Data: US media companies grow social video viewership
June 29, 2023
Tubular Labs, a specialist in social video intelligence, has released findings around US viewership trends from their Audience Ratings product – giving insight into deduplicated, unique viewership and minutes watched of trending video categories, creators and more across YouTube and Facebook.
Top takeaways include:
Media Companies Increase Unique Viewers Amid Writers’ Strike
The Writer’s Guild of America went on strike on May 2nd, potentially putting major US media companies in a bind for content. Despite the lack of new scripted content, Comcast, Paramount, Walt Disney and Warner Bros Discovery all increased May unique US viewers across YouTube and Facebook.
Data from Tubular Labs’ Audience Ratings shows all four companies respectively had their highest unique viewer totals in the last 12 months as each leaned on a combination of sports highlights, library content and unscripted show clips.
Creators Soar With Shorts
YouTube Shorts popularity is staying strong. According to Tubular data, a focus on short-form content powered audience growth for several top creators last month.
Dylan Anderson, the leading U.S. creator/influencer by unique US viewers in May (83.4 million), grew his audience by 29 per cent month-over-month with a steady diet of positivity-focused Shorts – like people helping others and providing heartwarming surprises. Anthony Wreyn utilised a similar strategy, growing by 47 per cent month-over-month to be third among US creators/influencers. Nathan Kessel was more focused on pranks and funny videos, but grew month-over-month unique US viewers by 446 per cent, climbing to seventh among creators/influencers.
Big Brands Buy Into Social
Temu continued its 2023 ad blitz with an even larger social video investment. The ecommerce app grew US unique viewers by 156 per cent in May, to 77.1 million across YouTube and Facebook. But it wasn’t the only brand to get in on the act with (primarily) social ads during May.
P&G saw unique viewers leap 96 per cent month-over-month, with US minutes watched up 59 per cent, as the CPG giant emphasised Old Spice with comedic video ads.
Taco Bell also grew unique viewers by 176 per ent month-over-month to coincide with its Taco Tuesday campaign featuring LeBron James.
NBA’s Social Video Slam Dunk (Again)
Fully taking advantage of the playoffs spotlight, the NBA increased its US minutes watched across YouTube and Facebook for the eighth consecutive month. The league climbed to 625.4 million minutes watched in May – up 4 per cent versus April and up 46 per cent versus May 2022. NBA unique US viewers grew even more, up 28 per cent month-over-month to 30.2 million – nearly double its total last May.