CNN Gains Traction on Social During Election Cycle

During a year full of notable news, CNN has grown its U.S. social video audience to No. 2 among all domestic news & politics media creators (across YouTube and Facebook), according to data from Tubular Labs.

• Audience ratings data from June shows CNN’s unique U.S. viewers across YouTube and Facebook rose 25% month-over-month to 27.3 million. The increase was part of a larger trend dating back to February, however, when CNN had just 17.3 million unique viewers – less than ABC News, Fox News, NBC News and CBS News, respectively.
• The 58% audience growth has moved CNN to No. 2 among those creators, only trailing ABC News (31.8 million). CNN’s videos leaned heavily on stories related to the presidential candidates, including continued Donald Trump verdict reactions and a variety of content around the first debate between Trump and Joe Biden.
• CNN’s U.S. watch-time also grew by 50% month-over-month – at a time when many other news media creators saw a drop there. But CNN was also aided by hosting the first debate, and airing it in its entirety on social video as well, which led to lengthier watch-times from viewers.