Nielsen: Taylor Swift Videos More Popular Than Most Network TV

Taylor Swift

New Nielsen research commissioned by Vevo shows that music videos from well-known artists routinely gather equal if not bigger audiences than network TV shows.

Case in point: Taylor Swift’s catalog of music videos had a bigger audience than all but one network TV show during the week that Swift’s “Bad Blood” music video was released last year; 18 million U.S. viewers watched Swift’s videos over the course of seven days when “Bad Blood” was released, a number surpassed only by “NCIS: Los Angeles.”

Swift isn’t the only musical artist with TV-sized audiences. Drake’s videos were watched by close to 6 million U.S. viewers during the week that “Hotline Bling” came out, beating a number of hit TV shows. Rihanna’s videos were also watched by almost 6 million U.S. viewers when “Bitch Better Have My Money” came out this past summer.

What’s more, according to Variety, her videos were twice as likely to reach 18- to 49-year-olds than CBS’ summer hit “Big Brother.”