Social Media Gains Steam As News Source

In March 2025, broadcast and cable TV news outlets experienced significant growth in social media engagement, according to data from Tubular Labs, a social video analytics company. 

• Fox News, for example, grew its U.S. unique viewers across Facebook and YouTube by 32% month-over-month, to 60.1 million, while minutes watched soared 26% to 1.6 billion (both 13-month highs).
• CBS News saw a 51% bounce in unique viewers to 38.5 million and a 29% increase in minutes watched to 140.4 million in March, Tubular reported.
• CNN in March saw unique viewers grow by 21% to 31 million, while minutes watched grew 80% month over month to 426.3 million.
• MSNBC had 35.2 million unique viewers, up 20% from a month earlier in March, but its minutes view hit 1.4 billion, up 28% month over month, according to Tubular. That made it the only one of the news organizations to come close to Fox News in minutes viewed.
• ABC News had the second highest unique viewers, with 54 million, but the slowest growth, up 5% month over month in March. Its minutes viewed only grew 1% in March to 346.5 million.

This spike reflects a broader trend among TV news networks leveraging social media to expand their reach and connect with audiences. \

The surge may be attributed to heightened public interest in current events, such as political developments, major news stories, or high-profile events like March Madness, though specific drivers were not detailed in the data. 

This growth underscores the increasing importance of social media as a critical channel for news consumption in 2025.