NBC News NOW Marks 2nd Consecutive Quarter with 30M+ Monthly Hours Watched
NBCU News Group Reaches Best Listener Quarter on Record for Podcasts
NBCU News Group Leads All News Brands on Emerging Platforms
July 25, 2022 – NBCU News Group (NBC News, TODAY, MSNBC and CNBC) saw 136 million unique visitors in June, ranking as the #1 news organization in the US, and beating ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, New York Times and Washington Post. NBCU News Group has ranked #1 for 12 months since becoming a public-facing entity in April 2021 as the leading news brand. NBCU News Group was #1 in total video minutes watched and total video starts in the month of May, holding that #1 spot for 13 months in a row (14 months in a row for minutes watched, since becoming a public-facing entity).
NBCU News Group also ranks as the #1 news organization in the US for Q2 2022, beating all competition. The News Group saw a monthly average of 131 million unique visitors in Q2 and was #1 in total video minutes watched and total video starts in Q2.
CNBC Digital was the #2 non-portal brand in Business News for unique visitors for the month of June. CNBC Digital is the #1 brand in Business News video time spent, driving 1 billion total video minutes in May, and remains the #1 non-portal brand in Business News video with 12 million unique video viewers. A number of CNBC Digital verticals had their best June on record including CNBC.com’s Markets, Real Estate and Energy sections due to concerns over rising interest rates and inflation. Additionally, CNBC Make It had double-digit month-over-month and year-over-year growth resulting in its best June on record, with top stories featuring professional and financial growth success stories.
NBCNews.com reached 85 million unique visitors in June with growth of 3% month-over-month and 9% year-over-year and ranked ahead of competitors such as ABC News, CBS News, Fox News and Washington Post. Video minutes grew from the prior year as well, up 71%, and ranked as one of the top three months across the last two years with that metric.
MSNBC Digital text content which includes MSNBC Daily, The Reidout Blog, Maddow Blog and Know Your Value, drove record levels in June, the last five months have been the brands strongest on record in total text page views, up +148% versus the same month last year. MSNBC.com live streams of the January 6th hearings in June drove increases of more than +100% in hours watched with increased audiences and watch time. Video time spent per viewer in May continues to rank ahead of CNN.com for 15 months in a row.
TODAY Digital reached 45 million unique visitors in June, and ranks as the third largest individual publisher among leading lifestyle and entertainment brands. TODAY published more content in June than any other month on record, up over 25% versus the same month last year. In May, TODAY Digital also ranked among the top three leading lifestyle and entertainment brands across key video metrics.
NBCU News Group’s streaming services, NBC News NOW and TODAY All Day, had top months, with NBC News NOW seeing nearly 100 million video views and 32 million hours watched, up +129% versus the prior year. Throughout the month of June, NBC News NOW aired special coverage of the Jan. 6 hearings and saw daily consumption increase by more than 30% in hours watched versus average.
In Q2, NBC News NOW posted its second consecutive quarter with more than 30 million monthly hours watched. NBC News NOW is up by +88% versus Q2 2021.
In June, NBC News NOW launched multiple new hours of programming in its daytime lineup. Chuck Todd moves his daily show to NBC News NOW for the 4pm ET hour, renamed as Meet the Press NOW. In addition, NBC News’ Vicky Nguyen joined Morgan Radford’s 11am-1pm ET programming block and Aaron Gilchrist launched a new daily show from 2-4pm ET.
NBC News NOW also launched multiple new specials in the month of June, including Pride and Backlash and Can You Hear Us Now? Black Fathers. Pride and Backlash, hosted by NBC News NOW anchor Joe Fryer, examined the growing threats to LGBTQ+ rights. Can You Hear Us Now? Black Fathers, hosted by MSNBC’s Trymaine Lee, examined Black fatherhood.
TODAY All Day continued to see elevated levels in June, up by over 143% vs. the same month last year. The past seven months have been the lifestyle streaming network’s strongest months to-date after launching in the summer of 2020. Q2 2022 also ranks as TODAY All Day’s second best quarter on record.
In June, CNBC’s Crypto World, a daily series about digital currency markets, had its best month and top video since launch.
NBCU News Group continues to rank in the top five of all podcast publishers in the U.S. in Q2 2022. It was the News Group’s best listener quarter on record, with listenership up +28% versus Q2 2021. Plus, the News Group delivered a record 63 million monthly global podcast downloads in Q2, up +29% versus the prior year. June 2022 marked the 10th straight month with more than 50 million downloads.
NBC News, CNBC and TODAY all reached record numbers of downloads in Q2 2022. NBC News had its fourth consecutive record quarter, while CNBC had its third straight quarterly record.
Both NBC News and CNBC saw year-over-year growth of more than 35%, while TODAY more than tripled its downloads from Q2 2021. Showcasts such as Dateline, Meet the Press, Fast Money, Halftime Report and TODAY all helped fuel growth, along with new podcasts, Closing Bell, Power Lunch and The Seduction.
In June, Dateline launched another hit podcast, The Seduction, hosted by Keith Morrison on an obsessive and deadly love affair. The podcast hit #1 on the Apple Podcast charts following its release.
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 200% in followers versus the end of 2021. NBC News has seen over 140 million views on TikTok throughout 2022, up more than 600% versus prior year. TODAY Digital saw nearly 50M views on TikTok in June, the strongest month on record, 2022 is up over 400% in monthly average views versus 2021.
In June, NBC Stay Tuned reached more than 11 million monthly unique visitors across platforms. Stay Tuned’s views on TikTok have also grown significantly, averaging nearly 20 million monthly views, 13x greater than 2021 monthly average.
CNBC TikTok accounts drove a record number of video views in the second quarter of 2022.
*Sources: Comscore Media Metrix® , April 2021 – June 2022, U.S. & Comscore Video Metrix®, April 2021 – May 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, June 2022. Podtrac, Total Mobile and Desktop US Audience and Global Downloads, June 2022. ListenFirst Media, June 2022. Snapchat Analytics Portal, June 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
