VidiScoopWhat the product is and what it takes to run your first scan.
What is VidiScoop in one sentence?
It is a research workspace that reads the last 24 hours of news for each YouTube channel you run, ranks the stories worth covering for that specific channel, and generates the titles, description, tags and thumbnail briefs for the ones you choose.
How long does setup take?
About a minute. Create an account, add a channel with a one-sentence niche description, a handful of specific keywords, a language and a region, then press scan. There is no integration step, no OAuth to your YouTube account and no data import.
Do I need to connect my YouTube account?
No. VidiScoop never touches your channel. It plans content for a channel you describe; publishing stays entirely in your hands, and no posting permissions are ever requested.
Is there a free plan?
Yes, and it does not expire. One channel, one scan per day, ten saved packages per month, with the full scoring engine included. See the pricing page for what the paid plans add.
Where the stories come from and how the ranking is decided.
Where do the stories come from?
Four layers: Google News search feeds scoped to exactly the last 24 hours, Google News topic sections for your language and region, curated feeds from fast-publishing outlets matched to your chosen sections, and regional Google Trends. You can also paste in any RSS feed of your own.
How is the opportunity score calculated?
Five weighted signals: relevance to your channel (40%), how many independent outlets are running the story (28%), how fresh it is (16%), whether it is trending in your region (8%) and the authority of the reporting outlets (8%). The result is a 0–100 score and a verdict of must-cover, strong, worth a look or weak.
Why do some obviously big stories score low for my channel?
Because relevance is the heaviest signal and it is measured against your channel, not against the world. A huge story outside your niche is correctly ranked low — covering it would be a worse use of your day than a smaller story your audience actually subscribed for.
What does “coverage” mean exactly?
The number of distinct outlets whose reporting was clustered into that single story. It is the closest thing to cheap verification available in the first hour: one outlet is a tip, five or more means the story has broken wide.
Why are listicles and opinion pieces pushed down?
Deliberately. A news-driven channel needs events, not commentary. Headlines matching listicle and opinion patterns — “every X ranked”, “why I think”, and so on — are demoted so the things that actually happened surface first.
What happens if a news feed fails?
The scan completes without it. Individual feeds occasionally time out or return a 403, which is normal. Those failures are listed under source warnings so you know what was missing rather than silently getting a thinner scan.
What you get once you have chosen a story.
What is inside a generated package?
Five title options written to different angles, a full YouTube description, a tag list, hashtags, and three thumbnail briefs describing the shot, the overlay text and the emotional beat. Packages save permanently against the story and can be exported.
Can I generate packages in bulk?
Yes. Select any number of stories and generate them in one action. Stories that already have a saved package are reused rather than regenerated, so you never spend AI credits twice on the same story.
Can I export packages?
Yes, as CSV or Markdown, per channel. That is the usual way to hand a day’s work to a writer, an editor or a production sheet without giving them an account.
Does it write the script?
No. It writes the packaging — the parts that decide whether the video gets found. The description gives you a factual, sourced spine to script from, but the video itself is yours to make.
What the AI does, and what happens without it.
Does it work without an API key?
Completely. Scanning, clustering, the five-signal score, verdicts and follow-up detection all run on the built-in engine with no key at all. Packaging falls back to well-built templates rather than model-written copy.
Which providers are supported?
Google Gemini, Claude (Anthropic), OpenAI and OpenRouter. You pick one in Settings and paste its key; the others stay saved so you can switch whenever you like.
Can I use my ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro subscription?
No — and this catches a lot of people out. Chat subscriptions do not include API access. The API is a separate account with separate billing on every provider. Gemini has a free API tier and OpenRouter exposes some free models, which are the two cheapest places to start.
What happens if my API key stops working?
Nothing breaks. The scan falls back to the built-in engine, every story still appears, and the warning tells you the provider’s exact error plus the next step — usually checking the key or picking a current model with the “Load available models” button.
Which model should I choose?
Start with the default for your provider, then use the “Load available models” button in Settings — it asks the provider which models your account can actually use today. Model IDs get retired regularly, so reading the live list beats guessing.
Who can see what, and where it is stored.
Can I run several channels from one account?
Yes. Each channel has its own niche, keywords, language, region, sections, custom feeds and score threshold, and is scanned and ranked independently. Switching channels switches the whole workspace.
Can other users see my channels?
No. Every account has a private workspace and ownership is checked on every protected request. Channels, scans, packages and provider settings are isolated per account.
Are my API keys sent to the browser?
Never. Keys are stored server-side and are only ever used server-side. The browser receives which provider is selected, not the key itself.
How long is a scan kept?
The latest scan per channel is cached for 24 hours so a page refresh or restart restores your workspace. After that it expires and a fresh scan replaces it. Saved packages are permanent and do not expire.
One scan answers more than this page can.
The free plan gives you a real channel and a real ranked list. Ten minutes tells you whether the scoring matches your judgement.
No credit card required · Your first ranked scan takes about a minute