Documentaries Fuel Frontline Social Growth

PBS’s Frontline saw social video viewership leap in Feb. 2024, as audiences tuned into full-length documentaries – specifically around “Democracy On Trial” (about Donald Trump) and “Amazon Empire” (about Amazon and Jeff Bezos).

• Tubular Labs Audience Ratings data shows U.S. minutes watched across YouTube and Facebook grew by 24% month-over-month in February, to 406.7 million, which was the most for Frontline in over a year.
• While neither was uploaded in February, two two full-length specials attracted millions of viewers, translating to a significant uptick in minutes watched. Over 62% of Frontline’s YouTube uploads in the last three years were for videos over 20 minutes long, and 17% were over an hour long.
• Even though full documentaries is not a new strategy for the program, it does show the benefits of publishing longer videos with long-tail relevance.