What's Going on with Tennis Content on YouTube?

BallBag

BallBag

Professional
Seems like there's a void where tennis content should be on YouTube. There's definitely plenty of people making content but the sub numbers and related income is nowhere where it should be. I always thought that tennis is just not that big but there are 1M+ channels for smaller hobbies. Essential Tennis is the biggest tennis YouTuber at 250k and freaking Ping Pong has a channel approaching 3M subs. Golf has a similar demographic as tennis and there's a 1.8M channel and bunch of others at 500k. Are the tennis youtubers doing something wrong or is there something about tennis that makes it incompatible with YouTube. I know the bigger tennis channels make money selling super secret tips to reinvigorate your serve and lovelife but why are they so small compared to the YouTube landscape.

@TennisProdigy, why doesn't Ian have a yacht? Why does @timtennis have 8k subs and not 800k subs?
 
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heninfan99

heninfan99

Talk Tennis Guru
BallBag said:
Seems like there's a void where tennis content should be on YouTube. There's definitely plenty of people making content but the sub numbers and related income is nowhere where it should be. I always thought that tennis is just not that big but there are 1M+ channels for smaller hobbies. Essential Tennis is the biggest tennis YouTuber at 250k and freaking Ping Pong has a channel approaching 3M subs. Golf has a similar demographic as tennis and there's a 1.8M channel and bunch of others at 500k. Are the tennis youtubers doing something wrong or is there something about tennis that makes it incompatible with YouTube. I know the bigger tennis channels make money selling super secret tips to reinvigorate your serve and lovelife but why are they so small compared to the YouTube landscape.

@TennisProdigy, why doesn't Ian have a yacht? Why does @timtennis have 8k subs and not 800k subs?
Click to expand...
TennisTV has 715k subs.

Does the Ping Pong channel try to sell you ping pong technical vids or lessons?
 
nuclearmedicineman

nuclearmedicineman

Rookie
BallBag said:
Seems like there's a void where tennis content should be on YouTube. There's definitely plenty of people making content but the sub numbers and related income is nowhere where it should be. I always thought that tennis is just not that big but there are 1M+ channels for smaller hobbies. Essential Tennis is the biggest tennis YouTuber at 250k and freaking Ping Pong has a channel approaching 3M subs. Golf has a similar demographic as tennis and there's a 1.8M channel and bunch of others at 500k. Are the tennis youtubers doing something wrong or is there something about tennis that makes it incompatible with YouTube. I know the bigger tennis channels make money selling super secret tips to reinvigorate your serve and lovelife but why are they so small compared to the YouTube landscape.

@TennisProdigy, why doesn't Ian have a yacht? Why does @timtennis have 8k subs and not 800k subs?
Click to expand...
I wonder if tennis players just do not gravitate towards You Tube for some reason. Maybe younger people don't like tennis. I have watched hundreds of instructional videos on YT in the past two years, but none of my other team mates and tennis buddies do. As a result, I am developing my strokes, but they don't. They play the same old way that they always have. If I'm not developing my game through videos, lessons, drills, and match play, why bother?
 
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ChaelAZ

ChaelAZ

G.O.A.T.
BallBag said:
Seems like there's a void where tennis content should be on YouTube. There's definitely plenty of people making content but the sub numbers and related income is nowhere where it should be. I always thought that tennis is just not that big but there are 1M+ channels for smaller hobbies. Essential Tennis is the biggest tennis YouTuber at 250k and freaking Ping Pong has a channel approaching 3M subs. Golf has a similar demographic as tennis and there's a 1.8M channel and bunch of others at 500k. Are the tennis youtubers doing something wrong or is there something about tennis that makes it incompatible with YouTube. I know the bigger tennis channels make money selling super secret tips to reinvigorate your serve and lovelife but why are they so small compared to the YouTube landscape.
Click to expand...


Even the biggest tennis channels do not have great view numbers, even with 250k + subscribers, so monetization isn't as big. At least as far as immediate income. You can see view numbers build over time and at least provide passive residual income. For tennis the real money is in haivng a lot of content that gets viewed a bit, giving smaller $ each, but making a little bigger pot monthly. But really, the gaming and Vlog personality channels killed niche markets by throwing up ridiculous viewing numbers and subscribers (who are mostly kids with no disposible income and a waste of marketing really). My small eduation channel got demonitized with the larger requirements, even with steady viewership, lots of likes, and a lot of good comments.
 
BallBag

BallBag

Professional
ChaelAZ said:
Even the biggest tennis channels do not have great view numbers, even with 250k + subscribers, so monetization isn't as big. At least as far as immediate income. You can see view numbers build over time and at least provide passive residual income. For tennis the real money is in haivng a lot of content that gets viewed a bit, giving smaller $ each, but making a little bigger pot monthly. But really, the gaming and Vlog personality channels killed niche markets by throwing up ridiculous viewing numbers and subscribers (who are mostly kids with no disposible income and a waste of marketing really). My small eduation channel got demonitized with the larger requirements, even with steady viewership, lots of likes, and a lot of good comments.
Click to expand...
So what you are saying is that the tennis community is too sophisticated for the YouTube algorithms that rewards clickbait trash.
 
ChaelAZ

ChaelAZ

G.O.A.T.
BallBag said:
So what you are saying is that the tennis community is too sophisticated for the YouTube algorithms that rewards clickbait trash.
Click to expand...


A lot of it. But also a smaller niche market. If you sort ET videos by most popular their top video is 1.8 million views and it took 8 years to get that. Of their most recent videos, say within the last year, only one shows up (Mark v. the young college kid) with 168k views. That is good, but if you look at trending videos you can see where Google is putting its money.

Now, if you search tennis, then sort by views, you can start seeing some higher numbers. Most likely the actual tennis related videos got picked up in the algorithm somehow and gave them the view bumps. Most don't get that, except within the tennis niche market as related videos.

 
T

tomato123

Professional
But on a semi serious note, I asked my friend who is a full time instragram-er for a quick take on this and without looking too much into it, she says algorithms aside, possible reasons include terrible sponsorship opportunities and the fact that people who are good enough at tennis to be taken "seriously" on the internet probably are not as well versed in marketing/media type of stuff and are unable/unwilling to put in the ungodly amounts of time needed to sustain a youtube channel that will attract the kind of views to monetize it to a living wage level.
 
TennisProdigy

TennisProdigy

Professional
The real issue for tennis on YouTube right now is audience IMO. “Pongfinity” the channel you mentioned has almost 2.7 million subs Bc they’re more of an “entertainment channel” rather than a ping pong channel. Do you think serious ping pong players watch their videos?

probably not, their audience is more of the general public who is fascinated by their ping ping gimmicks. And thus, they’re able to pull a big audience from the general public.

now let’s look at the tennis channels. They’re mostly geared towards instructional vids or “serious match play.” This will only appeal to the small population of actual tennis players who are on YouTube.

rock climbing has the same issue as tennis. Even the top climbers in the world really aren’t pulling many views Bc the audience for rock climbing on YouTube is so small.
 
Raul_SJ

Raul_SJ

G.O.A.T.
TennisProdigy said:
The real issue for tennis on YouTube right now is audience IMO.
Click to expand...

Some of these subscriber numbers cannot be trusted.
There are some channels with millions of subscribers but their videos typically only get 100,000 views. These channels will often go on subscriber telethons. A lot of these must be old subscribers that have stopped watching.
 
TennisProdigy

TennisProdigy

Professional
On a side note, one ping pong channel that I feel like tennis channels should try to imitate is “Adam Bobrow.”

Not particularly skilled or good looking, he has a fun personality and makes a plethora of vids traveling to random places playing random people as well as “pro level players.”

I told my buddy who lives in my basement if he wants to be a full time YouTuber he should just take my channel and try to be like Adam and take Tennis on YouTube to new heights.
 
TennisProdigy

TennisProdigy

Professional
Raul_SJ said:
Some of these subscriber numbers cannot be trusted.
There are some channels with millions of subscribers but their videos typically only get 100,000 views... A lot of these must be old subscribers that have stopped watching.
Click to expand...

the Subscriber numbers are likely legit. It’s very hard to maintain high view counts over a long period of time. The subs stay subscribed but rarely click as they get bored of the channel over time.

A couple times a year YouTube performs a”cleansing” where they remove bots or inactive accounts. I usually lose 1-2k subs each time this happens.
 
Raul_SJ

Raul_SJ

G.O.A.T.
TennisProdigy said:
the Subscriber numbers are likely legit. It’s very hard to maintain high view counts over a long period of time. The subs stay subscribed but rarely click as they get bored of the channel over time.

A couple times a year YouTube performs a”cleansing” where they remove bots or inactive accounts. I usually lose 1-2k subs each time this happens.
Click to expand...

This one news channel TYT goes on subscriber telethons. Begging for subscribers. Their subscribers are mostly legit but have stopped watching.

If you have 4 million subscribers and they are reasonably engaged with the channel, you should be getting closer to a million views per video instead of few thousand.
 
TennisProdigy

TennisProdigy

Professional
Raul_SJ said:
This one news channel TYT goes on subscriber telethons. Begging for subscribers. Their subscribers are mostly legit but have stopped watching.

If you have 4 million subscribers and they are reasonably engaged with the channel, you should be getting closer to a million views per video instead of few thousand.
Click to expand...

https://imgur.com/a/6LmODnc

These guys are averaging 1 million views a day across their entire channel, I feel like they’re doing pretty well. They just post multiple vids each day so a lot of them don’t get traction.
 
Raul_SJ

Raul_SJ

G.O.A.T.
TennisProdigy said:
These guys are averaging 1 million views a day across their entire channel, I feel like they’re doing pretty well. They just post multiple vids each day so a lot of them don’t get traction.
Click to expand...

Is there any measurement of the number of unique viewers per day?
 
Local Tennis Players

Local Tennis Players

New User
I’m commenting on this thread so I can follow this post and also learn from everyone here. I have a tennis youtube channel “Local Tennis Players” and I just started last year. I’m mostly doing match play, stringing, and tech related stuff. Hoping to grow my channel but I’m also curious on this topic.
 
Raul_SJ

Raul_SJ

G.O.A.T.
BallBag said:
Essential Tennis is the biggest tennis YouTuber at 250k
Click to expand...

Ian was one of the early pioneers and started 11 years ago. 250k subscribers.
Nikola of Intuitive Tennis started just 3 years ago and already has half the number of subscribers.
 
TennisProdigy

TennisProdigy

Professional
Raul_SJ said:
Is there any measurement of the number of unique viewers per day?
Click to expand...

there is a measure of unique viewers that can be found only if you access your account via YouTube analytics.

for me only 27% of my views come from subscribers while the other 73% come from non subscribers. I think this statistic is more telling than unique viewers anyways.
 
Raul_SJ

Raul_SJ

G.O.A.T.
TennisProdigy said:
there is a measure of unique viewers that can be found only if you access your account via YouTube analytics.

for me only 27% of my views come from subscribers while the other 73% come from non subscribers. I think this statistic is more telling than unique viewers anyways.
Click to expand...

What percentage trends would you like to see for your channel?

Advertisers might prefer higher percentage of views coming from subscribers rather than non subscribers.
Subscribers are a known demographic while non subscribers are more random.
:unsure:
 
TennisProdigy

TennisProdigy

Professional
Raul_SJ said:
What percentage trends would you like to see for your channel?

Advertisers might prefer higher percentage of views coming from subscribers rather than non subscribers.
Subscribers are a known demographic while non subscribers are more random.
:unsure:
Click to expand...

when advertisers come to me for promotional content, they’ve never asked for unique viewers or subscribed/not subscribed statistics.

they always ask for the “big 3”

1. Gender
2. Age
3. Inside the US vs. not in US
 
Raul_SJ

Raul_SJ

G.O.A.T.
TennisProdigy said:
when advertisers come to me for promotional content, they’ve never asked for unique viewers or subscribed/not subscribed statistics.

they always ask for the “big 3”

1. Gender
2. Age
3. Inside the US vs. not in US
Click to expand...

For serious tennis instruction to the rec player, YouTube is probably the best platform. Have not used IG. Heard some people say IG is better suited for short clips.

Patrick might be far more successful on IG than YouTube.
:unsure:
 
ChaelAZ

ChaelAZ

G.O.A.T.
TennisProdigy said:
On a side note, one ping pong channel that I feel like tennis channels should try to imitate is “Adam Bobrow.”

Not particularly skilled or good looking, he has a fun personality and makes a plethora of vids traveling to random places playing random people as well as “pro level players.”
Click to expand...


He is actually ranked akin to a challenger level tennis player, but not pro that I know of. He can hang with some very excellent players though. His claim to fame and access though is he is the official announcer for the international ping pong fed and around all the pros, all the time. Knowing YouTube numbers, her probably is a $100 a day or more channel in ad revenue, which is pretty good. He is highly entertaining for sure and grabs the audience out side of pong as you mention.

What ET is doing is more like what Table Tennis Daily has been doing for years, but more regimented like a sports show (even with a bit lower production quality). They are a high level competitive league and cover their matches as a main staple of contents, but also have TONS of instruction, bat, rubbers and equipment reviews, etc.. A big difference is, while ET has around 250K subscribers, they see only about 20-30k views in the first months. Table Tennis Daily has around the same subscribers, and every video ends up with about 75k views in it's first months with many in the 100's of thousands, including 1000's of LIKE's, so VERY active audience and really banging the algorthim with YT to be featured and suggested even more broadly.
 
StringSnapper

StringSnapper

Hall of Fame
BallBag said:
Seems like there's a void where tennis content should be on YouTube. There's definitely plenty of people making content but the sub numbers and related income is nowhere where it should be. I always thought that tennis is just not that big but there are 1M+ channels for smaller hobbies. Essential Tennis is the biggest tennis YouTuber at 250k and freaking Ping Pong has a channel approaching 3M subs. Golf has a similar demographic as tennis and there's a 1.8M channel and bunch of others at 500k. Are the tennis youtubers doing something wrong or is there something about tennis that makes it incompatible with YouTube. I know the bigger tennis channels make money selling super secret tips to reinvigorate your serve and lovelife but why are they so small compared to the YouTube landscape.

@TennisProdigy, why doesn't Ian have a yacht? Why does @timtennis have 8k subs and not 800k subs?
Click to expand...
Ians not an instagram model in a bikini is the problem
 
FuzzyYellowBalls

FuzzyYellowBalls

Legend
I can be a blowhard, I know, but I've got real world experience in streaming, strategizing to grab viewers, distributing content, not as a producer or in front of the camera person, but a vampire strategizer sucking the monies from it, talent contract side too. More and more we say the numbers, people under college age primarily watch youtube if they aren't playing interactive video games themselves. They barely watch broadcast tv and watch a tiny bit more streaming.

Youtube: Land of the mmm, pre college crowd let's say. A place where young people have the time to watch stuff and where they go, in fact it scares the living daylights out of MLB, NBA, NHL, the NFL is a little scared but is going to count on gambling to expand and maintain revenue (watch Jerry Jones shove gambling to nationwide heights along with draftkings and fanduel) and the NFL is the 800 pound gorilla when it comes to sports viewership. Most other live sports though, are declining in viewership every year.

So, tennis, tennis kids, do they want to watch this stuff? Tennis adults, wouldn't you think by now these channels have discovered the very limited amount of adults who watch youtube often AND play tennis, AND will watch every video religiously? Probably.

An acquaintance of mine is a successful pokemon card tuber: https://www.youtube.com/c/Leonhart54/videos
His subject matter, perfect for youtube viewers, his competition from broadcast tv and streaming, none. (as in tennis fans can watch Nadal on tv and not youtube).
Leonhart makes a decent living doing the cards and grinds his butt off to churn content out.
I would say Leonhart is a great example of making a living doing just youtubing, not enjoying great riches, but mortgage paying, feeding, etc. Hard to say any tennis content is reaching this level, yet.

Top of the charts youtuber, the kind that has done national commercials, promoted by youtube themselves, been interviewed by youtube CEO etc. etc. https://www.youtube.com/c/emmachamberlain/videos
Look at the views, the kinds of shows. It's geared toward, well, I would say 10-21 year olds.

I'm pleased with the amount of people trying tennis videos and putting out good content, but tennis isn't the #1 topic you would choose when designing a profitable youtube channel, even if you started the very first tennis youtube channel.
 
StringSnapper

StringSnapper

Hall of Fame
FuzzyYellowBalls said:
I can be a blowhard, I know, but I've got real world experience in streaming, strategizing to grab viewers, distributing content, not as a producer or in front of the camera person, but a vampire strategizer sucking the monies from it, talent contract side too. More and more we say the numbers, people under college age primarily watch youtube if they aren't playing interactive video games themselves. They barely watch broadcast tv and watch a tiny bit more streaming.

Youtube: Land of the mmm, pre college crowd let's say. A place where young people have the time to watch stuff and where they go, in fact it scares the living daylights out of MLB, NBA, NHL, the NFL is a little scared but is going to count on gambling to expand and maintain revenue (watch Jerry Jones shove gambling to nationwide heights along with draftkings and fanduel) and the NFL is the 800 pound gorilla when it comes to sports viewership. Most other live sports though, are declining in viewership every year.

So, tennis, tennis kids, do they want to watch this stuff? Tennis adults, wouldn't you think by now these channels have discovered the very limited amount of adults who watch youtube often AND play tennis, AND will watch every video religiously? Probably.

An acquaintance of mine is a successful pokemon card tuber: https://www.youtube.com/c/Leonhart54/videos
His subject matter, perfect for youtube viewers, his competition from broadcast tv and streaming, none. (as in tennis fans can watch Nadal on tv and not youtube).
Leonhart makes a decent living doing the cards and grinds his butt off to churn content out.
I would say Leonhart is a great example of making a living doing just youtubing, not enjoying great riches, but mortgage paying, feeding, etc. Hard to say any tennis content is reaching this level, yet.

Top of the charts youtuber, the kind that has done national commercials, promoted by youtube themselves, been interviewed by youtube CEO etc. etc. https://www.youtube.com/c/emmachamberlain/videos
Look at the views, the kinds of shows. It's geared toward, well, I would say 10-21 year olds.

I'm pleased with the amount of people trying tennis videos and putting out good content, but tennis isn't the #1 topic you would choose when designing a profitable youtube channel, even if you started the very first tennis youtube channel.
Click to expand...
I just watched a few seconds of one of Emma's videos, she was talking about the fact shes buying a coffee... lol, 1 mil views for that.

It's just selling personality mostly I guess yeah to the crowd that watches YouTube the most. Interesting perspective, thanks for sharing
 
FuzzyYellowBalls

FuzzyYellowBalls

Legend
StringSnapper said:
I just watched a few seconds of one of Emma's videos, she was talking about the fact shes buying a coffee... lol, 1 mil views for that.

It's just selling personality mostly I guess yeah to the crowd that watches YouTube the most. Interesting perspective, thanks for sharing
Click to expand...
It is....confusing. But, think of all the teens out there with a whole summer to watch things or heck even covid time, then all the kids worldwide, all of them that have never been to Los Angeles, it's actually interesting to a kid in the middle of nowhere Alabama to watch, I think. Plus her videos are pushed to the top by youtube, they have an invested interest in a select few they curate.
 
S

Space_D

Rookie
tomato123 said:
Nerd EXPOSES trash talking Texas tennis baller!

He tried to HIT my FACE and THREATENED ME after the match! Singles tennis in Atlanta!

Return my serve, win $100! Street tennis in LA!
Click to expand...

A tennis YouTube channel I subscribe to posted a video with a very similar title to one of these today. I think he may be lurking on here :unsure:
 
T

tomato123

Professional
Space_D said:
A tennis YouTube channel I subscribe to posted a video with a very similar title to one of these today. I think he may be lurking on here :unsure:
Click to expand...

Please tell me a 4.5+ tennis youtuber actually dressed up as a nerd and challenged random people at a popular tennis park while recording the whole thing! Otherwise... boo...

Edit:

Anyways, all I did was take the concepts from basketball youtubers and translated it into tennis... seems like basketball has so much more ways to be creative, I hope tennis can break through in the entertainment content production at some point...

 
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5263

5263

G.O.A.T.
BallBag said:
Seems like there's a void where tennis content should be on YouTube. There's definitely plenty of people making content but the sub numbers and related income is nowhere where it should be. I always thought that tennis is just not that big but there are 1M+ channels for smaller hobbies. Essential Tennis is the biggest tennis YouTuber at 250k and freaking Ping Pong has a channel approaching 3M subs. Golf has a similar demographic as tennis and there's a 1.8M channel and bunch of others at 500k. Are the tennis youtubers doing something wrong or is there something about tennis that makes it incompatible with YouTube. I know the bigger tennis channels make money selling super secret tips to reinvigorate your serve and lovelife but why are they so small compared to the YouTube landscape.

@TennisProdigy, why doesn't Ian have a yacht? Why does @timtennis have 8k subs and not 800k subs?
Click to expand...
Dual problem Imo. You have most of all these channels just re-cycling the same old instruction that isn't that good, but with some minor face lift. If a channel does come out with better instruction, they are facing a wall of instruction saying they are wrong.... so it contributes to neither side being that productive.
 
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