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:
- NBC News (4.00 billion)
- NBC Entertainment (2.88 billion)
- Telemundo (1.48 billion)
- DreamWorks Family International (1.28 billion)
- 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. ■
