NBC News NOW Marks Best Quarter on Record for Q1
NBC News’ Latest Podcast Hits #1 on the Apple Podcast Chart, Marks Top Listener Month on Record
NBCU News Group is #1 News Brand on Emerging Platforms
May 17, 2022 – NBCU News Group (NBC News, TODAY, MSNBC and CNBC) saw 125 million unique visitors in April, ranking as the #1 news organization in the US, and beating CNN, ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, New York Times and Washington Post. It was NBCU News Group’s fifth consecutive month ranking #1 and 11th month since becoming a public-facing entity in April 2021 as the leading news brand. NBCU News Group was also #1 in total video minutes watched and total video starts in the month of March, holding that #1 spot for 11 months in a row (12 months in a row for minutes watched, since becoming a public-facing entity) and delivered more video starts and video minutes in March than any other previous month since becoming a public-facing entity last April 2021.
CNBC Digital was the #2 non-portal brand in Business News for unique visitors for the month of April. CNBC Digital was the #1 brand in Business News video for March with 14 million unique video viewers.
NBCNews.com reached 72 million unique visitors in April and ranked ahead of competitors such as ABC News, CBS News, Fox News and Washington Post. Video views saw their highest levels in over a year with over 150 million views and grew by +16% in March versus the prior month to the highest levels in 14 months.
MSNBC Digital text content which includes MSNBC Daily, The Reidout Blog, Maddow Blog and Know Your Value, maintained elevated levels in April, the last three months have been the brands strongest on record in total text page views and audience reach, up +91% versus the same month last year. In March, MSNBC video views increased to the highest levels in over a year with nearly 200 million video views. Video time spent per viewer continued to rank ahead of CNN.com for 13 months in a row.
TODAY Digital reached 46 million unique visitors in April, and ranks as the third largest individual publisher among leading lifestyle and entertainment brands. In March, TODAY Digital also ranked as the second largest individual publisher across key video metrics.
NBCU News Group’s streaming services, TODAY All Day and NBC News NOW, had top months, with NBC News NOW seeing nearly 90 million video views and 30 million hours watched, up +68% versus the prior year. It was NOW’s fifth best month on record, and third month in a row with over 30 million hours watched.
Q1 2022 was also NBC News NOW’s best quarter on record with nearly 100 million hours streamed. Each month in the first quarter saw month-over-month growth and every hour of programming on NBC News NOW saw gains in Q1.
TODAY All Day continued to see elevated levels in April, up by almost 250% vs. the same month last year. The past eight months have been the lifestyle streaming network’s strongest months to-date after launching in the summer of 2020.
On April 30, CNBC hosted an exclusive livestream of the 2022 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting, which was CNBC’s most-viewed digital exclusive live stream on record. The CNBC live stream was the only destination for viewers to stream the 2022 meeting and hear from Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, Greg Abel and Ajit Jain. The livestream was later made available on the Warren Buffett Archive, CNBC’s digital home to the world’s largest video collection of Warren Buffett speaking about business, investing, money and life.
CNBC Make It also launched Money Talks with Jim Cramer, a multi-part video series where Cramer talks about all things money – from beginner investing tips and budgeting advice to how he manages his own finances. The series has been a social media hit, serving as the second most-viewed reel of all time on the CNBC Make It Instagram account.
NBCU News Group ranks in the top five of all podcast publishers in the US for April. It was the News Group’s best listener month on record, with listenership up +35% versus April 2021. Plus, the News Group reached more than 50 million podcast downloads for the eighth straight month with more than 61 million global podcast downloads, up +21% versus the prior year.
In April, NBC News launched Tiffany Dover Is Dead*, a new original podcast hosted by NBC News’ Brandy Zadrozny, on how a dangerous pandemic conspiracy theory hijacked one woman’s life. The podcast hit #1 on the Apple Podcast chart within 24 hours of launching in April.
CNBC launched the Power Lunch podcast in April, which serves as the audio companion for the network’s 2pm hour.
TODAY had its strongest month on record with downloads up more than +240% year-over-year. Plus, NBC News and CNBC each had one of their three best months on record, growing their download by more than +20% year-over-year.
NBCU News Group leads all other news brands on younger emerging platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat. On TikTok, NBC News and MSNBC are up more than 100% in followers versus the end of 2021. In April, TODAY saw more video views on TikTok than any other month on record. And on Snapchat, CNBC Make It has grown subscribers by 10x from April 2021.
*Sources: Comscore Media Metrix® , April 2021 – April 2022, U.S. & Comscore Video Metrix®, April 2021 – March 2022, U.S. desktop internet population 2+ and mobile internet population 13+ years old, Custom-Defined List, Based on NBCU News entity compared to a custom list of brand competitors that are also in the News/Information Category. Leading Lifestyle & Entertainment brands based on Custom-Defined List that includes top individual publishers within Lifestyle and Entertainment Category. Adobe Analytics & Partner Dashboards, Cross-Platform Global Data, April 2022. Podtrac, Total Mobile and Desktop US Audience and Global Downloads, April 2022. ListenFirst Media, April 2022. Snapchat Analytics Portal, April 2022.
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For more information, contact:
Richard Hudock
NBC News
Richard.Hudock@nbcuni.com
Claudia Meyer-Samargia
NBC News Digital
Claudia.MeyerSamargia@nbcuni.com
