NBCU News Group Saw Average of 138M Monthly Unique Visitors
NBCNews.com Overtakes NYTimes.com in Q3, Ranks as #2 News Site for First Time in Nearly Two Years
NBCU News Group Streaming Networks Mark Third Straight Record Quarter
Oct. 18, 2023 – NBCU News Group (NBC News, TODAY, MSNBC and CNBC) ranks as the #1 digital news organization in the U.S. for Q3 2023, beating all news competition. The News Group saw a monthly average of 138 million unique visitors in Q3, leading CNN, ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, New York Times and Washington Post.
NBCU News Group has ranked #1 for 27 months since becoming a public-facing entity in April 2021 as the leading news brand and #1 for 10 consecutive quarters.
NBCNews.com reached an average of 89 million unique visitors in Q3, marking its strongest quarter since Q1 2021. For the first time since Q3 2021, NBCNews.com topped The New York Times for a full quarter, and for the first time on record, for three consecutive months. NBCNews.com ranks as the #2 news site in September, ahead of other news competitors, including CBS News, Fox News, ABC News and The Washington Post.
NBCU News Group’s streaming services delivered their 3rd straight record quarter in Q3 2023. NBC News NOW, TODAY All Day and Dateline 24/7 are pacing to have their 2nd straight year of more than 60% year-over-year growth with all three marking major viewership milestones. In Q3 2023, NBC News NOW posted its 2nd most-watched quarter in history, as well as its seventh straight quarter of year-over-year growth.
CNBC Digital recorded an average of 55 million unique visitors in Q3 2023. CNBC is the #2 business news site on the internet, ahead of WSJ.com, Reuters.com, Foxbusiness.com, and Bloomberg.com. CNBC has also been the #1 brand in business news video time spent for 22 consecutive months, with 533 million average monthly minutes viewed in Q3 2023 to-date. Additionally, CNBC Make It’s average monthly unique visitors are up +23% year over year from last year’s record.
MSNBC Digital in Q3 2023 had its strongest quarter since 2020, growing 41% year-over-year. August and September 2023 are MSNBC’s strongest months since 2021 with each month growing by more than 40% year-over-year. MSNBC ranked as one of the top three Political News destinations in September based on monthly unique visitors, in addition to continuing to rank #1 based on total minutes. In August, MSNBC Digital also delivered 219 million video views, making it the most-watched month since 2021.
TODAY Digital averaged 50 million monthly unique visitors in Q3 2023, growing 19% 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 five months. TODAY Digital ended the quarter by reaching its largest audience this year with 53 million unique visitors in September, up 25% year-over-year. TODAY Digital also ranked as the second leading lifestyle and entertainment brand across key video metrics.
Dateline had its 2nd straight quarter with more than 200 million video views across digital platforms, growing 76% year-over-year. The last three quarters have been the show’s strongest on record.
Meet the Press had its 3rd best quarter ever with more than 50 million video views across digital platforms. It was the show’s best quarter since Q1 2021 with video views growing by more than 130% year-over-year.
NBCU News Group’s streaming services delivered their 3rd straight record quarter in Q3 2023. NBC News NOW, TODAY All Day and Dateline 24/7 are pacing to have their 2nd straight year of more than 60% year-over-year growth with all three marking major viewership milestones.
NBC News NOW, NBC News’ 24/7 streaming news network, is pacing towards its best year on record so far in 2023. In Q3 2023, NBC News NOW posted its 2nd most-watched quarter in history, as well as its seventh straight quarter of year-over-year growth.
TODAY All Day had its 4th straight record quarter, up by 115% in Q3 2023 versus Q3 2022. August and September 2023 are the lifestyle streaming network’s strongest months to-date.
Dateline 24/7, the streaming channel for the true-crime powerhouse, had its best quarter on record, growing 6% versus the prior quarter’s record. Dateline 24/7 saw more than four times the number of hours viewed as the same quarter last year as the channel continues to expand across platforms.
On Peacock, The NBCU News Group had its 2nd best quarter on record, growing 34% year-over-year. The last three quarters have been the News Group’s strongest ever on the platform.
NBCU News Group is a top 4 podcast publisher in the US, according to Podtrac. The last four quarters are all among the News Group’s strongest on record with each quarter reaching more than 10 million monthly listeners on average. The News Group has seen 12 consecutive quarters of year-over-year audience growth with listenership up 7% in Q3 2023 versus Q3 2022. Plus, the News Group delivered an average 64 million monthly global podcast downloads this quarter.
Dateline’s chart-topping showcast, which features broadcasts as podcast episodes, delivered nearly 100 million downloads for the third straight quarter. It was the showcast’s third best quarter on record behind only Q1 and Q2 2023. Year-to-date, Dateline downloads are pacing up 9% year-over-year.
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 9.1 million followers on TikTok with +37% growth versus the same month last year.
NBC News is up +18% in followers versus this time last year and delivered 53 million monthly views on TikTok. MSNBC is up +39% in followers, while TODAY Digital is up +133% and delivered 63 million monthly views. CNBC accounts are up +234% in followers versus this time last year and up +149% in monthly views.
NBC News drove its strongest quarter on record with more than 230 million monthly views on YouTube, ranking ahead of CNN, ABC News and CBS News on the platform. MSNBC had its best quarter in a year with more than 200 million monthly views and ahead of CNN and Fox News on the platform for the first time on record. TODAY with over 50 million monthly views, a top five quarter on record for the brand ranked ahead of GMA and CBS Mornings on YouTube for the first time on record. CNBC Make It had its best quarter on YouTube since Q2 2021, led by its second best month ever in August.
Stay Tuned ended the quarter with 11.5 million followers across platforms. Stay Tuned drove its strongest quarter in four years with over 100 million total views across platforms and reached record consumption across YouTube and Instagram. YouTube, Instagram and TikTok each drove over 30 million views, with double and triple-digit growth versus the prior quarter.
Sources: Sources: Comscore Media Metrix® , April 2021 – September 2023, U.S. & Comscore Video Metrix®, April 2021 – August 2023, 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: 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, September 2023. Podtrac, Total Mobile and Desktop US Audience and Global Downloads, September 2023. ListenFirst Media, September 2023. Snapchat Analytics Portal, September 2023.
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For more information, contact:
Claudia Meyer-Samargia
NBC News
Claudia.MeyerSamargia@nbcuni.com
