PBS News Reached Record-Breaking Audiences in Summer 2024

Arlington, VA (September 6, 2024)–PBS News reached record-breaking audiences across platforms over the summer thanks to our digital team’s all-hands-on-deck approach to the political conventions and election coverage. From the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee and the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, we ran multiple live streams each evening, giving our viewers access to PBS News special coverage, full uninterrupted coverage of convention programming, and a Spanish language feed. We published more than 600 videos of the conventions and related events, and our team on the ground produced dozens of original videos and articles for our platforms, spoke with delegates and locals and produced still photos of the events. 

Specifically during the RNC in July and the DNC in August, PBS News reached a combined 18.8 million unique viewers on YouTube, totaling more than 40 million views and 544 million impressions. Total watch time on the video platform exceeded 5.6 million hours and the public broadcasting news division earned 65,000 new subscribers. 

The growth of our TikTok channel has been a highlight of the year, as we’ve added more than 50,000 followers over the last few months. We’ve been aggressive about experimenting in formats, both for news videos and live streams, on the platform, and our work there has now grown the channel to more than 257,000 followers. During the political conventions on TikTok, PBS News had a total of more than 8.5 million views and 22 million interactions, while earning 113,000 new subscribers for 75% growth from July 8 to Sept. 5.

On its website during the RNC and DNC, PBS News had 7.9 million page views. On Google, the public broadcaster had 100 million search impressions during convention weeks.

 

Media Contact: Ella Richardson (erichardson@newshour.org)