Google’s YouTube might be a competitive force to traditional media, including in the living room, but that doesn’t mean legacy players are ignoring or strictly trying to beat back the video platform’s might.
Instead, many are turning to YouTube as a place to reach and engage broader (and often younger) audiences and promote their premium sports highlights, TV and film entertainment clips and trailers, and other content like kids and news programming
With that in mind, we’re excited to bring StreamTV Insiders the latest installment of our exclusive monthly ranker, courtesy of Chartbeat, that tracks the top 10 U.S. traditional media channels on YouTube each month based on unique domestic viewers. “Traditional media” includes TV networks, movie studios, programs and network-owned streaming services.
Be sure to check out earlier installments of our monthly Traditional Media YouTube Ranker, and read on for the full Top 10 chart and to learn who took the crown for attracting audiences on YouTube in September.
Election season, Trump’s media ban drive YouTube news channel growth in September
News networks from traditional media companies already showed up in force in our previous August Top 10, boosted by celebrity deaths like Dolly Parton and Hayden Panatierre.
But with election season upon us, there’s more buzz around cable and broadcast news, and traditional news channels alike on YouTube saw US viewership soar in September, with the category accounting for six of the Top 10 channels in this month’s ranking.
CNN, ABC News, Fox News, NBC News, MS Now and CBS News all saw YouTube audiences rise by 20% or more (some significantly so) in September as they shared programming around topics like election season coverage and U.S. President Donald Trump’s ban of certain White House press pool media.
The YouTube channel that saw the most audience growth to secure the No. 1 spot was CNN (now owned by Skydance), increasing unique US viewers by 60% month-over-month to reach 44.7 million in September. Disney’s ABC News wasn’t far behind, garnering 43.8 million US viewers, representing a 37% increase from August.
NBC News viewership on YouTube surged 42% compared to August. That puts the NBCUniversal-owned news channel in fifth place with 31.6 million US YouTube viewers last month, behind No. 4 Fox News, which saw 23% growth and attracted 35.6 million viewers.
Election season also fueled a whopping 58% viewership boost for CBS News (another Skydance-owned channel) in September, bringing it into the ranking for the first time at No. 10 with 23.3 million U.S. viewers.
Versant’s MS Now, meanwhile, continued momentum seen in August when the YouTube channel first appeared in the ranking at No.9. In September it rose to No.7 on the back of a 36% increase in U.S. viewers, which totaled 28.4 million for the month.
And while not a typical “news” channel, ninth-place Entertainment Tonight saw viewers on its YouTube channel grow a notable 50% month-over-month. Perhaps surprisingly, one of the channel’s top topics by views in September was Maria Bartiromo’s departure from Fox News.
ESPN also saw month-over-month YouTube gains in September, increasing 27% to 28 million. Football season was part of the driver, but per Chartbeat, the U.S. open was the real winner, with six of the channel’s 10 most-seen videos for the month.
Still, not everyone in the ranking marked gains.
Notably Disney – which secured podium placement sweeps in both June and August – saw declines for Disney Jr. (12% month-over-month decrease) and Disney+ (down 34% month-over-month).
However, despite declines, kids-focused Disney Junior was still a top performer on the Google-owned video platform in September, ranking third with 39.6 million US viewers. Disney+, meanwhile, dropped down from second place in August to sixth in September with 28.8 million U.S. viewers.
See the full Top 10 chart below and be sure to check back next month to see which traditional media-owned channels captured the most viewership on YouTube in October.
