Banijay Rights, the distribution arm of TV producer Banijay is using data from Tubular Labs to understand how its programming is being consumed on social media.

Tubular is also helping Banijay assess its social media content strategies and its commercial return on investment.

“Tubular’s video intelligence platform is a key piece of Banijay Rights’ overall strategy to expand its global footprint in the digital space and consolidate our position as a market leader, better preparing us for identifying key trends across other means of digital distribution including FAST channels,” said Shaun Keeble, VP Digital, of Banijay Rights.

According to Tubular, Banijay’s Mr. Bean Channel ranks among the Top 10 British Entertainment creators on YouTube. Banjay’s MasterChef World is the No. 2 global food & drink creator and Survivor is the most-viewed channel in Turkey.

““On a global scale viewing behavior, programming and trends are shifting as more and more audiences move to social and connected TV formats to get their entertainment. This shift creates a need for publishers, distributors and brands to change the way they measure and deliver programming to audiences,” said Greg Coleman, CEO of Tubular Labs. “Banijay Rights is responding to the evolution of culture and its impact on media and entertainment with video intelligence as a key ingredient in its next chapter of growth.” ■

Tubular Labs, which specializes in measuring the impact of social video, said it has added web viewing and search to its Tubular Consumer Insights product, compares exposure to shopping behavior at Amazon and Walmart.

“Consumer Insights significantly eliminated guesswork for brands around the impact of branded social video and partnerships. Adding web viewing and search to those capabilities makes for much more informed decision-making,” said Greg Coleman, CEO, Tubular Labs. “Understanding behavior at this granular of a level, across the funnel, allows brands to approach social video in a targeted fashion aimed at converting viewers into buyers.”

Tubular looks at social video viewership on platforms including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Twitch using opt-in data panels. The additional scope gives marketers access to data and insights to identify what’s working–and what isn’t in order to drive sales, the company said.

“As brands and publishers potentially tighten budgets this year, they’re all looking for ways to maximize how they approach content and advertising, and tying those initiatives directly to sales goes a long way,” said Jon Baron, CRO, Tubular. “By removing the mystery around how consumers progress from content to purchasing, we’re enabling the proper integration of social video into all aspects of marketing and advertising activities across companies large and small.” ■

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.  ■

Saturday Night Live wrapped up its 47th season on NBC this past Saturday. And while the biggest constant for the long-running sketch comedy show is that it’s always changing, it also remains a consistent draw for both audiences and advertisers.

Below, we take a look at how SNL performed by TV ad impressions and its social video viewership, using network and show TV ad impressions insights via iSpot.tv, and online video views via Tubular Labs.

A Top 15 Program for NBC by TV Ad Impressions

SNL has been an institution for NBC for nearly five decades. For its 47th season — October 2, 2021 through May 21, 2022 — the program was No. 15 by TV ad impressions delivered, with over 3.0 billion, or 1.39% of the total on NBC during first-airing programming, according to data from iSpot. 

The show stacks up well when compared to programs appearing across all four major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC) as well. Across its 47th season, Saturday Night Live was No. 4 among comedy and variety shows on the Big Four, with 11.0% of impressions, and the only one in the top five to air just once per week. Narrowing things to just primetime and late fringe p.m. dayparts on those networks, SNL sits at No. 41 for non-sports or news programs — with 0.94% of impressions. 

Which brands were the beneficiaries of those impressions? Progressive was the most-seen advertiser during SNL all season, with 1.79% of impressions, followed by Disney Plus (1.62%), Kohl's (1.60%), T-Mobile (1.35%), and Target (1.35%). Department stores led the way by industries, accounting for 6.89% of impressions during the season, but theatrical movies (6.70%) and streaming services (5.93%) were close behind. 

The entertainment emphasis for advertisers also shows the value of SNL’s audience for both streaming subscribers and moviegoers. And interestingly, a large portion of those impressions were actually for services and movies not owned by NBCUniversal. Disney Plus, Warner Bros., and Apple TV Plus all had more impressions during the show than Universal Pictures or Peacock did. The six most-seen streaming or theatrical release ads during SNL this season were all non-NBCU entities as well, led by MGM’s spot for Licorice Pizza.

Over 5 Billion Minutes Watched Across Facebook and YouTube

For years, Saturday Night Live has leaned into the evolution of its viewership, uploading sketches to social video platforms to encourage audiences to watch and share individual sketches — whether they actually tuned in when it originally aired or not. 

Over the course of the show’s 47th season, global viewers watched over 5 billion minutes of SNL highlights on YouTube and Facebook, according to Tubular Audience Ratings. That includes a monthly high of more than 813 million minutes in October 2021 alone. Since the start of 2022, audiences have been tuning in for an average of more than 500 million minutes across those two platforms each month. About 20% of those minutes watched are coming from viewers under 25 years old.

In April 2022, SNL was 13th among U.S. broadcast, cable, radio and film creators by minutes watched, coming in behind Jimmy Kimmel Live (564.2 million minutes) and ahead of Inside Edition (431.4 million). Among NBCU-owned creators, Saturday Night Live was only behind MSNBC (over 1 billion minutes), Telemundo’s Caso Cerrado (827.3 million) and NBC News (801.9 million).

Across YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, SNL had 794 million video views this season, led by October’s Squid Game spoof, with over 13.6 million views. Of the 10 most-watched videos uploaded by the show this season, four featured Kim Kardashian (who hosted in October), and six featured now-outgoing cast member – and Kim Kardashian’s current boyfriend – Pete Davidson. 

Just three of the top 10 videos were pre-filmed sketches, led by the aforementioned Squid Game segment. While “Weekend Update” has been one of the show’s most popular elements for some time, just one of the show’s top 20 social videos were from that segment (this bit about Will Smith and Chris Rock received 7.3 million views). Just one of SNL’s 20 most-watched – this “Republican or Not” skit with 4.6 million views – was inherently political in nature. ■

Social media measurement company Tubular Labs said it launched a new platform that links viewing for social video with e-commerce shopping behavior.

Tubular Consumer Insights looks at public video viewing on platforms including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Twitch and how that impacts product browsing, putting products in carts, purchase and posting reviews on Amazon.

“The launch of Tubular Consumer Insights represents the most definitive, expansive view into the consumer purchase journey from social video to consumption,” said Josh Schmiesing, chief marketing officer, Tubular Labs. “We are excited about this breakthrough offering that, for the first time, allows brand marketers and media companies to connect cross-platform video viewership to buyer behaviors.”

Advertisers can use the Tubular data for contextual marketing, helping brands to find channels with audiences that are most likely to shop for their products, and optimize ad spend.

Also: Tubular Labs Launches GRP System for Buying Video on Social Channels

According to Tubular, candy shoppers are most likely to be found watching videos about travel, family & parenting and food & drink, while toothpaste shopper tend to watch content about beauty. Disney Media Networks has an addressable audience of 56 million health and household shoppers, while Barstool Sports’ audience over-indexes on video games, electronics and clothing.

"Tubular's Consumer Insights product gives us valuable audience data which correlates what people watch to the brands and products they prefer," said Christian Dankl, Precise TV co-founder and chairman. "This is exactly the type of intelligence we seek to enhance our machine learning models and improve our contextual engine's ability to identify media buying opportunities with a higher likelihood of bottom of the funnel conversions."

Publishers can also use Tubular Consumer Insights to enable better ad targeting.

“Creators and social video influence consumers buying decisions, that’s not new. What’s new is having the data and insights to identify what’s actually working,” said Neil Waller, co-founder of global creator commerce company, Whalar. “Today, marketers and creators can leverage Tubular’s Consumer Insights tool to capture critical information at scale to consistently improve performance.” ■

Tubular Labs, the social video measurement company, said it hired Jon Baron as chief revenue officer.

Baron, most recently CRO at Affinio, will aim to maintain Tubular’s growth trajectory by fostering deeper relationships with brands, media companies and agencies.

He replaces Denis Crushell, who left in September, and will report to CEO Scott Ernst.

“This is an exciting time in our evolution as we’ve set ambitious goals for Tubular’s growth with brand customers, and how they transact on the evolving social video landscape,” said Ernst. “Jon is a seasoned leader with deep expertise in social media and marketing technologies. His proven track record growing companies and forging successful partnerships with global brands, agencies, publishers and data providers, makes him uniquely suited for this role and what lies ahead for Tubular.”

Before joining Affino, which was acquired by NowVertical Group in November, Baron was president of Bamboo Rose. Earlier in his career he was CRO of IgnitionOne and co-founder of TagMan.

“Tubular Labs has a massive market opportunity to help bridge the knowledge gap between the buy and sell side when it comes to video viewership. As an authority in global video measurement across social media platforms, I’m proud to be part of the team to accelerate adoption and scale for our customers,” said Baron. “It is clear that global brands need social video data and insights for proper planning and execution and specifically for understanding reach and frequency. Tubular is the partner that provides that.”■

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, 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).

Tubular Labs, the social media measurement company, named Stephen DiMarco chief strategy officer.

DiMarco, who had been chief digital at Kantar, will look to broaden Tubular’s product offering, first looking at giving media buyers and brands better data for planning social media campaigns, and then moving into other digital media, including over-the-top video.

He joins Tubular three months after Scott Ernst was appointed CEO. Ernst and DiMarco founded Compete, which analyzed the web pages consumers visited for brands and agencies, and was acquired by Kantar.

Read Also: Kantar's Project Moonshot Measures Ad Effectiveness

“Stephen is a recognized leader in media measurement with a deep understanding of the dramatic shift in consumer mindsets and what it means for media companies, agencies and brands,” said Scott Ernst, CEO at Tubular Labs. “I’m excited for Stephen to lead our product innovation with a focus on bringing together media buyers and sellers as Tubular sets its sights on becoming the content and audience ratings authority that empowers confident investments in social video programming and advertising.” 

Tubular delivers audience and time-based engagement metrics for social video that tell publishers how many people watched social content.

At Kantar, DiMarco helped build a campaign effectiveness business, creating tools for measuring the effectiveness of non-linear ad campaigns. He will bring that expertise to Tubular.

“This is a new age digital measurement company that has a lot of legs and lots of growth ahead of it,” DiMarco told Broadcasting+Cable

With linear TV ratings falling, companies are investing more in social content. “Comscore and Nielsen are duking it out, and here’s Tubular, which is slightly under the radar right now, but poised to really dominate the social video space, both on the intelligence and the ratings side,” DiMarco said. 

Read Also: Contradicting Nielsen, Comscore Says TV Use Didn't Fall in Pandemic

He plans to use Tubular’s platform to go beyond social video. “We need to nail social media first,” he said. Buyers need better measurement tools so that more ad dollars can flow into social media. “The social video market is big enough, but I know that our aspirations are larger than social media,” he said. 

In a similar vein, media buyers are looking for better measurement of OTT, so that they can plan campaigns, understand their reach and the outcomes resulting from those investments,” he said.

Social video and other forms of video are closely intertwined these days and Tubular’s platform already has the ability to ingest and analyze data from all of the over-the-top video platforms. “If we wanted to, we could go in that direction without necessarily needing their consent,” DiMarco said. “Not that we would do that. We always like to have platforms consent before we start measuring them and reporting out on them.”

Tubular’s board has an aggressive 18-month plan for rolling out new measurement products. “By the end of next year, Tubular will be singularly on the map and in the conversation with Comscore and Nielsen, he said.

DiMarco began his career in marketing in cable’s early day at Comedy Central and was at FX Networks when it launched.

This week at the IAB NewFronts, streaming services and connected TV platforms came together to woo advertising dollars with talk of audience reach and original programming. Though these services compete with traditional TV, they also need traditional TV — to attract new subscribers — even as they also lean heavily on social video promotion to get the word out about their offerings.

Approaches vary by service: For the TV-network-owned “pluses,” it’s a no-brainer to hit traditional TV advertising hard, since they can advertise essentially for free on their own networks. Case in point: Discovery Plus is the No. 1 brand by TV ad impressions and airings so far in 2021, according to iSpot.tv. It’s racked up 44.1 billion TV ad impressions from over 294K ad airings this year — primarily on the Discovery family of networks. Spots highlight the variety of well-known shows that can be found on the service, as well as new originals such as Magnolia Table, featuring Joanna Gaines of HGTV’s Fixer Upper fame. It’s worth noting that Discovery Plus isn’t limiting ads to its owned cable networks: It has spent millions advertising Discovery Plus across broadcast networks this year as well. 

On social video, Discovery Plus emphasizes its original content that can’t be found elsewhere, such as Chopped 420, a cannabis-themed spinoff of the Food Network Chopped franchise. A video promoting the series is the most-watched Facebook video from Discovery Plus so far this year, with 377K views, 323K of which occurred within the first three days of being posted, according to Tubular Labs. In March, the platform had 1.4 million unique viewers for its social videos, with 4.2 million minutes watched, according to Tubular Audience Ratings (a cross-platform measurement of YouTube and Facebook). 

Peacock, on the other hand, has a more modest footprint when it comes to TV ad impressions. Its ads have generated 3 billion TV ad impressions this year, on par with Amazon Prime Video. While top TV ad impressions for Peacock come from NBCUniversal-owned networks, it’s also spent on broadcast networks (Fox, ABC) and cable networks (Paramount Network, TBS, Comedy Central). 

The Office, a flagship show Peacock has counted on to attract subscribers, is the focus of its most-seen TV ads, such as this one promoting all nine seasons available for free during a week in March (696.5 million TV ad impressions). The Office is a big part of Peacock’s social video strategy as well, although it’s worth mentioning that, according to Tubular, Peacock’s No. 1 Facebook video by views in 2021 (2.3 million) is a Harry Potter clip featuring Tom Felton. The rest of Peacock’s top 10 Facebook videos by views are either related to The Office or Peacock original The Amber Ruffin Show. Tubular Audience Ratings for March reveal 3.1 million unique viewers for Peacock’s social videos, with 20.7 million minutes watched. 

Amazon Prime Video, meanwhile, takes a similar approach with both traditional TV ads and social video, prioritizing the promotion of original content. While a TV ad for Coming 2 America is the top Amazon Prime Video spot by impressions (648.5 million, per iSpot), on YouTube, the Without Remorse trailer has the platform’s top view count so far this year, 21.9 million, with nearly all views (20.5 million) occurring within the first week of being posted, according to Tubular. Amazon Prime Video racked up 12.5 million unique viewers for its social videos in March, with 27.9 million minutes watched, per Tubular. 

Finally, let’s take a look at two ad-supported platforms that also presented at the NewFronts this week, Tubi and fuboTV. 

Tubi’s had about 3,500 ad airings on TV so far in 2021 that have generated over 704 million impressions, with the most coming from Fox News and Fox. The top spot by impressions (188.6 million) is a general promo for the service, while the No. 2 ad (111.8 million impressions) is for Lazarus, a Tubi original action/thriller film that debuted in February. 

Tubular’s analytics reveal a slightly different approach on social video: While the top Twitter video from Tubi by views (123K) is a promo for the “Free Like Tubi” giveaway week, many of the other most-viewed videos focus on celebrity talent, such as this one featuring Karlous Miller and this one with Ken Jeong. 

FuboTV has hit traditional TV hard this year to promote itself, but in a different way than other streamers. It’s racked up over 21,000 ad airings, which have generated nearly 700 million TV ad impressions, mostly from niche sports networks: NHL Network, Big Ten Network and Tennis Network are three of the top five networks by impressions, and NHL hockey games have delivered top impression counts for the brand (19.5 million). 

The messaging from its TV ads is mostly along the lines of why pay for cable TV when you can get what you want at half the price on fuboTV? The service hits the sports aspect harder on social video, and nearly all of the most-watched videos across platforms feature sports, such as fuboTV’s Twitter video promoting the Qatar World Cup Qualifiers, which has generated 11.4K views, per Tubular. 

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.

The Super Bowl has come and gone, with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ emerging victorious by a comfortable margin over the Kansas City Chiefs. Below, a quick look at viewing trends from Vizio’s Inscape, the TV data company with insights from a panel of more than 17 million active and opted-in smart TVs. And because Big Game action isn’t just confined to TV screens — social platforms are awash with content, starting weeks before kick off— you’ll also see some social video insights from Tubular Labs. 

As you’d expect, the game commanded a large percentage of watch-time during the day: Per Inscape, of all the live, linear minutes watched on Feb. 7, nearly a third (27.37%) of the time was spent watching Super Bowl LV. For a match-up that was losing its competitive edge by halftime, viewership stayed fairly steady overall, peaking at 8:04 p.m. ET before gradually trailing off during the second half.

Also Read: Super Bowl Viewership Drops to 96.4 Million

Unsurprisingly, local area markets around Kansas City and Tampa Bay were among the top for tune-in, but people in Boston — former home of now-Buccaneers Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski — were also watching at a notable rate.

Also Read: Watch the Super Bowl LV Commercials

What did people watch before, during and after the Big Game?

The CBS pregame shows dominated for what people tuned into before kickoff, and The Equalizer premiere immediately following the game won out for what people watched after. Additionally, multiple networks were running marathons over the course of the evening, with shows including Hawaii Five-0, Home Town, Law & Order: SVU, Chopped, etc, which all maintained a baseline of viewers before, during and after. 

Diving into specifics, and discounting the pregame shows, before the game began, people were most likely to be watching Hawaii Five-0, Home Town, Law & Order: SVU, Modern Marvels, Puppy Bowl XVII, and Chopped. During the game, America’s Funniest Home Videos was the favored choice by a visible margin, but the marathons of Home Town, Hawaii Five-0 and Law & Order: SVU also took viewers away from the game. After the final whistle, aside from The Equalizer, many people switched over to Dateline NBC and Shark Tank.

Also Read: NFL Regular Season Ad Revenue up 5%: SMI

The Top Super Bowl Twitter Video Creators

While the Super Bowl generated plenty of action on the field, there was lots off of it as well. According to Tubular Labs, from Feb. 1-7, Super Bowl-related content generated over 161 million video views on Twitter. The NFL owned its main event on social video throughout last week in the lead-up to and during the game. However, brands still found ways to get involved in Big Game hype — whether they were advertisers or not.

Tubular Labs shared which Twitter video creators scored the most when it came to views in the last week. While advertisers are all over the list, it’s also worth noting that many used NFL players as well to get their messages out. Of the top 20 Super Bowl videos on Twitter, six were from NFL players serving as influencers.

Here were the top creators by Twitter video views:

1. NFL (38.9 million views)
2. Verizon (31.2 million)
3. Anheuser-Busch (5.9 million)
4. Chester Cheetah (3.9 million)
5. Nike Football (3.9 million)
6. The Tonight Show (2.5 million)
7. Saquon Barkley (2.4 million)
8. NFL Mexico (2.2 million)
9. Rocket Mortgage (2.2 million)
10. Ryan Tannehill (2.2 million)

The most-seen videos were also full of top advertisers from the game itself:

1. Verizon: Live, After #SBLV (19.4 million views)
2. NFL: For the 10th time, @TomBrady arrives for the #SuperBowl (6.6 million)
3. Anheuser-Busch: Introducing our first-ever Super Bowl commercial (5.9 million)
4. Verizon: Verizon 5G Stadium in @FortniteGame Creative is NOW OPEN! (5.2 million)
5. Lil Nas X: I narrated a commercial for the super bowl you guys (4.4 million)
6. NFL: Send a message to your team using #RunItBack and #GoBucs (4.1 million)
7. Nike Football: 1 million more boys that girls get to play sports in high school (3.9 million)
8. Chester Cheetah: Mila and Ashton? Shaggy?? Cheetos #CrunchPopMix???? (3.7 million)
9. Saquon Barkley: Black-owned small businesses need our help, now more than ever (2.4 million)
10. The Tonight Show: Mike Myers & @DanaCarvey show Jimmy some of the bits they were doing on the set of their upcoming #SuperBowl commercial! (2.3 million)

The biggest TV event of the year is almost upon us: Super Bowl LV. And while it will look a little different this year due to the ongoing pandemic, it’ll hopefully deliver a dose of normality and escapism to football fans — and Super Bowl commercial fans — across the country. 

As you’d expect, conversation around the NFL and Super Bowl have been exploding over the last month. Tubular Labs has been tracking trends around social video, and since Nov. 6 there have been 424 million YouTube views around Super Bowl-related content, with Jan. 25 seeing the largest spike in views on the platform, 12.6 million. 

Looking at Super Bowl-related YouTube videos uploaded in the last 90 days, Budweiser’s “Bigger Picture” (scroll below to watch some of the videos listed) ad is No. 1 with 9.9 million views to date, followed by Pepsi’s teaser for its halftime show starring The Weeknd (5.8 million views). 

Also Read: Nickelodeon Suits Up for Super Bowl Pre-Game Show

Given that CBS is broadcasting the Big Game this year, we took a closer look at how ViacomCBS has been leveraging its various YouTube properties to share news and spark excitement.

Per Tubular, YouTube has been a key platform for ViacomCBS in general: In the last 30 days, it’s generated 4.7 billion views for the parent company’s various properties. Taking a step back to the playoffs, ViacomCBS didn’t miss a chance to get younger audiences excited about football. It aired its Wild Card game on Nickelodeon, complete with on-screen filters including hamburgers, clouds and slime cannons. Apparently it was a touchdown, too: CBS Sports said the matchup between the Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints was Nickelodeon’s most-watched program in nearly four years with an average of 2.06 million viewers.

On the social video side of things, “Nickelodeon’s Guide to Football” was posted to YouTube a few days before the game, explaining in simple terms how the sport works. It’s generated 44.7K views so far, 14.5K of which occurred in the first three days, according to Tubular. Nickelodeon went back to YouTube on Jan. 15 to share highlights from the Wild Card game in a video that’s received 22.1K views — 9K in the first three days and 14.3K within the first week of being posted. Even more popular was a video, posted by CBS’ Inside Edition, of the New Orleans Saints head coach getting slimed after winning the game (78.3K views, 56K in the first day).

Also Read: Streamer 'Crafts' Super Bowl Alternative

How else has ViacomCBS harnessed social video around the NFL playoffs and Super Bowl? It’s shared breaking news across its multiple properties, allowing it to capture the attention of a variety of audiences. Notably, Viacom shows The Daily Show With Trevor Noah (Comedy Central) and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert (CBS) have attracted top view-counts for NFL and Super Bowl-related content in the last month. One of the top videos, with 639K views less than a week after being posted, was an interview between Trevor Noah and Amanda Gorman, the poet set to appear during the Super Bowl (who also read her work at President Biden’s inauguration). 

Another popular video came from The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, in which he talks about how Mahomes vs. Brady is a “Super Bowl matchup for the ages.” It’s generated 359K views since being posted on Jan. 26, over half of which occurred within one day of posting, per Tubular.  

CBS Sports HQ, the network’s streaming video sports channel, is another ViacomCBS property that’s racking up views around NFL content. Out of the top 10 YouTube videos from ViacomCBS uploaded since Jan. 8, CBS Sports HQ owns five of them.

Tubular Labs, the social media measurement company, said it named Scott Ernst as its new CEO, effective Feb. 16.

Ernst most recently was CEO of Macromill, the Japan-based global marketing research business that went public while he was in charge.

He replaces founder and CEO Robert Gabel, who stepped down in September is now executive VP of general manager of TubeBuddy.

“Tubular’s Audience Ratings is a game-changer for media companies and has a newfound product market fit with advertisers. Scott Ernst has the experience to build on Tubular’s success and drive growth globally,” said former BuzzFeed president and Tubular Labs executive chairman Greg Coleman. “Scott is particularly well-suited to guide Tubular’s expansion efforts because of his history leading top-tier insight businesses, working directly with brands, media companies, and agencies.” 

Before Macromill, Ernst was part of the founding management team at Compete, which was acquired  by WPP’s Kantar. 

Tubular Labs is a leading enterprise SaaS provider for de-duplicated audience measurement across social media platforms. Ernst helped transform Compete into what is now Millward Brown Digital, overseeing the company’s growth from a 20-person start up to over $100 million in revenue.

“I’m impressed by Tubular’s ascent since its founding in 2012, and I believe the company has all the elements required to be a global measurement authority,” said Ernst. “Tubular provides the only enterprise SaaS platform of addressing the pain points of media companies and advertisers who seek to confidently transact in the digital video marketplace. Brands in particular need to understand the reach and audience quality of what they’re buying. I believe Tubular’s audience ratings product is the catalyst for brands to increase digital video investments.” 

BBC Studios, WildBrain Spark, Digitas and Weber Shandwick have joined the Global Video Measurement Alliance, a coalition led by Tubular Labs.

“Participating in GVMA helps support our ever-growing digital media and content business,” said Jasmine Dawson, VP Consumer Engagement BBC Studios. “The GVMA’s collective embrace of uniform, cross-platform audience ratings affords us confidence to increase our investments in digital video content, as well as the evidence required to strike meaningful digital partnership deals.”

The GVMA aims to adopt a consistent approach to global social video measurement across YouTube and Facebook, and its members agree to use a standard time-based, de-duplicated standard  based on Tubular Audience Ratings.

“As a leading kids’ and family AVOD network, reaching one in three kids worldwide, it’s important for us at WildBrain Spark to continually expand our unique data and insight capabilities,” said Charles Gabriel, WildBrain Spark VP and head of Advertising sales U.S. “Tubular Labs’ tools help us develop and refine our audience measurement offering for advertisers, as well as for IP owners and brands we partner with. In a mediascape where multiple platforms fragment the overall audience view, we are pleased to be part of the GVMA coalition to standardize video measurement.”

Founded in 2019, the GVMA’s founding members include Tubular, Vice, BuzzFeed and GroupNine. They were joined by Viacom, Discovery, Ellen Digital Network, Corus Entertainment.

“This is an impressive group of trailblazers from the sell- and buy-sides of the media industry joining our alliance,” said Neil Patil, chief commercial officer at Tubular Labs. “As media companies and brands alike navigate media disruption and seek younger audiences, we’re able to provide uniform metrics by which transparent comparison and performance evaluation can lead to increased investment and scale within digital video which is particularly popular with young adults -- especially adults 18-34.” 

NBC’s Saturday Night Live generally thrives in election years, and 2020 appeared to be yet another example of that lift.

On the year, SNL has 2.5 billion views on YouTube — which is about 7% lower than last year but also featured over 200 fewer video uploads. According to Tubular Audience Ratings, SNL had 20.7 million unique viewers across YouTube and Facebook in November 2020 — good for 116th across global creators on the two platforms. With 973.4 million minutes watched, SNL was 25th overall globally as well. 

Riding political content, October was the show’s best month of the year, with 395.8 million views and over 1.1 billion minutes watched.

Further utilizing Tubular, V3 data (views in the first three days since uploading) allows us to compare SNL’s YouTube videos across all of 2020, to see which were most popular in the days immediately following airing on TV. To little surprise, most of the top videos were politically focused, though there were some exceptions.

Top 10 SNL videos of 2020, by V3:

1. First Debate Cold Open (16.2 million)
2. Biden Victory Cold Open (13.3 million)
3. Dr. Anthony Fauci Cold Open (11.9 million)
4. Undercover Boss: Where Are They Now? (11.1 million)
5. VP Fly Debate Cold Open (10.5 million)
6. Dave Chappelle Stand-Up Monologue (9.7 million)
7. Final Debate Cold Open (8.7 million)
8. Dueling Town Halls Cold Open (7.5 million)
9. Coronavirus Cold Open (5.4 million)
10. Uncle Ben (5.3 million)

Notably, eight of the top 10 videos were from the current season, which started in the fall. And all but one (“Uncle Ben”) was politically focused. Dave Chappelle was also in two of the videos: his stand-up monologue on the Saturday following the U.S. presidential election and the aforementioned “Uncle Ben” skit. Additionally, five of the top 15 videos by V3 for the entire year came from Chappelle’s Nov. 8 hosting gig.

SNL’s success wasn’t limited to social video, either. In a year where TV tentpole events were hard to come by, the show still managed to succeed, especially once the most recent season got started and leaned all the way into content around the upcoming election.

Looking at live, new episodes only via iSpot, estimated TV ad spend was up 102.8% during SNL in 2020 (for the period from Jan. 1 through Dec. 14), landing at $107.1 million. TV ad impressions during the show were also up 18.5%, to 3.20 billion. The show was 13th by impressions among all shows on NBC in the timeframe, vs. 23rd in 2019.

Brands benefited from the uptick in interest as well, clearly, based on the ad impressions increase. Of the top 10 brands by impressions during SNL in 2020, six saw year-over-year increases — led by Verizon, also the most-seen advertisers, at 349%. As a result of that and T-Mobile’s own 33% increase during the show, wireless ad impressions were up 95.7% for SNL this year, to lead all industries. Verizon also had the most-seen ad during SNL, with “The 5G Frontier” garnering 37.6 million impressions.

The image below shows the top 10 brand advertisers during SNL ranked by impressions, plus year-over-year shifts.

Digital video audience measurement company Tubular Labs announced Tubular Audience Ratings, which it said provides cross-platform de-duplicated, time-based measurement across social media platforms.

Tubular Audience Ratings delivers second-by-second minutes watched and de-duplicated unique viewers across YouTube and Facebook at launch and the company said it plans to add Instagram and Twitter.

Tubular said the new metric should unlock billions of dollars in social video advertising revenues. 

"Tubular's new metrics are the first of their kind for social video, and bring parity to the convergent TV arena where media owners and brands need to measure TV and digital alike," said Tubular Labs executive chairman Greg Coleman. “No modern media company or brand can invest in digital video across platforms without these time-based and de-duplicated cross-platform audience insights.” 

A study the company conducted estimated that there was social video attention worth $13 billion that is currently un-monetized because of measurement based on criteria other than audience attention.

“Audience Ratings’ capabilities answer a lot of simple, yet important questions that have lingered for years, but until now have been virtually impossible to answer,” said Neil Patil, chief commercial officer at Tubular Labs. “Now we’re not just delivering a better way to evaluate video content and audiences, we’re giving the marketplace an even better way to compare, contextualize and make informed business decisions.”

Tubular Labs approached developing its new measurement product with industry input by co-founding the Global Video Measurement Alliance in 2019. Members include ViacomCBS, Ellen Digital Network, Discovery, Vice Media, BuzzFeed, Group Nine, Digitas, Corus Entertainment, Brut, Mattel, Webedia and Freeda Media. 

“By collaborating with the GVMA we will be able to keep close tabs on the pulse of culture through global social video engagement trends surfaced by Tubular Labs, and then leverage those insights into recommended digital video programming, marketing and advertising investments to benefit our clients,” said Jodi Robinson, CEO at Digitas North America.

The key metrics in Tubular Audience Ratings are minutes watched and deduplicated unique viewers, marking a shift to audience measurement from content measurement. Tubular conducted 600 data science experiments while developing its ratings scheme.

By measuring the minutes watched across platforms, Tubular said it is enabling the marketplace to evaluate the performance of content in a way that’s more comparable to the audience attention metrics in the convergent TV arena. Time-based metrics eliminate the need to rely on disparate view count criteria provided by social platforms, enabling content producers and advertisers to make better investment decisions.

Tubular Audience Ratings also provides a clear picture of the undisputed audience for content and content publishers across different social platforms. This enables publishers and advertisers to illustrate overlap across platforms and the geography for each channel and piece of content. 

"A top challenge for broadcast research teams is how to gain the best understanding of where audiences are going, how much attention they’re giving and how to aggregate cross-platform views of networks or shows,” said Janus Strategy & Insights president, Howard Shimmel, a former chief research officer at Turner. “With true de-duplicated uniques and actual minutes watched for audiences across social platforms, Tubular’s Total Audience Ratings empowers media companies to invest in digital video and transform their multiplatform businesses with supreme confidence. It will also enable advertisers and agencies to size and compare Social Video to other key advertising platforms.”

Multichannel News has partnered with social video analytics company Tubular Labs to bring you a monthly ranking of the most-viewed U.S. media creators across social video platforms. The ranking below covers November.

Although sports-related content makes a good showing with three of the top 10 spots, it’s kid-focused creator Cocomelon - Nursery Rhymes that leads with an impressive 1.9 billion views, coming solely from YouTube. Second place goes to the Buzzfeed behemoth Tasty with over 1.4 billion views across social video platforms.

It’s also worth noting that Beauty Studio takes third place. Although many of its popular videos focus on health, beauty or self-care tips, November’s two most-watched clips are on the food side of things, one for fancy cake decorations and the other for cone desserts. With the holiday season (and resulting delicious treats) in full swing, it’s no surprise there’s a food focus in the top ranks of the chart. 

Online Video Deep Dive: Viewership Trends Across YouTube and Facebook

Multichannel News has partnered with social video analytics company Tubular Labs to bring you a monthly chart of the most-viewed U.S. media creators on YouTube.

At No. 1, MovieClips maintains its reign for the third straight month, with a whopping 1 billion views of its YouTube videos, an increase from June’s 894 million and May’s 899 million. It’s clear that this account, which is operated by Fandango and posts clips from films both recent and classic, remains a fan-favorite.

There are two newcomers to this month’s ranking, both with a DIY slant: Blossom from First Media and 5-Minute Crafts KIDS. Blossom shares life hacks about everything from clothing, style and beauty to school and party tips. Meanwhile, 5-Minute Crafts KIDS focuses on the younger YouTube crowd, drawing in kids and teens with fun and colorful videos promising to show them the best in toy hacks and artsy home projects.

Multichannel News has teamed up with social video analytics company Tubular Labs for a recurring look at how various content creators are deploying video to reach audiences online. In this edition, a look at EA Sports, which recently announced the upcoming release of “Madden 19.”

Creator Profile & Essential Stats

Name: EA Sports           

Genre: Gaming

Followers: 5.8 million followers on Facebook and 650K subscribers on YouTube

EA Sports seems to be pursuing a cross-platform strategy, and despite having a much higher follower count on Facebook, it has prioritized YouTube as its main video distribution channel. Of the 18 videos posted across social networks (YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) in the last three months, 13 have been posted to YouTube vs. just one on Facebook.

Furthermore, EA Sports’ YouTube engagement is slightly higher than on Facebook, according to Tubular Labs’ ER30 standard, which measures the average engagement that specific videos receive in 30 days, compared to the platform average. The videos uploaded in the last 365 days by EA Sports had 1.8x better engagement than the YouTube average, and 1.6x better engagement than the Facebook average.

The YouTube focus may not be surprising—of the 4,833 videos published by 607 accounts about Madden in the last 90 days (according to Tubular’s tracking in the Gaming genre), 4,402 (91%) of those were published on YouTube.

Looking at EA Sports’ videos in the last three months, almost all of them are traditional ads for game launches and covers, except for one: NFL Rookies React to Madden 19 Ratings, its second most-watched video based on Tubular’s V3 ratings. The company’s first-place YouTube video is “Madden NFL 19 - Official Reveal Trailer,” which has over 1.5 million views, 886K of which occurred in just the first three days, according to Tubular’s V3 rating.

The use of celebrities in promotional, longer-form videos has been an exploding trend, one which EA Sports has certainly jumped on, as seen in its recently released “Madden 19–Make Your Play ft. Nicki Minaj, Quavo, Chris Redd, Lil Dicky, Will.” This three-and-a-half minute trailer takes a fun, narrative approach to promoting “Madden 19,” and since it was published on Aug. 2, it’s racked up nearly 300K views, making it the third most-watched EA Sports video in the last three months.

We’ve teamed up with social video analytics company Tubular Labs for a regular look at how various content creators are deploying video to reach audiences online. In today’s edition: the top leaderboards for U.S. creators in the cars, trucks and racing vertical during the month of May, based on total Facebook video views.

In total, 2,000 creators in this category uploaded 374,000 videos to Facebook, generating 223 million views. While multiple top creators are digital native companies, it’s worth noting that Jay Leno comes in at No. 4 with clips from his Emmy-winning CNBC series Jay Leno’s Garage, in which he talks all things auto with various celebrity guests. Also, vehicle manufacturers make a strong showing, with Infiniti, Audi and Harley-Davidson all landing in our top 10 with content that engages viewers while putting their brands front and center.

1. Donut Media

21.1 million Facebook video views

Donut Media is a digital media brand focused on reaching and engaging the “next generation of automotive and motorsports enthusiasts” through videos that have been sponsored by brands including Gumout, Hot Wheels, HyperFest, Brilliant.org and Turo. In May, Donut Media’s most-viewed Facebook video was “SUPERCHARGERS | How They Work” with 1.9 million views, 1.2 million of which occured in just the first three days according to Tubular’s V3 rating.

2. 500Plus HP For Sale

20.6 million Facebook video views

This creator looks to connect auto sellers, buyers and enthusiasts who want to keep up with the automotive news and the car marketplace. Its most popular video shows a husband surprising his wife with a Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 sports car. It’s racked up 9.4 million views, with 1.8 million occurring in the first three days according to Tubular’s V3 rating.

3. 1320Video.com

17.9 million Facebook video views

1320Video.com shares “the best in street car videos around the US,” including street racing and user-generated videos. Its recent brand sponsors include RPM Transmissions, Thompson Motorsports of Texas, Huron Speed Products, SUMMERNATS and Ignite Racing Fuel. A super short but funny video from a fan called “WAKE UP! Sent in by Mike Winterer” was the most-viewed video with 1.9 million views, 1.6 million of which occurred in the first three days according to Tubular’s V3 rating.

4. Jay Leno’s Garage

7.9 million Facebook video views

This is the Facebook presence, recently sponsored by Farmers Insurance and Michelin, of an Emmy-winning CNBC series starring Jay Leno. A video showing a Hellcat-powered Toyota PriusRT8 was the most viewed (4.5 million), with about a half of those views (2.3 million) occurring in the first three days according to Tubular’s V3 rating.

5. Gas Monkey Garage

5.5 million Facebook video views

In addition to its online presence concentrated on sharing the automotive lifestyle, Gas Monkey is an actual hot rod shop and garage in Texas. Recent video sponsors include Advanced Auto Parts, TECHNET Professional Automotive Service, Havoline and Fast N’ Loud. “Who knew the Krew Kut had so many secrets!” was Gas Monkey’s most popular video with 453,000 views, 289,000 of which occurred in the first three days according to Tubular’s V3 rating.

6. INFINITI

5.4 million Facebook video views

INFINITI, the luxury vehicle from Japanese automaker Nissan, recently partnered with Final Four—San Antonio, Engineering Explained, 102.7 KIIS FM, Forbes and New Jersey Devils to bring Facebook viewers its videos. INFINITI’s most popular Facebook video was an integration between the QX50 and Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War. It’s generated 1.5 million views with 46,100 happening in the first three days according to Tubular’s V3 rating.

7. MadRam11 YouTube Videos

4.5 million Facebook video views

MadRam11 shares extreme offroading videos and was recently sponsored by Spyder Off-Road & Performance. Its most popular Facebook video, “Big Block Mud Trucks Walks on Water,” with 280,000 views (132,000 in the first three days according to Tubular’s V3 rating), shows tricked-out trucks racing through mud.

8. Audi USA

3.9 million Facebook video views

Audi, the German automobile manufacturer and member of the Volkswagen Group, recently partnered with Major League Soccer (MLS), Sporting Kansas City, SPEED, San Jose Earthquakes and David Chang. With 2.7 million views (347,000 from the first three days according to Tubular’s V3), “Audi Think Faster: Liza Koshy” was the most-watched clip.

9. Harley-Davidson

3.4 million Facebook video views

Harley-Davidson, the iconic American motorcycle manufacturer, recently partnered with Sailor Jerry, Military.com, Ride Sunday, Rolling Stone and Rolling Stone Video. “Tracking: Buddy Suttle & Unknown Industries” was Harley-Davidson’s most popular video with 140,000 views and a Tubular V3 rating of 136,000 views.

10. Speed Society

2.9 million Facebook video views

Speed Society is an automotive network and publisher that shares content with car enthusiasts daily. It was recently sponsored by BFGoodrich Tires and Michelin. Speed Society’s most-watched video was “When the Mclaren 720s goes full Mustang,” with 811,000 Facebook video views (596,000 of which occurred in the first three days according to Tubular’s V3 rating)

Multichannel News has teamed up with social video analytics company Tubular Labs for a recurring look at how various content creators are deploying video to reach audiences online. In this edition, we look at Jimmy Kimmel’s steady social video growth and his rise to the top of the late night viral video space.

Creator Profile & Essential Stats

Name: Jimmy Kimmel Live

Genre: Entertainment

Followers: 3.9 million followers on Facebook and 11.8 million subscribers on YouTube

Some pundits fretted that Jimmy Kimmel’s passionate monologues on health care reform might cost him fans (such as those who disagree with him, or simply object to a talk show host taking strong political positions), but his social video stats show just the opposite. Kimmel has seen steady growth in his engagement over the last three months, with his YouTube following rising by a few hundred thousand each month. In April, Kimmel was No. 5 among U.S. overall creators in the entertainment space and No. 18 in the global media and entertainment chart, based on YouTube views.

Related: YouTube Crushes Facebook Among Teens

While his comedy can be specific to U.S. issues, Kimmel does boast a wide international following—in fact, only 42% of his YouTube views come from the U.S. The UK and Canada account for 5.8% and 5.1% of his viewership, respectively, but he’s also popular in India and Brazil.

Now, a closer look at Kimmel’s performance on YouTube in the last 30 days:

His most-viewed video on the platform is part of his popular “Mean Tweets” series in which celebrities read cruel tweets that people have sent about them. This one was the “Avengers Edition,” and since it was posted on May 1 it’s racked up 17.4 million views.

The Kimmel video at No. 2 is “Donald Glover on This is America Music Video” with 7.1 million views; in it, Glover discussed his latest (massively viral) Childish Gambino video.

The third most popular Kimmel video on YouTube is an interview with 15-year-old Deadpool 2 actor Julian Dennison, who said he can’t see his own movie because it’s rated R-16 in his home country of New Zealand.

Multichannel News has partnered with social video analytics company Tubular Labs to bring you a monthly chart of the most-viewed U.S. media creators on YouTube.

At No. 1 is WWE with 956 million views of its YouTube videos. The pro wrestling empire just keeps on tightening its death grip on the top spot, once again growing its month-over-month views (from 872 million in March and 730 million in February). WWE closing in on 1 billion monthly YouTube views — demonstrating not only continuing popularity, but rising viewership — is nice validation for the Fox broadcast network, which just paid a reported $1 billion to wrest WWE’s SmackDown series from NBCUniversal’s USA Network starting in Fall 2019.

One new addition to our chart this month: Peppa Pig, the animated U.K. TV show that also airs stateside. Apparently pre-schoolers (the target demo) can’t get enough of the kindly swine on Nick Jr., and have also been turning to YouTube for their fix.

MCN has teamed up with social video analytics company Tubular Labs for a recurring look at how various content creators are deploying video to reach audiences online. In this brand-focused edition, a look at the success that big brands have had partnering with BuzzFeed’s Tasty (note that this article focuses on the main Tasty property and does not include stats around the other spin-offs such as Proper Tasty, Tasty Vegetarian, etc). As you may imagine, for food and beverage companies in particular, working with Tasty is a natural fit.

In April, Tasty posted seven branded content videos on Facebook, racking up an impressive 39.5 million views. And although this publisher is predominantly known for its focus on food, four out of the six brands it worked with have been beverage brands: Milk (aka the California Milk Processor Board), 7UP, Don Julio Tequila and Seagram’s 7.

Tasty and its partners have been getting into the warm-weather mood with multiple how-to videos that focus on summery drinks. And while there’s the requisite installment of “cheesy pull-apart” goodness (a Tasty staple), it’s a potato dish sponsored by Milk that has generated the most views (12 million).

Tasty’s recent branded content videos ranked by total views:

1. Queso? Potatoes? Say no more. Serve this with a glass of real milk for the perfect dinner.

Partner: Milk

Facebook Views: 12 million

2. Cheesy Pull-Apart Bread With Tomato Soup Fondue

Partner: Cooper Cheese

Facebook Views: 10.8 million

3. What kid doesn't love mac 'n' cheese!?

Partner: Milk

Facebook Views: 5.5 million

4. 7UP Clubhouse Sangria

Partner: 7UP

Facebook Views: 4.1 million

5. Pretty Simple Drinks

Partner: Don Julio Tequila

Facebook Views: 3 million

6. Make this KILLER Turkey and Veggie Sheet-Pan Panini

Partner: Dave’s Killer Bread

Facebook Views: 2.1 million

7. 7&7 Slushie

Partner: Seagram’s 7

Facebook Views: 2 million