News outlets offering comprehensively developing online platforms has become quite common in Armenia today. Often a news outlet is called by its historical name, for example, a weekly newspaper, though it’s already difficult to say whether it’s a newspaper, website or online TV company.

Online developments led to several news outlets operating in Armenia today having quite a large volume of video product. Let’s try to compare several Armenian news outlets based on the videos they produce and the number of views. The statistics below were retrieved from the news outlets’ YouTube channels on Jun. 28, 2012.

A1+: Joined: Jan. 17, 2008, has 6,228 subscribers, 6,577 videos which have been viewed 19,610,009 times (each video was viewed 2,982 times on average)

Mediamax: Joined: May 16, 2009, has 36 subscribers, 56 videos, which have been viewed 37,350 times (each video was viewed 667 times on average)

Slaq.am: Joined: Jul. 19, 2009, has1,708 subscribers, 3,241 videos, which have been viewed 2,876,190 times (each video was viewed 887 times on average)

Radio Van: Joined: Aug. 16, 2009, has 115 subscribers, 334 videos, which have been viewed 681,098 times (each video was viewed 2,039 times on average)

RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun): Joined: Nov. 12, 2009, has 3,401 subscribers, 4,292 videos, which have been viewed 5,507,432 times (each video was viewed 1,283 times on average)

Epress.am: Joined: Aug. 6, 2010, has 122 subscribers, 615 videos, which have been viewed 401,895 times (each video was viewed 653 times on average)

Tert.am: Joined: Oct. 28, 2010, has 1,343 subscribers, 786 videos, which have been viewed 1,962,597 times (each video was viewed 2,497 times on average)

1in.am: Joined: Nov. 20, 2010, has 2,061 subscribers, 2,051 videos, which have been viewed 3,218,014 times (each video was viewed 1,569 times on average)

HRA.am: Joined: Jan. 13, 2011, has 15 subscribers, 95 videos, which have been viewed 31,130 times (each video was viewed 327 times on average)

Henaran Press Club: Joined: Mar. 18, 2011, has 83 subscribers, 511 videos, which have been viewed 194,286 times (each video was viewed 380 times on average)

News.am: Joined: Apr. 26, 2011, has 538 subscribers, 599 videos, which have been viewed 3 556 414 times (each video was viewed 5,937 times on average)

Ecolur: Joined: Apr. 29, 2011, has 74 subscribers, 141 videos, which have been viewed 155,135 times (each video was viewed 1,100 times on average)

Hetq: Joined: May 18, 2011, has 171 subscribers, 270 videos, which have been viewed 558,161 times (each video was viewed 2,067 times on average)

Civilnet: Joined: Sept. 4, 2011, has 1,330 subscribers, 2008 videos, which have been viewed 1,370,391 times (each video was viewed 682 times on average) 

Aravot: Joined: Sept. 12, 2011 , has 398 subscribers, 1476 videos, which have been viewed 1,027,382 times (each video was viewed 1,476 times on average)

Lurer.com: Joined: Nov. 17, 2011, has 124 subscribers, 324 videos, which have been viewed 148,240 times (each video was viewed 456 times on average)

Panorama.am: Joined: Jan. 22, 2012, has167 subscribers, 251 videos, which have been viewed 492,030 times (each video was viewed 1,960 times on average)

It’s clear that these are purely quantitative figures. But even numbers can tell us a lot. Just for comparison’s sake, let’s take a look at Yerkir Media TV‘s stats (other TV stations’ programs are more entertainment related and are harder to compare with online news media): Joined Sept. 10, 2009, has 809 subscribers, 4,4147 videos, which have been viewed 2,853,922 times (each video was viewed 688 times on average). As we can see, the numbers are comparable. 

So news outlets of a social, political nature were observed. Let me note that Lragir wasn’t included in the list because its YouTube channel isn’t regularly updated, while its main videos are uploaded on its own site, as a result of which all the figures aren’t readily available. Webtv is also missing for the same reason. Also not included were those channels that weren’t updated in the last month. 

Samvel Martirosyan

The views expressed in the column are those of the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of Media.am.