SAN FRANCISCO—New data from Tubular Labs shows that minutes watched of content from U.S. news organizations on social media increased dramatically, with NBC News seeing a 53% increase in minutes to 1 billion in October.
Meanwhile Fox News was up 45% in minutes watched to 674 million and CBS News increased minutes watched on social media by 37% to 165 million minutes.
Tubular also found that as interest in the news category spiked last month, minutes-watched increased far more than unique viewership. This could indicate that U.S. news audiences on social video are a more static group whose watch-time ebbs and flows based on current events, the researchers said.
Fox News and MSNBC were the only major TV news networks to gain unique U.S. viewers, up by 34% and 23% respectively in October.
Despite the viewership fluctuations, most outlets saw a significant increase in minutes watched, attributed to extensive coverage of the Gaza conflict, early 2024 presidential election news, and U.S. Speaker of the House votes.