NBCU News Group is the #1 Digital News Organization in Q3 2024

October 15, 2024

October 15, 2024 – NBCU News Group ranks as the #1 digital news organization in the U.S. for Q3 2024, with an average of 146 million 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. It was the NBCU News Group’s second best quarter since becoming a public-facing entity.

NBCU News Group, comprised of NBC News, TODAY, MSNBC and CNBC, has ranked as the  #1 leading news brand for each of the last 20 months, as well as the last 14 consecutive quarters. 

NBCNews.com reached an average of 97 million unique visitors in Q3 2024, marking its best quarter since Q1 2021 and its fourth strongest quarter on record, +9% vs. Q3 2023. NBCNews.com is a leader among news sites, consistently beating the Washington Post and ABC News, among others. It also ranked ahead of the New York Times for every month in Q3 2024 in monthly unique visitors.

NBCU News Group’s streaming services posted their seventh straight record quarter in Q3 2024, with +44% year-over-year growth. In Q3 2024, NBC News NOW delivered its most-watched quarter in history.

TODAY Digital averaged 48 million monthly unique visitors in Q3 2024, growing +6% versus the prior quarter. It continued to rank as the second largest individual publisher among leading lifestyle and entertainment brands, a position it’s held for the last 15 quarters. TODAY Digital also ranks as the leading lifestyle and entertainment brand across key video metrics quarter-to-date. 

MSNBC Digital had its best quarter ever in Q3 2024, growing +55% year-over-year. The last three months have been its strongest on record with each month growing by more than +35% year-over-year. MSNBC ranked as a top three political newsdestination, based on monthly unique visitors, in addition to continuing to rank #1 based on total minutes spent on site. 

CNBC Digital recorded an average of 49 million unique visitors in Q3 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 unique viewers for 12 consecutive months and video time spent for 34 consecutive months, averaging 654 million monthly minutes viewed in Q3 2024 to-date.

Dateline had its third-best quarter ever with more than 260 million video views across digital platforms, growing +30% year-over-year. The last three quarters have been the brand’s strongest on record. 

NBC Nightly News reached more than 100 million video views across digital platforms for the 7th straight quarter. 

Meet the Press ended the quarter by reaching its largest number of video views in eight months in September 2024. The show has delivered more than 15 million quarterly video views across digital platforms for the last 31 straight quarters. 

NBCU News Group’s streaming services delivered its seventh straight record quarter in Q3 2024, marking +44% year-over-year growth with all three reaching major viewership milestones. 

NBC News NOW, NBC News’ 24/7 streaming news network, posted its most-watched quarter in history, as well as its largest quarterly primetime audience on record. It was the 11th straight quarter with year-over-year growth, up +27% versus Q3 2023. July, August and September 2024 were NBC News NOW’s most-watched months since January 2021, with all three ranking among the top five months on record. NBC News NOW also saw record levels of video views in Q3 2024 with nearly 700 million total views, +25% greater than its previous record in Q4 2023. 

Dateline 24/7, the dedicated streaming channel for the true-crime franchise, posted its second-best quarter on record, growing +48% year-over-year. 

TODAY All Day had its best quarter on record, up by +37% in Q3 2024 versus Q3 2023. August 2024 was the streamer’s most-watched month ever with +25% more hours viewed than its previous record. 

NBCU News Group is pacing to have its most-watched year ever on Peacock. In Q3 2024, news content had its second best quarter ever, driven by NBC News NOW. NBC News NOW reached record levels on the platform during the second presidential debate, more than doubling its previous record. 

NBCU News Group saw more than 140 million total downloads in Q3 2024, its 20th straight quarter with more than 100 million downloads. MSNBC original podcasts had a top three quarter on record, growing +30% versus the 2023 average. Dateline continues to rank as the #1 True Crime podcast, a position it’s held every month for nearly three years. 

 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 13.1 million followers on TikTok with +44% growth vs. this time last year.

On YouTube, the NBCU News Group averaged 556 million monthly YouTube views, its fourth consecutive quarter over 500 million views, ranking ahead of all other newsbrands in both views and followers.

MSNBC had its strongest quarter ever for social video views, surpassing two billion views in total for the quarter for the first time ever across YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, +165% year-over-year.  On YouTube, MSNBC was the most-watched news network for the third straight quarter and hit a new record on the platform. On TikTok, MSNBC was the most-watched cable network, with four times more video views than its previous record in Q1 2024.

TODAY marked its best quarter on record in social video views, surpassing one billion total views for the quarter across platforms. Both TikTok and Instagram had their strongest quarters on record with triple-digit growth year-over-year. TODAY surpassed GMA on TikTok in video views for the 10th straight quarter with its largest lead ever in addition to seeing more views on YouTube for the sixth straight quarter. 

CNBC had its best quarter ever on TikTok and third best quarter on Instagram across accounts.

Stay Tuned ended the quarter with 11.6 million followers across platforms, delivering 56 million monthly views across YouTube, Instagram and TikTok in Q3 2024. The strongest quarter this year in monthly video-views, +65% vs. year-to-date average.

Sources: Comscore Media Metrix Multi-Platform®, April 2021 – September 2024, Desktop & Mobile excluding Social Incremental, Total Unique Visitors/Viewers, Total Minutes, U.S. & Comscore Video Metrix®, April 2021 – August 2024, U.S. desktop internet population 2+ and mobile internet population 13+ years old, Video Unique Visitors/Viewers, 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 Digital, 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 2024. ListenFirst Media, September 2024. Snapchat Analytics Portal, September 2024. 

For more information, contact: 
Claudia Meyer-Samargia
Claudia.MeyerSamargia@nbcuni.com