Founder of Mogol TV on how one of the most popular media platforms has evolved and how content is created for its audience.
In recent years, YouTube has become a serious competitor to leading streaming platforms. According to a recent study by TVision, which tracks viewer engagement, YouTube ranks first in terms of share of viewing time among all streaming services, with 21%. Netflix, despite having the largest household penetration, came in second with 16%.
Today, YouTube offers content for every taste, including educational material. Recent statistics from the platform show that 92% of its audience uses it to gain useful knowledge. One of the leaders in creating educational content is the channel Mogol TV, which boasts a multi-million audience. The channel focuses on historical facts, fascinating places around the world, and remarkable scientific discoveries. About 10 years ago, the project was launched by Alisa Kunitsyna, who has since earned a gold and three silver YouTube Creator Awards and founded her own production company, Broken Streetlights LLC, in California.
Mogol TV was among the top five best educational channels in Russian segment in 2022. The franchise for its content was acquired by one of the largest international media companies for digital creators, AIR Mediatech now the channel's content is available not only in Russian but also in English, Spanish, Swedish, Polish, and Serbian.
Alisa Kunitsyna shared her experience of witnessing and actively participating in YouTube's rapid development.
An Adult Audience Has Joined the Platform
Ten years ago, many people didn't take YouTube seriously, recalls Alisa. Most of the content was at the level of home videos, and the variety of genres was limited. There was no talk of professional production back then. Creating quality content requires significant investment, but creators 10 years ago could barely monetize their work. Since there was virtually no adult audience, advertisers avoided the platform. Today, things are different.
"Mogol TV focuses on educational content, and 98% of our audience is adults. I think that by attracting this audience, along with other channels of similar themes, we've influenced YouTube's development. Now, 10 years later, we see a qualitatively different level of both the platform and its viewers. Absolutely everyone can find content that interests them: from shoe cleaning to Gothic architecture; from podcasts and interviews to professional-level historical documentaries—the kind you used to only see on TV," says the creator.
With the arrival of advertisers, creators gained the opportunity to earn money on YouTube—they began investing more time and resources into content quality, bringing it to a professional level. This applies not only to technical aspects of production (lighting, cameras, sound, editing, and post-production) but also to the complexity of stories, narratives, and the diversity of topics.
"For example, when creating videos for my channel, I follow all the professional storytelling stages used by major studios and streaming platforms. The only difference is that we achieve millions of views with a budget much smaller than that of professional streamers. At the same time, some of our videos have garnered more views than projects on Netflix," shared Alisa Kunitsyna.
How Content is Created
The creator of Mogol TV knows firsthand how to develop content in various formats. Before focusing on her YouTube channel, she worked as a journalist, developed a production studio, and produced and directed documentary films. This experience has greatly helped her create videos that interest millions of viewers.
Alisa handles a significant part of the work herself: selecting topics, researching and verifying material, writing scripts with notes for specialists to whom tasks will be delegated—this is the most responsible and time-consuming part of the process. For voiceovers, she hires a narrator (Mogol has always had a male voice). The collected photos, video materials, and audio are sent to an editor. Simultaneously, a designer prepares several thumbnail options. Depending on the topic and length of the video, the creation process for each specific video can take anywhere from a few days to several months.
"Ten years ago, few people saw YouTube as a serious profession or business; it was more of a creative hobby. Today, being a creator is one of the most attractive and interesting professions. Being a YouTube creator is like having your own professional media company. You need to know everything from how to record high-quality sound to how to effectively produce content," notes Alisa Kunitsyna.
Creators Now Have 'Helpers'
Analytics tools help creators produce engaging content. A decade ago, the exact number of views was only available one or two days after a video was published. Today, this data can be tracked in real time.
Creators now have access to detailed audience retention graphs for example, they can see which videos viewers don't watch until the end and which segments they rewatch multiple times. This information is taken into account when writing scripts and editing future videos. Alisa Kunitsyna explains that audience retention is especially important for creators the longer viewers watch a video, the higher the likelihood that YouTube will recommend it to more new viewers, and views will continue to grow.
A video's thumbnail is one of the most critical factors in its success. Ten years ago, creators relied solely on intuition when designing thumbnails. Now, YouTube provides a CTR (click-through rate) metric, which shows the percentage of viewers who click on a thumbnail. If the CTR is low, creators can replace the thumbnail with a more effective one to boost views. Moreover, the platform recently introduced A/B testing for thumbnails. When publishing a video, creators can upload three thumbnail options, and YouTube will show the same video with different thumbnails to viewers. After some time, the creator can compare the analytics of the three options and keep the most effective one.
Don't Be Afraid to Experiment
To maintain and grow a channel's audience, it's important to tell interesting stories. However, not all creators manage to do this over the long term many stop uploading videos regularly after 5-7 years. Meanwhile, Alisa Kunitsyna has been successfully developing her channel for almost 10 years. She explains that much of the project's success is due to its theme there are so many interesting facts, events, myths, and secrets in the world that they could last for decades. But without the right professional experience and understanding of the audience, these facts cannot be turned into engaging video stories.
"Another secret to success is the willingness to experiment. Yes, you might try a new format, spend time, nerves, and resources, and it might not bring many views. But without mistakes, there's no progress," continues Alisa. "A common problem for YouTube creators is skyrocketing with one video format and then continuing to produce all videos in that same style. This is a strategic mistake. In this case, you risk either becoming boring to your audience and seeing a drop in views over time, or getting tired of doing the same thing yourself it's impossible to keep doing the same thing for a long time. Alternatively, jumping on a trend might attract the wrong audience. If users subscribe to your channel but don't watch your videos, YouTube's algorithms may interpret your content as uninteresting and stop recommending it."
As an example, Alisa shared that her work has also had both successful and less successful experiments. For instance, an attempt to add puzzle and riddle videos to attract a younger audience did gain millions of views but wasn't interesting to the adult audience Mogol TV primarily targets. On the other hand, launching long videos with a runtime of 30 minutes or more proved successful feedback showed that the target audience appreciated the documentary-style format.
Retaining Viewers is Becoming Harder
Competition grows every year both in the educational channel segment and on YouTube as a whole. At the same time, creators must also compete with content released on other media platforms. Mogol TV's direct competitors include channels like History and Discovery, as well as educational and documentary content on streaming platforms. Alisa Kunitsyna noted that this affects the intensity and quality of competition viewers are becoming more sophisticated and expect high-quality material:
"Another challenge facing all creators is the limited time of the viewer. Capturing their attention and holding it for a long time is becoming increasingly difficult. That's why, for example, less than 0.1% of YouTube channels today have over a million subscribers it's getting harder to handle such a high level of competition every year."
Many mistakenly believe that YouTube remains an amateur platform because anyone can upload videos. However, succeeding and staying successful on a platform that competes with Netflix requires more than just being a creator. Any successful YouTube channel today is a full-fledged media company, and its leader must not only understand the creative side but also be a good producer.
Alisa believes that both YouTube and streaming services have their pros and cons. For example, YouTube offers viewers entertainment formats that are unavailable on streaming platforms. At the same time, streaming services have significantly larger budgets that allow them to produce higher-quality content. Therefore, she doesn't claim that YouTube will be able to completely replace streaming platforms in the coming years:
"But one thing I can say for sure YouTube is developing at a rapid pace and is becoming dominant in several metrics. The platform is seeing more and more professional content. This means it's a great opportunity for creators who want to develop their storytelling skills and create projects aimed at an international audience. I can't predict which platforms will be popular with audiences in 3-5 years. But I do know one thing I'll be wherever the viewers are."
