News in brief: YouTube Drives Channel 4 Social Viewing Figures; Half of Business Leaders See Marketing as a Cost-Centre; Adobe Releases AI Video Tool to Rival OpenAI  

YouTube Drives Channel 4 Social Viewing Figures

Channel 4 amassed more than 2.3 billion views across its social output in 2024, up 5.5% year on year. The figures were driven by YouTube and the broadcaster’s digital-first brand, Channel 4.0. The viewing of Channel 4’s full episode content on YouTube increased 169% year-over-year, surpassing 110 million organic views in the UK. Additionally, the broadcaster’s main YouTube channel saw higher average views per video than equivalent channels from the BBC, ITV and Channel 5, as well as more views than ITV, Sky and Channel 5. Channel 4 News also drove higher average views per video on YouTube than ITV News and Sky News. The broadcaster’s most successful social media platform in 2024 was TikTok, where it  posted the biggest annual audience growth with an 81% rise from 2023.

Half of Business Leaders See Marketing as a Cost-Centre

More than half (54%) of business leaders in the UK and Ireland see marketing as a cost-centre for their organisation rather than a revenue generator, according to KINESSO’s Marketing ROI Rift Study, conducted in partnership with Sapio. One-in-five (20%) admit they’ve interacted with their senior marketers only once in the last month. The study also found that 34% of the business leaders admit that the poor communication between senior leadership and marketing is costing their business financially. The disconnect between marketing and leadership is thought to stem from ROI concerns; almost half of the marketers surveyed agreed that demonstrating long-term impact from their marketing spend is their biggest obstacle. 

Adobe Releases AI Video Tool to Rival OpenAI  

Adobe released its text/image to video AI generator on Wednesday. The release follows a limited early access testing period for the product last year. With the generator, users are able to create video content from text descriptions, or with reference images alongside prompts. The generator gives users the option to refine or further guide the direction of the content produced, such as modifying shooting distances or camera angles. Adobe says that the content created by the generator is safe for commercial use, as Firefly – the web app which hosts the tool – has been trained on public domain and licensed content.