Consumers Turn to NBCU News Group Amid Breaking News in February
NBC News Ranks as #1 News Org on TikTok, Sees Massive Month-Over-Month Growth
February Marks NBC News NOW’s Third Best Month on Record
March 23, 2022 – NBCU News Group (NBC News, TODAY, MSNBC and CNBC) saw 163 million unique visitors in February, 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 3rd consecutive month ranking #1 and 9th 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 January, holding that #1 spot for nine months in a row (10 months in a row for minutes watched, since becoming a public-facing entity).
CNBC Digital was the #2 non-portal brand in Business News for unique visitors for the month of February. CNBC Digital was the #1 non-portal in Business News video for January with 14.4 million unique video viewers.
NBCNews.com reached 105M unique visitors in February, the strongest month since January 2021, top five month on record and up 10% versus prior year. NBCNews.com ranked ahead of competitors such as ABC News, CBS News, Fox News and Washington Post. Engagement with video on NBCNews.com also saw lifts in January, with video time spent per viewer at the strongest levels since early 2021.
MSNBC Digital saw increased reach in February, to the strongest month since November 2021 with lifts of 15% versus the prior year. MSNBC Digital text content which includes MSNBC Daily, The Reidout Blog, Maddow Blog and Know Your Value, reached new heights in February in total page views and audience reach. In January, MSNBC video views increased to the highest levels in over a year with over 130 million video views. Video time spent per viewer continued to rank ahead of CNN.com for the 11th month in a row.
TODAY Digital reached 70 million unique visitors in February, surpassing 70M unique visitors for two months in a row. The last three months have been the brands strongest three months on record, growing by over 25% versus the prior year. With 70 million unique visitors, TODAY ranks as the third largest individual publisher among leading lifestyle and entertainment brands.
NBCU News Group’s streaming services, TODAY All Day and NBC News NOW, had top months, with NBC News NOW seeing nearly 100 million video views and more than 31 million hours watched, up over 30% versus the prior year. It was NOW’s strongest month since last January and the streaming platform’s third best month on record. Following breaking news at the end of February, NBC News NOW had multiple top days for viewership and hours watched, seeing triple digit increases versus the quarter to-date daily average.
TODAY All Day saw its best month on record in February, up 7% versus the previous record and the prior month and up over 350% vs. the same month last year. The past six months have been the lifestyle streaming network’s strongest months to-date after launching in the summer of 2020.
In February, NBC News NOW aired Black History NOW, a special hosted by NBC News NOW anchor Joshua Johnson, which aims to explore how Black history has been and is now being taught.
Also in February, Katie Phang was announced as an upcoming host for the MSNBC hub on Peacock. Phang’s announcement comes off the heels of MSNBC’s strategic focus on streaming in 2021 and move into 2022 as a premium streaming destination for live, in-depth perspective and news. Phang’s show will be featured alongside original programming hosted by Symone D. Sanders, Zerlina Maxwell, Mehdi Hasan and Ayman Mohyeldin on the MSNBC hub on Peacock.
CNBC also launched Crypto World, a daily digital show that features the latest news and trading updates from the digital currency markets. The program, which debuted in February, provides viewers a look at what’s ahead with high-profile interviews, explainers and unique stories from the ever-changing crypto industry. CNBC Reporters MacKenzie Sigalos, Tanaya Macheel, Kate Rooney, Pippa Stevens and Jordan Smith serve as rotating hosts for Crypto World.
NBCU News Group continues to rank in the top ten of all podcast publishers in the US for February. It was the News Group’s best listener month on record, with listenership up +29% versus February 2021. Plus, the News Group reached more than 50M podcast downloads for the 6th straight month with more than 52 million global podcast downloads, up +22% versus the prior year.
CNBC podcasts had one of their top five strongest months on record, while it was a top 10 month for NBC News and TODAY. TODAY also continues to see significant year-over-year growth, up +75% versus February 2021.
The original podcast Into America saw a 42% year-over-year lift in downloads, driven by its Reconstructed series. It was the strongest month for the show since January 2021.
In February, NBC News and MSNBC saw massive growth on TikTok, NBC News more than doubled its subscribers from January and now ranks 1st among the news competitive set with 2.3 million followers. MSNBC on TikTok now has more than half a million followers (600K) and nearly tripled the number of followers from earlier in 2022.
NBCU News Group is the #1 news organization on emerging platforms that cater to younger audiences – Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube – beating out all major news networks in social users.
*Sources: Comscore Media Metrix (April 2021 – February 2022) & Comscore Video Metrix (April 2021 – January 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, February 2022. Podtrac, Total Mobile and Desktop US Audience and Global Downloads, February 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
