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The Royal Institution (Ri) aims to ‘encourage people to think more deeply about the wonders and applications of science’. As part of its educational activities, it launched an online video platform called the Ri Channel in 2011. 

Last year, the Ri approached Pro Bono Economics as they wanted to know more about viewer engagement with their videos on the Ri Channel and its Youtube page. FTI economists used available data to determine video consumption (the number of views and minutes watched), viewer engagement (the number of likes, comments and shares) and quality of engagement (the number of views or minutes watched per number of likes, comments and shares) to build a picture of the Ri's most engaging online content. 

Where information was available, findings showed that the Ri’s online audience is generally young (with over two thirds of views coming from those younger than 35). In terms of format, Ri talks and events receive the highest levels of engagement.

The Ri has continued to collect data related to its online audience, and will use findings and methods from the report to inform their digital content strategy.

Many thanks to Ravi and Tim from FTI Consulting for their hard work on this project.

28th October 2015