS 3D Rhymes: By all means a ChuChu TV competitor, minus the big numbers to show, CVS 3D Rhymes also mostly deals with kids-related content in Indian languages and English. The channel, since its launch has published only 272 videos, but has a subscriber base of nearly 3 million, with over 3 billion views.

10) Sony Music India: Sony’s second big channel in the top 10, after its entertainment channel, Sony Music India has over the last few years emerged as one of the first destinations for viewers interested in commercial music (across languages). It currently has 2.58 million subscribers, with 1.42 billion views to its credit.