NBCU News Group’s digital properties reached more than 137 million unique visitors

NBCU News Group ranks as a top 10 podcast publisher in May 

CNBC wins a SABEW award; NBC News Digital wins three Deadline Club awards

June 23, 2021 – NBCU News Group (NBC News, TODAY, MSNBC and CNBC) brought in more than 137 million unique visitors and more than 780 million video starts in May. NBCU News Group ranked as the #1 news organization in the U.S., beating CNN, ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, New York Times and Washington Post, as well as beating this group in total video minutes watched in the month of April, with more than 1.9 billion minutes watched. 

In addition, TODAY has reached more than 50M unique visitors for the last seven months and continues to be the only standalone brand to rank among the top 10 Lifestyle entities for audience. 

CNBC ranks as the #1 non-portal business news property for both unique visitors and video views (April, 2021), and MSNBC ranks in the top five in unique visitors and continues to rank as the #1 political news brand for video views, video viewers and time spent (April, 2021).

CNBC launched a new digital video series called “Charged,” which explores the booming electric vehicle industry and rise of battery technology and has generated more than 4 million video starts since launch. 

CNBC PRO continues to smash subscriber records, hitting a new high every month in 2021, while also reaching an all-time high of exclusive articles published for subscribers.

NBCU News Group’s streaming services, NBC News NOW and TODAY All Day, had top ten months, with NBC News NOW seeing nearly 40 million video views and 14 million hours watched, up more than +179% year-to-date in 2021 over 2020. It was the streaming platform’s best May ever, with viewers watching for an average of 50 minutes at a time on OTT platforms. NBC News NOW produced two specials – “Can You Hear Us Now?: One Year Later,” hosted by Trymaine Lee and “Elevate: Success in the She-Cession,” hosted by Alison Morris. 

TODAY All Day, which saw their 3rd best month on record, hosted programming dedicated to AAPI Heritage Month, including the special Celebrating AAPI Heritage Month: Our Culture, Our Stories hosted by Vicky Nguyen.

NBC News also published a digital documentary, “Blood on Black Wall Street: The Legacy of the Tulsa Race Massacre,” which streamed on NBC News NOW, NBCNews.com and aired on MSNBC and CNBC. Collectively, the documentary saw nearly 50 million minutes watched. 

May was the News Group’s second largest listener month on record, ranking in the top 10 of all podcast publishers, with more than 47 million downloads across all podcasts and showcasts, up more than +14% versus May 2020. 

In May, NBCU News Group published a special two-part episode (Blood on Black Wall Street) of the MSNBC podcast, Into America hosted by Trymaine Lee, marking the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre. 

CNBC had a record month for podcast downloads, growing +35% versus May 2020.  

NBCU News Group Digital was honored with new awards and honors in the month of May, with significant recognition including: 

• A Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing Award in the Personal Finance category for CNBC’s investigation of mobile savings app Beam.
• A Digiday Media Award finalist nomination for TODAY’s Read with Jenna newsletter.
• Three Deadline Club Award wins in the categories of best digital enterprise reporting for an NBC News feature on Visas for farmworkers under the Trump administration, best audio feature reporting for the #1 podcast, Do No Harm and the Mosaic Award, for the NBC News NOW special “Pride + Protest.” The Mosaic award is for “coverage elevating voices and experiences relating to disability, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, social justice, equity and inclusion.”  
• A National Headliner Award second place honor for NBC News’ work with Inside Climate News on an investigation into how natural disasters are imperiling hazardous waste sites.
• Two finalist nominations and an honorable mention in Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Awards for NBC News’ Plan Your Vote feature. 

*Sources: Comscore Media Metrix (May 2021) & Comscore Video Metrix (April 2021), 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. Adobe Analytics & Partner Dashboards, Cross-Platform Global Data, May 2021. Podtrac, Total Mobile and Desktop US Audience and Global Downloads, May 2021.  

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For more information, contact: 

Emily Passer
NBC News Digital
Emily.Passer@nbcuni.com