Consumers are more likely than ever to watch video content through social media, rather than traditional TV or streaming options. And for its coverage of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, NBCUniversal smartly realized this shift. 

Citing new data Maverix Research and Insight’s Media Identity Graph (MIDG) analysts Liz Huszarik and Alexia Raven found that social video accounted for 62.2% of watch time in 2024, compared to just 35.2% for SVODs.

That’s down from 43% for SVODs in 2022, and up from 54% for social video.

According to the research firm, recognizing these consumptions shifts and accounting for them is what made NBCUniversal’s coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympics so successful.

During the Paris Olympic Games, NBC focused on engaging audiences through the use of platforms like TikTok, Youtube,  Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) in order to deliver real-time video content and meet what the researchers call “the modern demand for instant updates.”

Maverix said that NBC specifically targeted Gen Z and Millennials, who watch a collective average of 11.9 hours of video content each day.

They’re also far more likely to consume social media content than other age groups, with social video watch time among Millennials increasing 17% since 2022, and Gen Z showing 11% growth in the same period, all while SVOD viewing stayed flat, or even declined.

Another major part of NBC’s strategy focused on harnessing the fan appeal of Olympic athletes, in order to boost engagement for both NBC and the athletes.

The company highlighted Ilona Maher and Freddy Richard, who created exclusive behind-the-scenes content, as well as Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky, and Noah Lyles, who took over NBC’s social media channels for a day to engage with fans.

Tiktok in particular was critical to NBC’s strategy, attempting to harness the massive year-over-year growth in watch time among Millennials (54%) and Gen Z (15%).

Currently, the official NBC Olympics Account has 4.3 million followers on TikTok and 2 million followers on Instagram.

According to Maverix, NBC’s use of social media demonstrated just how quickly the media landscape is shifting toward social video.

“This strategy isn’t only about capturing viewers; it’s packed with insights for brands and advertisers trying to navigate this new terrain,” wrote Huszarik and Raven. “As the media world keeps evolving, NBC's approach provides a solid blueprint for future live event coverage and content delivery that others can and should follow.”

It's no longer about video consumers “cutting the cord,” with younger folks determining new, more user-friendly ways of watching television. 

Heck, “Netflix and chill” isn't even a thing with these kids anymore

The whole idea of what is video entertainment is being reimagined by the youngest generations, with new research suggesting “Gen Alpha” (roughly defined as those born between 2013 and 2024) devotes 78% of its screen time to watching video distributed on social media. 

Social video time share is 56% for Gen Z (those born between 1997 and 2012), up from 46% just two years ago. 

The data comes from Maverix Insights & Strategy (by way of Hub Entertainment Research). Maverix is the new research company co-founded by former Warner Bros. Discovery research gurus Liz Huszarik and Alexia Raven. 

Maverix’s “Media Identity Graph” calls on brand marketers to rethink their strategies for reaching younger consumers. 

These whippersnappers, the group contends, don't live in the living room anymore. Social via their smartphone is their lifestyle. 

We found this data point particularly interesting: Across subsections of younger consumers, usage of subscription streaming services including Netflix, Hulu and Apple TV Plus is still pretty frequent and regular. 

But consumption of video via YouTube, as well as social media platforms including Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, is even heavier. More than 80% of parent survey respondents report that their 18-to-26-year-old adult children use YouTube or these social platforms, vs. slightly less than 80% for the major SVODs. 

Admittedly, this isn't a new concept. Every month, for instance, Nielsen releases its U.S. TV consumption market share tracker, The Gauge, which always reveals that usage of YouTube far surpasses that of any other streaming platform, based on living-room consumption alone. 

Look, all we're saying is, before you commit billions of dollars to buying a major Hollywood studio, give it a good think. 

Tubular Labs, which analyzes social media, said it is now able to connect online and in-store pickup orders at Walmart with social video exposure.

Tubular was already tracking social video viewership’s impact on shopping behavior on Amazon. 

The new Walmart data enables Tubular Labs to monitor new product categories including dairy, frozen foods and beer and alcohol.

“Our Consumer Insights product already provided expansive, first-of-its-kind insights into how social video informs the consumer purchase journey on a granular level,” said Josh Schmiesing, CMO at Tubular Labs. “With social commerce exploding, Tubular’s Consumer Insights really collapses the funnel for marketers and draws that direct line -- from reach and engagement through conversion.”

For publishers, the addition of Walmart shopping behavior data provides additional touchpoints to Tubular Consumer Insights and increases the pool of advertisers interested in social video buying. 

Tubular has found that 45% of L’Oréal product buyers watched beauty content on social media before making a purchase, that 19% of Chobani buyers watched CNN on social media beforehand; and that audiences who watched Martha Stewart’s channel were 60 times more likely to buy chocolate chips and cocoa products. 

For clients, Tubular delivers metrics on shopping affinity, audience share, market share and relevance score.  ■

Below is a profile of Comcast’s social video presence, with data via social video intelligence company Tubular Labs.

Amid this year’s NewFronts and Upfronts, the focus is decidedly on TV. But those media giants also have large social video footprints, with completely different content strategies. And completely different opportunities to leverage audiences with advertisers, as we explore below for Comcast.

During Q1 2022, Comcast-owned videos were watched for 15.5 billion minutes by U.S. audiences across YouTube and Facebook. Comcast’s top network and studio performers, by U.S. minutes watched in Q1:

1. NBC News (4.00 billion)
2. NBC Entertainment (2.88 billion)
3. Telemundo (1.48 billion)
4. DreamWorks Family International (1.28 billion)
5. Fandango (1.17 billion)

Of the top five by minutes watched, there’s a clear emphasis on NBC’s various television holdings, with NBC News including the Today Show, as well as MSNBC and the various shows that appear on the network. NBC Entertainment, which is regularly among the top 20 broadcast-related properties by monthly U.S. minutes watched, also succeeds as an amalgamation of many popular channels – from Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show, to NBC’s various dramas and sitcoms.

Telemundo is also the top Spanish-language U.S. broadcast property across Facebook and YouTube by minutes watched. While Comcast owns a variety of social properties with large audiences, Telemundo represents both a growing audience (Spanish speakers in the U.S.), as well as a dedicated one. Tubular data shows that on Facebook and YouTube, each unique U.S. Telemundo viewer watched an average of 37.9 minutes of content in March. That’s No. 4 among Comcast properties, only behind Dreamworks Family International (50.4 minutes), NBC News (43.4 minutes) and NBC Daytime (38.5 minutes).

Though Comcast’s March social video reach of 39.2% of the U.S. population in March 2022 was third among major broadcast conglomerates (behind Disney at 49.3% and Paramount at 47.9%), Comcast-owned channels also had more watch-time per viewer. In March, Comcast unique viewers watched an average of 50 minutes of content, versus 37.7 for Paramount and 23.6 for Disney.

Those minutes watched can provide a lot of chances for brand partnerships, as Tubular’s consumer insights data reveals.

Comcast social video viewers were 3.8x more likely than the average viewer to shop for books about dating, and 3.7x more likely to look for video game cables/adapters, as well as books about economics history. Within 30 days of watching Comcast videos on social media sites, 8.8% of viewers looked for something to watch on Prime Video. And 5.4% wanted to tune into a drama series or movie using Prime Video.

While the gaming focus may be a surprise, there’s also a natural fit for Comcast to work directly with Amazon to cross-promote certain shows or movies. Some of those can be Comcast-owned properties that also appear on Amazon Prime Video. But others could be integrations that prompt viewers to progress from, say, an MSNBC show’s highlights on YouTube to a specific political thriller on Amazon.

Among many areas for growth for Comcast in the coming months, Peacock is one of the more obvious ones. The streaming home of NBCUniversal content (including Bravo, now, next-day) had 120.9 million U.S. minutes watched across YouTube and Facebook in Q1 2022, which is more than several of NBCU’s TV networks on the platforms, and not too far behind the aforementioned Bravo (145.9 million). 

Leaning more heavily into Bravo content on social media to coincide with next-day streaming should fuel an increase in watch-time for Peacock, as will promos for Lionsgate movies, which will be joining the service in 2024. With many of Peacock’s most-watched social videos to-date revolving around either library content or content Comcast doesn’t own outright. Interestingly, two of the five most-watched Peacock videos feature hit show Yellowstone – which is not an NBCU show, but Peacock owns the streaming rights for the Paramount series.

Among Comcast-owned social video creators in Q1, many of the most-seen videos have either been movie trailers (Jurassic World Dominion, Nope) or clips uploaded by its TV shows. However, three of the top five are actually user-generated content – led by this wedding clip posted by E! News, at 57.3 million views on Facebook. For Comcast creators outside of the U.S., there’s also an extra emphasis on news. Of the top 10 Comcast uploads from non-U.S. creators, nine were news-focused videos from Sky News or Sky News Arabia. ■

Below is a profile of Walt Disney Co.’s social video presence, with data via social video intelligence company Tubular Labs.

Amid this year’s NewFronts and Upfronts, the focus is decidedly on TV. But these media giants also have large footprints on social video, with completely different content strategies. And completely different opportunities to leverage audiences with advertisers, as we’ll explore below for the Walt Disney Co.

In Q1 2022, Walt Disney Co.-owned videos were watched for 9.6 billion minutes by U.S. audiences across YouTube and Facebook. Disney’s network and studio performers, by U.S.  minutes watched in Q1:

Of the top five by minutes watched, four are TV networks, but ABC News is an exception as ABC’s news division. ABC News programs appear on ABC and on streaming platforms, but not as a standalone channel like the others. Despite lacking its own linear channel, ABC News still garners more minutes watched than ESPN (multiple networks) and ABC’s mostly entertainment-focused content.

But the success of ABC News encouraging extensive watch-time presents an opportunity for targeted advertisers on social video platforms in ways that Disney can’t with some of its other top assets – most notably, Disney Junior and Disney Channel video content, which are limited by their younger audience.

The Walt Disney Co. reached 49.0% of the entire U.S. population in March 2022, and 51.3% of U.S. adults over 18. Such a large audience creates a massive opportunity to connect viewers with retail brands in various forms, as Tubular’s consumer insights data reveals.

Disney social video viewers were 13.6x more likely than the average viewer to shop for science fiction and fantasy children’s books within 30 days of watching a video, and 21% of all Disney social video viewers shopped for books within 30 days. Additionally, 18.9% shopped for electronics on Amazon. 

Given Disney’s extensive approach to marketing already, the brand can either use this data as an opportunity to extend the reach of its content into owned retail products (and it has plenty in the books and electronics spaces already), or partner with advertisers looking to capitalize on an audience already anxious to shop for those products. 

Disney also has further opportunities for growth abroad. Less than a third (32%) of Walt Disney Co.’s global Facebook and YouTube minutes watched in Q1 came from the U.S. Movies like Encanto, which was not centered solely on the U.S. or English-language dialog/songs, also delivered plenty of views for the company. In Q1, eight of Disney’s 20 most-watched videos across YouTube, Facebook and Twitter globally had to do with Encanto. 

But some of the rest may surprise. 

SportsNation (part of ESPN) uploaded six of the 10 most-viewed U.S. Disney videos – four of the top five – and all were YouTube #Shorts. The user-generated content was a hit with fans both by way of views and engagement, where it also topped the list for Disney. Despite the success, #Shorts made up just 2.7% of Q1 YouTube uploads for Disney. Brand partnerships that remain aligned to the UGC angle could be advantageous for the company to lean into given the performance of those videos and the fact that they haven’t over indexed on that content format yet.

And while Marvel may control the box office in recent years, the company accounted for just two of the top 20 U.S. Disney videos by views in Q1. Part of that may be because there were no Marvel films in theaters in Q1, with just one TV show (Moon Knight) debuting at the very end of the quarter. But perhaps it’s an area where advertisers only go if they’re looking for a niche audience, versus the broader reach of some of Disney’s other properties.

Also interestingly, the company hasn’t utilized Disney Plus as a major engine for show promos in Q1 (when compared to streaming competitors), with U.S. audiences watching just 37.9 million minutes of content across Facebook and YouTube. Part of this could be due to Disney having its individual arms of IP (Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, etc.) publishing trailers to connect with their most passionate fans. But Disney Plus could have an opportunity for greater engagement through that property with shoulder content, sneak peaks and similar content that showcases how it’s a one-stop shop for whatever audiences are fans of (mimicking much of its TV advertising campaigns of late).

Tubular Labs, which measures social video, said it has rolled out a new system using gross ratings points, the metric used for planning and buying other video channels.

The GRPs are an extension of Tubular Audience Ratings, which measure de-duplicated audience reach and demographic characteristics for videos on Facebook and YouTube channels, and are based on viewing sessions of at least 30 seconds.

“The time spent consuming social video has skyrocketed, especially in demographics where TV viewership has plummeted — and now more than ever the industry needs a new standard for evaluating audiences and optimizing investments independent of the platforms where the spend is occurring,” said Stephen DiMarco, chief strategy officer at Tubular. “Tubular Audience Ratings and our expansion into gross rating points is built to establish better benchmarks for specific audience viewership, which is critical to unlocking potential for advertisers, growth for publishers and maturing the industry overall.”

Also: NBC’s Olympics Won Gold in Social Video Despite Disappointing Ratings

GRP measurement is available for publishers with a base of at least 1 million views on Facebook or YouTube.

Measured the traditional way by U.S. unique viewers the NFL ranks 25th among media and entertainment creators. By GRPs, it ranks eighth.

“As social video continues to grow with rapidly expanding viewership, its audience is rivaling (or surpassing) television in terms of size and scope, but brands and agencies want comparable metrics to put platform spend at parity with TV,” said DiMarco. “By introducing GRPs to go along with our existing Tubular Audience Ratings product, it enables social video to be in the conversation with all other media as marketers look to refine their mix alongside the decline of linear and the increase of streaming in a cookie-less future.”

The Top 10 U.S. TV Network-Affiliated Creators by Sept. 2021 U.S. GRP (including unique viewers)

Fox News: 76.2 (28.3 million unique viewers)

Inside Edition: 37.5 (19.1 million)

A&E: 27.6 (15.1 million)

MSNBC: 27.3 (9.7 million)

SportsCenter: 23.5 (29.4 million)

Saturday Night Live: 23.2 (10.9 million)

Disney Junior: 23.1 (18.0 million)

ESPN: 22.6 (20.3 million)

ABC News: 22.3 (28.1 million)

Love and Hip Hop: 21.7 (8.0 million)

Though ratings for NBCUniversal’s coverage of the Tokyo Summer Games were mostly lower than the Rio Games four years ago, the Olympic grabbed viewers attention in social video, according to an analysis by Tubular Labs.

Tubular said that from June to August, NBC Sports nearly doubled its U.S. reach to 26.6 million unique viewers with Olympic-related content from 13.9 million.

Also Read: NBCU Claims Tokyo Olympics Have Generated 100 Billion Minutes of Viewing

Watch time soars to 908.3 million minutes in August from 379.5 million in June, despite the Olympics wrapping up on Aug. 8.

NBC Sport was among the most prolific media and entertainment creators on Facebook and YouTube during August.

Tubular said Olympic viewers were more engaged on Facebook in 2021 than they had been during the 2016 games from Rio in Brazil.

Also Read: NBCU Still Expects Olympics To Be Profitable, Says Jeff Shell

Hard-to-get audiences were found watching the official Olympics Channel on YouTube. Facebook’s Olympic audience was 64%, with females 18 to 24 making up 17% of its audience.

On Twitter, NBC Olympics topped all U.S. media and entertainment creators. NBC had the exclusive rights to be the go-to Twitter feed for all things Olympics throughout the games.

Similarly on YouTube, NBC Sports accounted for 22 of the top 25 Olympic videos.

With Saturday Night Live finishing its 46th season on May 22, we’re taking a look at the advertising and social video trends around the iconic NBC show, with insights from iSpot.tv and Tubular Labs.

In total, new episodes of Saturday Night Live generated 3.1 billion TV ad impressions this season, according to iSpot. While this represented a 12.4% increase from the previous season, it’s worth keeping in mind season 45 was impacted by COVID-related shutdowns. By comparison, season 46 saw a 7.75% decrease in TV ad impressions compared to the last “normal” season, which was its 44th. 

Top brands by TV ad impressions for SNL’s 46th season included State Farm (61.4 million TV ad impressions), Kohl’s (59.2 million), Verizon (58.4 million), T-Mobile (56.5 million) and McDonald’s (55.3 million), according to iSpot. State Farm, T-Mobile and Kohl’s were also in the top 10 ranking for brands by impressions for the previous season.

Also Read: NBC Shares Upfront Plans

The most-seen (non-network promo) spot during SNL’s 46th season was Verizon’s “The 5G Frontier,” with 38.6 million TV ad impressions. Per iSpot’s Ace Metrix, this ad scored above the norm for all industries for aspects including watchability, information and product desire. The No. 2 ad by impressions during SNL’s 46th season was “Parker Promo” from State Farm, with 29.5 million TV ad impressions. According to Ace Metrix survey data, 29% of respondents considered the characters to be the single best thing about the ad. 

Of course, the TV screen is just one way that viewers engage with SNL — social video has proved to be an extremely effective way for NBC to reach a broader audience for the show. According to social video analytics company Tubular Labs, SNL videos on YouTube have racked up 2.1 billion views this season from 374 uploads. In April, Saturday Night Live had 17.4 million global unique viewers across YouTube and Facebook, with 678.8 million minutes watched globally, per Tubular Audience Ratings. And looking at just the U.S. audience in April, SNL was the third most-watched entertainment creator across YouTube and Facebook, with 523.7 million minutes watched from U.S. viewers in April.

The top video from this season by YouTube views was the premiere’s cold open featuring the first debate between Joe Biden (portrayed by Jim Carrey) and Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin), with 31.2 million views. Elon Musk’s monologue was another big social video for SNL, landing at No. 8 for the show’s top YouTube videos with 9 million views, 7.8 million of which occurred in the first three days, according to Tubular’s V3 metric (which measures views within three days of publishing). 

Musk’s guest-hosting stint helped spark a wave of YouTube uploads from independent accounts as well: From May 8-10, there were over 3,000 videos uploaded across social video platforms related to Elon Musk (some of which were about Musk generally — meaning they didn’t necessarily reference his SNL gig). This was a 320% increase from the previous weekend, which had only 760 Musk-related videos uploaded.

Many of the top SNL-related videos by views (from all accounts) for the May 8-10 weekend were related to what Musk said about Dogecoin during his episode, such as this one, with 1.1 million views to date. It’s the No. 2 YouTube video related to Musk that was uploaded the weekend of his SNL appearance.

Last week’s news that AT&T’s WarnerMedia plans to merge with Discovery set the TV world aflutter, and for good reason: The Discovery networks’ hugely popular unscripted content married with WarnerMedia’s cinematic powerhouse of a library — not to mention TNT, TBS and CNN — will create an entertainment/media force of truly epic proportions.

Much has already been said (and speculated) about what exactly this all means, but today we’re looking at a new angle: social video trends from the two giants, using insights from Tubular Labs. 

At a high level, the merger is a potential boon for Discovery when it comes to engaging consumers through social video: Per Tubular Audience Ratings for April, across Facebook and YouTube, WarnerMedia racked up 100.5 million unique viewers in the U.S. with 3.8 billion minutes watched, while Discovery had 49.5 million unique viewers and 805.9 million minutes watched during the month. Tubular data shows that the combined company would be the third-most watched media conglomerate on Facebook and YouTube, behind ViacomCBS and Comcast.

Also Read: Stankey: WarnerMedia Was a Mismatch for AT&T’s Domestically ‘Captive’ Connectivity Biz

YouTube has delivered 19.7 billion views for WarnerMedia content so far in 2021. Movie trailers have been a huge part of that: Looking at YouTube videos from WarnerMedia’s U.S. properties, the No. 1 video by views this year is the official trailer for Godzilla vs. Kong, which has racked up 91.3 million views, 46.9 million of which occurred in the first week, according to Tubular. A clip from Wonder Woman 1984 is WarnerMedia’s second most-watched video on YouTube this year (31.6 million views), while the trailer for Zack Snyder’s Justice League takes third (27.1 million views). 

But it isn’t just cinematic titles that get major traction for WarnerMedia’s social video presence: With 13.3 million views, the Rick and Morty season 5 trailer is No. 6 on the ranking of WarnerMedia’s most-watched YouTube videos from U.S. accounts, while a segment from Last Week Tonight With John Oliver and a Teen Titans Go! clip, both with 11 million views, also make the top 10. 

For Discovery, Tubular data shows that Facebook is its prime vehicle for social video views, netting the company 5.2 billion so far in 2021. Of the Discovery-owned U.S. Facebook accounts, a clip promoting the season premiere of Naked and Afraid has the most views so far this year — 36 million, 19.6 million of which occurred in the first seven days after it was posted, per Tubular.  

Food Network is also a big social video powerhouse for Discovery: This Facebook video featuring The Pioneer Woman’s Ree Drummond has generated 25 million views, while a sequence showing the creation of a massive cheesy fried onion is close behind with 22 million Facebook video views. Clips from TLC shows are also popular, such as this one from My 600lb Life (12 million views) and this one from 90 Day Fiancé (11 million views).

Last week, we dove into how streaming and ad-supported TV services are using social video to woo audiences. Now, just in time for the Upfronts next week, we’re examining a few of the biggest TV conglomerates — ViacomCBS, The Walt Disney Company, Fox Corporation and A+E Networks — to reveal social video trends using insights from Tubular Labs. 

When it comes to recent consumption of social video, ViacomCBS is a leader among broadcast/radio/cable properties: Per Tubular Audience Ratings for March, its owned accounts across Facebook and YouTube racked up 136.7 million U.S. viewers, with 5.8 billion minutes watched, putting it in first place for the category for viewers and watch-time.  

Looking at specific ViacomCBS-owned shows/networks that are generating top view-counts this year, four stand out: The Late Late Show with James Corden, Nick Jr., SpongeBob SquarePants Official and MTV all have multiple videos in the top 15 ranking. This points to the demographic diversity of ViacomCBS audiences. The broad range of content available that appeals to multiple age groups may be one factor in its achievement of the most unique viewers and minutes watched. 

ViacomCBS’s most-watched YouTube video of 2021 so far from a U.S. account is a clip featuring BLACKPINK posted by The Late Late Show with James Corden, which has generated 55.1 million views, 24.8 million of which occurred in the first week, per Tubular. Another James Corden clip featuring Prince Harry also made the top 10 with 25.5 million views, and just behind that is an MTV video with BTS with 21.2 million views (a second BTS video from MTV is also in the ranking, with 13.4 million views). 

Beyond the star power, kids’ content is also performing well for ViacomCBS: Nick Jr. was the source of Viacom’s No. 2 YouTube video by views this year (48.7 million), while SpongeBob takes third place (31.2 million). In fact, six of the top 15 ViacomCBS YouTube videos by views come from the SpongeBob account. 

There’s a bit of a different story when it comes to The Walt Disney Company. While it’s automatic to associate Disney with families and kids, sports-related properties also play a big role for the conglomerate: SportsCenter and ESPN are two of Disney’s most-watched shows/networks so far this year in terms of social video. 

According to Tubular, SportsCenter Facebook videos received 297 million views during March, while ESPN had 161 million Facebook video views for the month, making them the top two Disney-owned creators for the month. One of the top Facebook videos so far in 2021 is ESPN’s “Rocky’s Valentine Move,” with 40 million views. ABC7 posted this video about Magic Johnson and others speaking about getting COVID vaccinations, which has generated 27.2 million Facebook views. 

Additionally, multiple Disney-owned creators made the March top 10 ranking for unique viewers within the broadcast/radio/cable category: ABC News (30 million unique viewers), SportsCenter (25.9 million) and Good Morning America (23.7 million). In total, videos posted by accounts owned by The Walt Disney Company generated 135.1 million unique viewers in March with 3.5 billion minutes watched by U.S. audiences on Facebook and YouTube, according to Tubular Audience Ratings. 

In March, videos from Fox Corporation had 53.6 million unique viewers with 982.8 million minutes watched. Looking at video content, the sports trend continues: Fox Corporation’s top U.S. Facebook video by views this year is “Rondale Moore shows off 42.5" vertical at Pro Day,” from the College Football on Fox account, with 55 million views. Feel-good news clips are also top performers, such as the Fox 11 Los Angeles video “Heartwarming,” showing a school clapping for a cafeteria manager who has become a U.S. citizen, with 21 million Facebook views. And a Fox 10 Phoenix video showing police officers surprising a young boy with a toy John Deere gator has 16 million views. 

Sports and news aside, it’s worth mentioning that a clip from the Fox show 9-1-1 also made the top 10 Facebook videos in 2021 so far, with 9.7 million views. It’s the only (non-news) TV show-related clip in the top 20 Facebook videos for Fox Corporation. 

A+E Networks is another media conglomerate that saw social video success in March. According to Tubular Audience Ratings, it was in the top 10 for unique views (50.2 million) and minutes watched (2.8 billion) in the U.S. broadcast/radio/cable category. 

Not only that, looking at the creator-specific rankings for that category, multiple A+E-owned properties ranked high: History was No. 1 (961.3 million minutes watched in March), A&E Network was No. 2 (780.1 million), Pawn Stars on History was No. 11 (375.9 million) and Lifetime was No. 12 (370.4 million). 

When it comes to the most-watched A+E Networks Facebook videos so far this year, five of the top 10 come from The Best of Pawn Stars (an ancillary account to Pawn Stars on History), including the No. 1 video “Illegal Tortoise Shell Guitar Screams Trouble” (13.5 million views) and “Rare Suit Worn by ZZ Top” (12.3 million).

Sony Pictures Entertainment and Netflix recently agreed to a groundbreaking licensing deal that will give Netflix an exclusive window on Sony theatrical releases. This is clearly a boon for both parties, with Netflix scoring more of the latest entertainment titles and Sony locking in access to the massive Netflix subscriber base. And there are likely to be promotional synergies too.

Social video has helped SVOD companies excel in the streaming wars, engaging current audiences and accelerating subscriber growth. According to a recent report from social video analytics firm Tubular Labs, U.S. viewers spent 116% more time watching SVOD content on social video in January 2021 compared to January 2020. Tubular’s analysis shows that of the SVODs’ U.S. audiences, 67% are 13-34 years old, a coveted demographic. (A note about methodology: This data is based on the U.S. viewing audience, including YouTube and Facebook. The minutes-watched data is based on views of at least 30 seconds.) 

Also Read: Netflix Ups the Ante with Latest Deals

Of the SVOD platforms Tubular measured, Netflix dominated for U.S. cross-platform unique viewers in January of this year, with 93.2 million. That bodes well for Sony, given that Netflix will surely use its social video muscle to promote new Sony titles as they become available to stream. 

That said, Sony also already has a strong social video strategy.

Sony Pictures utilizes multiple social video platforms to promote its content, but according to Tubular, YouTube is a primary driver of views for the company, netting 796 million from over 1,100 video uploads across various Sony Pictures-owned accounts (that includes Sony Pictures’ global creators and other owned properties such as Sony Pictures Classics). 

The top YouTube video for Sony Pictures’ U.S. accounts across the last year is the official trailer for Monster Hunt, which was posted in October and has generated 11.8 million views, 5.5 million of which occurred within the first 30 days, according to Tubular’s analysis. Meanwhile, the most-watched Netflix video hasn’t even been up for a full month yet: The official trailer for The Mitchells vs. The Machines, posted on March 31, has racked up over 18.9 million views so far. 

Trailers are the bread and butter of Sony Pictures’ social video strategy: Of its top 15 YouTube U.S.-focused videos by views in the last year, only two aren’t teasers or trailers: “Puppy! A Hotel Transylvania Short Film,” from Sony Pictures Animation with over 3 million views, and “The New Spider-Man Title is…” reveal with 2.4 million views. 

This brings us to one specific area where Sony might take cues from Netflix: the diversification of content types in its social video mix. Although both companies focus heavily on teasers and trailers for their YouTube presences, Netflix in particular tends to offer more full-fledged content: While many of Netflix’s top 15 YouTube videos by views are trailers, it's also posted full episodes of Our Planet, which have generated top view counts. 

Also, of the top SVOD platforms that Tubular examined, Netflix has the most format diversity across types of content posted to Facebook.

For example, on Facebook, Netflix shares short clips from shows and movies, such as a 17 Again clip that was posted in early January and is the No. 1 Facebook video by views (55.6 million) for Netflix in the last year, 19 million of which occurred in the first week. Another top video is a collection of “Floor Is Lava Falls,” with 29.7 million views, and this interview with Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, which has generated 8.8 million views. Meanwhile, Sony Pictures’ most-watched Facebook videos are all trailers and teasers. 

As Sony Pictures content comes to Netflix under the new licensing deal, it’s easy to envision how the streaming giant can push forward with increasingly engaging ways to promote Sony fare.

Show promos are a staple of TV advertising, helping networks to soak up excess ad inventory and ensuring a drumbeat of viewer awareness for current and upcoming series. But TV screens are just one way to reach audiences — as people spend more time in front of their computers and phones, networks are leveraging social video as well. 

Using insights from Tubular Labs and iSpot.tv, we examined three shows — Clarice, Rock the Block and Genius: Aretha — that networks have recently been promoting on TV to see how they’re being advertised on social video.

Clarice, the new CBS series based on the novel The Silence of the Lambs, is the No. 1 TV show promo so far in 2021, with 2.8 billion TV ad impressions, 449.5 million of which have occurred in March, per iSpot. CBS has taken a multi-pronged approach on social video: The show has its own Twitter and Facebook accounts, and CBS has also promoted it through the parent account. 

The initial promotions for Clarice came from the main CBS YouTube account, with two videos uploaded on May 19, 2020: “First Look at the New 2020-2021 CBS Primetime Schedule,” with just a brief mention of the show, while “Clarice - New Drama Coming Soon to CBS,” featured co-creators and executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet talking about the genesis of the series. But most of the action is taking place on the Clarice-specific accounts.

Also Read: Watch-Time for Social Videos Around Gaming Sees Explosive Year-Over-Year Growth

Twitter has been the main vehicle for official promotional videos around the show, with 99 posted so far. The first Twitter video to go live was the same version of the teaser that was posted to YouTube. Leading up to the premiere, the Clarice Twitter account posted additional short clips, all highly stylized to give a creepy vibe, much in line with the show’s aesthetic. 

The most-viewed Twitter video, with 4.3 million views, was a Jan. 11 clip encouraging users to like the tweet for a reminder about the Feb. 11 premiere, while the second-place Twitter video by views (1.3 million), was a much more traditional promo akin to what you see on TV. Since then, Clarice has released short clips from the show, as well as cast and crew commentary, on Twitter.

In the cable world, HGTV has been putting major muscle behind season two of Rock the Block, which premiered March 8. It’s appeared in iSpot’s Promo Mojo ranking each week so far this month. 

According to iSpot, Rock the Block promos have racked up 686 million TV ad impressions in March alone, making it the No. 2 most-seen TV promo for the month overall.

HGTV has also uploaded 19 season two-related Rock the Block videos to its parent account on Facebook. The first, posted on Oct. 6, revealed the talent lineup with a typical COVID-era virtual video call. It’s generated 94.8K views, almost all of which occurred in the first week, according to Tubular. The next Facebook video, which went up on Feb. 13 and has 38.2K views, feels more like a traditional TV promo, complete with the lower-third promoting the premiere date. 

In March, HGTV used Facebook to reveal sneak peeks, advertise the premiere, engage fans and share clips from the show. The most-seen Facebook video for season two is “Rock the Block: Team Brian and Mika,” with 263K views, 231K of which occurred in the first week, per Tubular.

Finally, a look at National Geographic’s Genius: Aretha, which premiered on March 21 and is the third in the network’s Genius anthology. According to iSpot, TV promos for the limited series racked up 588.7 million TV ad impressions in March, and 844.7 million in total so far this year. 

Nat Geo has taken a somewhat modest approach on social video, with a few videos uploaded across YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. YouTube has the most clips (eight), and the most-viewed one is the initial trailer, posted June 25, 2020, with 653K views, nearly all of which occurred in the first month, per Tubular.

Of the top five most-watched Genius: Aretha YouTube videos, four are trailers with view counts ranging from 110K to 653K, while No. 5 is a behind-the-scenes look posted in August, with 73.7K views.

A recent video takes a different route: In mid-March, Nat Geo uploaded “All Hail the Queen: HBCU Band Tribute,” hosted by Lance Gross and presented by Genius: Aretha. 

We’re a year into the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. and it should come as no surprise that social video consumption has seen drastic, sustained growth, with many people still homebound and in front of their computers and smartphones more and more. 

Social video analytics company Tubular Labs examined how much year-over-year growth occurred in February across five genres: sports, gaming, entertainment, kids entertainment and news/politics. (A note about methodology: The data in this article is based on a U.S.-viewing audience, including YouTube and Facebook. The minutes watched data is based on views of at least 30 seconds.) 

The gaming genre was the clear winner, with 80.1 billion minutes watched in February 2021, an impressive 73% increase from February 2020. Kids entertainment (55.3 billion minutes watched, a 34% increase year-over-year) took second place, followed by entertainment (77 billion minutes, a 22% increase from February 2020), news and politics (17.2 billion, +17%) and sports (14.5 billion, +15%). 

Also Read: Social Video 2020 Year in Review: The Broadcast and Digital Winners

One of the most-watched gaming properties for U.S. audiences over the last year has been Riot Games, which led for minutes watched for 10 out of 12 months compared to other top properties Nintendo, Activision Blizzard and PokerStars. (In December and February, Nintendo was tops for minutes watched.) October was Riot’s biggest month for watch-time, with 114 million minutes watched. 

The top Riot-owned video by views in the last year was posted to the League of Legends YouTube channel in October: “K/DA - MORE ft. Madison Beer, (G)I-DLE, Lexie Liu, Jaira Burns, Seraphine (Official Music Video),” with 80.8 million views.

Looking at unique U.S. viewers in the last year, Activision Blizzard and Nintendo have taken turns as No. 1 over the last 12 months. April was Activision Blizzard’s top month for unique viewers (8.9 million) — right when initial stay-at-home orders were in full effect across the country. But Nintendo has lately taken over for the most unique viewers, with 6.9 million in December, 7.6 million in January and 8.5 million in February.  

Activision Blizzard’s top YouTube video in the last year was a Spanish-language version of the Crash Bandicoot 4 trailer, with 18.8 million views; the English version was close behind with 16.6 million. Nintendo’s most-watched video in the last year was posted this January and already has 10.2 million views: “A Bigger Badder Bowser - Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury - Nintendo Switch.”

Multichannel News has partnered with social video analytics company Tubular Labs to bring you regular deep dives into the social video strategy of U.S. media and entertainment publishers. Today, we’re shining a spotlight on The Walt Disney Company.

According to Tubular’s recently released 2020 year-in-review report, The Walt Disney Company tied with TheSoul Publishing (the Cyprus-based creator of 5-Minute Crafts and other viral-content channels) for global monthly average unique viewers (de-duplicated) across Facebook and YouTube, at 644 million. For the U.S.-only audience, The Walt Disney Company was No. 1 among broadcast and entertainment publishers, with 146 million average monthly unique viewers.  

In January, the company took first place for unique viewers with 142.8 million, reaching an estimated 50.6% of the U.S. population over the age of 13 — the highest reach of any U.S. media and entertainment publisher for the month. Audiences watched a total of 3.9 billion minutes of Disney content in January, with unique viewers each watching an average of 27.2 minutes during the month. 

Also Read: Disney Gets in Shouting Distance of Netflix with 146 Million OTT Subs

This domination isn’t necessarily surprising: Disney owns a lot of properties, including ABC, ESPN, Marvel, Pixar and more. Generally, Disney properties are uploading more videos to Facebook (156K in the last year) and Twitter (143K) than YouTube (98.9K), but looking at the most-watched videos, YouTube dominates.  

Disney’s most-viewed video for January was a Spanish-language version of the WandaVision trailer, posted to the Disney Plus LA YouTube channel, with 80.9 million views, 50.6 million of which occurred within the first 30 days of posting, according to Tubular. And looking at most-watched videos from Walt Disney brands in the last year, that same YouTube channel owned the No. 1 video, a trailer for the latest season of The Mandalorian, with 354 million views. 

The deep portfolio of Disney content, especially its family-friendly movies, is clearly a big draw for YouTube audiences. Of the top 15 most-watched YouTube videos from Disney’s global properties in the last year, eight are related to its movies, with six having “singalong” themes, featuring music from Aladdin, Frozen/Frozen 2 and Moana. 

The Walt Disney Company is also using YouTube to promote its consumer entertainment packages, like this video about the Disney Plus/Hulu/ESPN Plus bundle that’s received 190.3 million views, making it Disney’s No. 3 most-watched YouTube video in the last year. The only video in the top 15 that isn’t related to a movie or TV show, or a promo for Disney’s other offerings, was a live YouTube stream of election coverage from ABC News, which had 83.6 million views. 

2020 was, to say the least, a challenging year, and as daily life got upended due to COVID-19, social video helped keep people connected, entertained and informed.

According to a new report from Tubular Labs, watch-time on social video (Facebook and YouTube) increased 56% among U.S. audiences from February to December 2020. And while all demographic groups spent more time with social video during the year, viewers aged 45+ increased their watch-time the most, up 97% from February to December. 

Influencers commanded the most watch-time, with 121 billion monthly U.S. minutes of influencer content watched across Facebook and YouTube, followed by videos from traditional broadcasters (37 billion) and digital-first publishers (27 billion). Audiences skewed toward broadcast media creators for entertainment and news, while digital-first creators were a top destination for parents and kids.

Also Read: Fun Chart of the Day: YouTube Surpasses Netflix in Revenue

To determine which media companies dominated social video, Tubular looked at average unique, de-duplicated viewers both on a global scale and for a U.S.-only audience. Worldwide, The Walt Disney Company and TheSoul Publishing were basically tied with an average of 644 million unique viewers, followed by WarnerMedia (521 million) and ViacomCBS (500 million). 

Looking at the U.S.-only audience, The Walt Disney Company led for broadcast/entertainment properties (146 million average U.S. unique viewers), followed by ViacomCBS (138 million) and Comcast (126 million). On the digital-first publisher side of things, Jellysmack took first place with 125 million average monthly viewers in the U.S., followed by Group Nine Media (101 million) and BuzzFeed (91 million).

Top Individual Creators for the U.S. Audience

Tubular ranked various types of media creators for the U.S. audience by monthly unique viewers. For the entertainment category, LADbible was on top with an average of 42.6 million unique viewers per month, followed by Derek Deso (31.8 million) and America’s Funniest Home Videos (30.9 million). Within the sports world, SportsCenter ruled with 39.4 million unique viewers per month on average, with ESPN (36.5 million) and WWE (29.2 million) in second and third places, respectively. 

For the parents out there, it’s probably no surprise that within the kids category, Cocomelon - Nursery Rhymes commanded the top placement with 59 million unique viewers per month, followed by PinkFong! Kids’ Songs and Stories (51.6 million). Sesame Street was a more distant third (30.5 million). 

Turning to news and politics, Disney’s ABC News had a monthly average of 42.6 million viewers, followed by NowThis (34.6 million) and Fox News (34.3 million).

Looking at top media creators by the age and gender demographics of their audiences, there are some notable differences. For the 13-24 year-old male cohort, the top creators by average monthly unique viewers were Movieclips (14.1 million), WorldStar Hip Hop/WSHH (11 million) and WWE (8.3 million). For women in the same age group, Tasty won out (9.4 million), followed by 5-Minute Crafts (8.5 million) and Cocomelon - Nursery Rhymes (6.6 million). 

For 25-44 year-old males, SportsCenter was No. 1 (20.7 million), followed by Movieclips (19.2 million) and Cocomelon (18.6 million), which slightly edged out ESPN (18.2 million). For women in that age group, there was even more family-friendly content: Cocomelon was No. 1 (23.7 million), followed by Pinkfong! (21.5 million). Further down the ranking, Mother Goose Club Playhouse and Sesame Street took eighth and ninth places, with 11.6 million and 11.2 million average monthly viewers, respectively.

In a matter of weeks, COVID-19 has upended industries across the board, including entertainment and media companies that have had to close down studio productions. Many are now pivoting to social video as a way to connect with audiences and deliver a much-needed escape via entertainment content.

A new report from social video analytics company Tubular Labs shows how audience consumption of entertainment content is changing during the pandemic. It explores how influencers, especially late-night hosts, are leaning into video to keep their fans entertained. But first, some topline insights from the report:

Entertainment Category Reigns Supreme for Social Video

When it comes to social video, the entertainment category is the No. 1 creator genre on YouTube and Facebook for both views and uploads across the last year. Although entertainment influencers upload more videos, media companies make up a slightly larger share of views.

Related: Late Night Shows Are Back with ‘WFH’ Formats

Not only do U.S. creators account for the most views of entertainment content worldwide (132 billion in the last year), U.S. entertainment content attracts a global audience, with 35% of its views coming from outside the U.S.

"Digital video's reach has no boundaries,” said Rob Gabel, CEO at Tubular Labs. “With the world awash in anxiety and people physically separated, right now — more than ever — video entertainment is a catalyst for banding global citizens together and providing much-needed optimism during these unprecedented times."

When it comes to entertainment content types, the TV and movies category makes up the biggest portion of views on YouTube (112 billion in the last year). For videos uploaded between March 12 and April 3 as the coronavirus pandemic spread and many Americans were forced to shelter at home, TV-related content amassed 564 million views, with nearly half (253 million views) coming from late-night talk shows, led by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (A&E and American Idol also rank high).

Late-Night Hosts See Explosion in Views With “Stay-at-Home” Shows

With production studios now closed, late-night TV show hosts are taking to social video to bridge the gap and bring fans new content from their own homes — and it seems to be working. The ‘Home Edition’ of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon received a significantly higher V7 views rating (views in the first seven days since a video was published) in the last couple of weeks than the show did over the last year (1.2 million vs. 517K). Jimmy Kimmel’s series of quarantine “minilogue” videos reached higher V7 views than his show throughout the last year (1.1 million vs. 419K). And virtually hosting late-night concerts has been a successful approach, most notably for James Corden of The Late Late Show in recent weeks (962K vs. 599K).

"During this quarantine, celebrities are as human and relatable as ever,” said Gabel. “There’s something fun about seeing your favorite host broadcasting from their personal domain. It makes us feel a kind of solidarity because even celebrities are affected by the quarantine, and they’re still doing whatever they can to bring joy to fans around the world."

How Live Streaming Fits Into the Picture

While indie influencers are used to producing content live and are thus thriving in these times, media companies can tap into this trend too. Entertainment influencers are still getting more of people’s live watch time, but media companies have been catching up in the weeks after the outbreak, with 66% growth.

But there’s also an opportunity for media companies to tap into their rich content repository and repurpose their best performing evergreen content: 66% of the U.S. entertainment content watched from the start of the outbreak is content from 2019 or older.

You can download the full entertainment report from Tubular Labs here. 

With all the talk about Facebook traffic troubles for publishers, we wanted to investigate a little further. Insights from social video analytics company Tubular Labs reveal that while there have indeed been some fluctuations when it comes to video on Facebook, for the most part views and engagements have been steady over the last few months.

We looked at views, engagements and uploads from March through May this year for U.S. publishers in the media & entertainment sphere with 500K+ followers and at least 10K+ views per video. Specifically, we found:

Related: Creator Profile: Jimmy Kimmel Is Late Night’s YouTube King

• Views from March to April grew about 1.4%, but dropped slightly in May with the total percent change from March to May hovering around a 1% increase. Put simply, publishers are still reaching their audiences.
• Engagements went up about 3% from March to April, but dropped again in May with the total percent change from March to May at about -0.7%.
• Uploads slowed throughout the period measured, with about a -3.5% drop from March to May.

We also looked at some of the publishers and videos that had the most traction over March and April (note: Tubular releases their May leaderboards mid-month; monthly numbers for May 2018 are not yet publicly available).

In March, Buzzfeed’s Tasty topped the list of popular U.S. publishers with nearly 1.4 billion Facebook views. Its “Banana Bread on a Stick” video was the most-viewed with 52.4 million views, 27 million of which occured in just the first three days according to Tubular’s V3 rating.

In April, NTD Funniest lead the way with over 1.9 billion Facebook video views. A three-minute clip complication of super cute babies garnered the most total views (154 million), with 12.6 million occurring in the first three days according to Tubular’s V3 rating.