#1 for 12 Straight Quarters, NBCU News Group Averages 139M Monthly Unique Visitors
MSNBC.com Marks Second Straight Record Quarter; MSNBC Posts Best Quarter Ever for Video
NBCU News Group Streaming Networks Deliver Best Quarter on Record
April 17, 2024 – NBCU News Group ranks as the #1 digital news organization in the U.S. for Q1 2024, with an average of 139 monthly unique visitors, according to Comscore. NBCU News Group continues to lead all news competition including CNN, ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, New York Times and Washington Post.
NBCU News Group, comprised of NBC News, TODAY, MSNBC and CNBC, has ranked as the #1 leading news brand for each of the last 14 months, as well as the last 12 consecutive quarters. NBCU News Group had its largest lead on record over CNN.com with an average of 25 million more monthly unique visitors this quarter. It was the fifth straight quarter that the NBCU News Group grew its lead over CNN.com.
NBCNews.com reached an average of 82 million unique visitors in Q1, up +3% vs. Q1 2023. NBCNews.com is a leader among news sites, consistently beating the Washington Post and ABC News, among others.
NBCU News Group’s streaming services posted its fifth straight record quarter in Q1 2024, with +56% year-over-year growth. In Q1 2024, NBC News NOW delivered its third most-watched quarter in history.
TODAY Digital had one of its top three quarters on record with an average 55 million monthly unique visitors in Q1 2024, growing +14% year-over-year. It continued to rank as the second largest individual publisher among leading lifestyle and entertainment brands, a position it’s held for the last 13 quarters. TODAY Digital also ranked as the leading lifestyle and entertainment brand across key video metrics.
MSNBC Digital in Q1 2024 had its second consecutive record quarter, growing +59% year-over-year. The last three months have been MSNBC’s strongest since January 2021 with each month growing by more than +45% year-over-year. MSNBC ranked as a top three political news destination, based on monthly unique visitors, in addition to continuing to rank #1 based on total minutes spent on site. MSNBC is also pacing to have its best quarter ever for video views, growing +98% versus Q1 2023.
CNBC Digital recorded an average of 54 million unique visitors in Q1 2024. CNBC continues to rank as the #2 business news site on the internet, ahead of WSJ.com, Reuters.com, Foxbusiness.com, Bloomberg.com and Fortune.com. CNBC has also been the #1 brand in business news video time spent for 28 consecutive months, with 598 million average monthly minutes viewed in Q1 2024 to-date.
Dateline had its second straight record quarter with more than 288 million video views across digital platforms, growing +63% year-over-year. The last five quarters have been the brand’s strongest on record. Dateline ended the quarter by reaching its third straight record month in March 2024, exceeding more than 100 million monthly video views for the first time ever.
Meet the Press delivered its fourth straight quarter of year-over-year growth with more than 28 million video views across digital platforms, growing +26% versus Q1 2023.
NBC Nightly News reached more than 180 million video views across digital platforms for the seventh straight quarter.
NBCU News Group’s streaming services delivered its fifth straight record quarter in Q1 2024, marking +56% year-over-year growth with all three reaching major viewership milestones.
NBC News NOW, NBC News’ 24/7 streaming news network, posted its third most-watched quarter in history. For State of the Union coverage, NBC News NOW marked its strongest day this year, as well as one of its top three days over the last two years, growing more than +75% versus its prior 13-week average. NBC News NOW also marked its fourth largest primetime audience on record.
Dateline 24/7, the dedicated streaming channel for the true-crime franchise, posted its best quarter on record, growing +129% year-over-year. Dateline 24/7 has reached record levels every quarter since its Spring 2020 launch and ended the quarter with its strongest month ever in March 2024.
TODAY All Day had its sixth straight record quarter, up by +104% in Q1 2024 versus Q1 2023. The last three months have been the lifestyle streaming network’s strongest months to date.
NBCU News Group delivered its best quarter ever on Peacock, reaching double-digit year-over-year growth every quarter since Peacock’s launch.
NBCU News Group is a top 5 podcast publisher in the US, according to Podtrac, reaching more than 9.3 million monthly listeners on average. Plus, the News Group delivered an average of 41 million monthly global podcast downloads this quarter.
NBCU News Group continues to lead all other news brands across younger emerging platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat for the quarter. On TikTok, NBCU News Group ranks as #1 in both followers and views, ahead of ABC News, CBS News, The Washington Post, CNN, The New York Times and Fox News. NBCU News Group ended the quarter at 10.5 million followers on TikTok with +28% growth versus the same month last year.
On YouTube, the NBCU News Group averaged 555 million monthly YouTube views, its fourth consecutive quarter over 500 million views. It was the NBCU News Group’s strongest first quarter on record, +48% versus Q1 2023, ranking ahead of all other news brands in both views and followers.
TODAY delivered more than 225 million monthly views across YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. TODAY saw significant year-over-year growth across YouTube (+28%), TikTok (+32%) and Instagram (+85%). TODAY also surpassed GMA on TikTok and YouTube for the fourth straight quarter.
On YouTube, MSNBC drove its strongest quarter on record with more than 288 million monthly views, outperforming CNN and Fox News on the platform. MSNBC outperformed CNN and Fox News for the third straight quarter. MSNBC is the most-engaging news brand on YouTube based on average minutes per visitor.
CNBC had a record quarter on Instagram across accounts and its second best quarter ever on TikTok across accounts.
Stay Tuned ended the quarter with 11.7 million followers across platforms, delivering more than 50 million monthly views across YouTube, Instagram and TikTok in Q1 2024.
Sources: Comscore Media Metrix® , April 2021 – March 2024, Desktop & Mobile excluding Social Incremental, Monthly Unique Visitors, U.S. & Comscore Video Metrix®, April 2021 – February 2024, U.S. desktop internet population 2+ and mobile internet population 13+ years old, Video Views & Video Minutes, Custom-Defined List, Based on NBCU News entity compared to a custom list of brand competitors that are also in the News/Information Category: ABC News, cbsnews.com, cnn.com, foxnews.com, The New York Times Brand, washingtonpost.com. Leading Lifestyle & Entertainment brands based on Custom-Defined List that includes top individual publishers within Lifestyle and Entertainment Category. Business News category excluding network entities. Adobe Analytics & Partner Dashboards, Cross-Platform Global Data, March 2024. Podtrac, Total Mobile and Desktop US Audience and Global Downloads, March 2024. ListenFirst Media, March 2024. Snapchat Analytics Portal, March 2024.
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For more information, contact:
Claudia Meyer-Samargia
NBC News
Claudia.MeyerSamargia@nbcuni.com
