The most-subscribed English-language news publishers on Youtube grew their subscriber base by an average of 16% and over the past fifteen months, Press Gazette analysis shows.
The comparison covers 115 leading video news publishers that featured in the previous Press Gazette ranking in January 2025.
A separate ranking of 28 news influencers with more than one million followers on Youtube saw them grow subscribers by an average of 20% year on year.
According to Press Gazette research, there are now 119 English language news publishers with more than one million Youtube subscribers and 31 news influencers in this category.
This is Press Gazette’s third ranking of news publishers on Youtube with at least one million subscribers, following earlier editions in June 2022, October 2023 and 2025.
The figures underline Youtube’s growing role in news distribution. Youtube claimed that viewers watched more than 15 billion hours of news on the platform in the first half 2025 and it said half of all poll voters are now getting more news from Youtube than from traditional TV.
Chartbeat data from Reuters Institute’s Journalism and Technology Trends and Predictions 2026 report showed that Youtube is the third-party platform leading publishers plan to invest in most this year.
What is the biggest news channel on Youtube?
The BBC is the most-followed news publisher on Youtube with 19.7 million subscribers. The corporation revealed last month it is looking to produce Youtube content for its younger audiences and explore “further monetisation” there. The corporation said it “makes sense” to host shows from other public service broadcasters and partner with third parties “like Youtube”.
It also started making bespoke content for the platform in a new YouTube-first strategy beginning with the Winter Olympics in February.
Leading US broadcast newsbrands ABC and CNN were close behind the BBC, with 19.5 million followers. Social-first brand Vice was in fourth place on 19.1 million subscribers.
USA Today (up 3% to 7.5 million subscribers) remains the most popular US newspaper on Youtube in terms of subscribers, followed by the Wall Street Journal (up 12% to 6.6 million subscribers).
Head of video at the Wall Street Journal Maral Usefi recently told Press Gazette the newsbrand is looking to move away from prioritising Youtube and focus on its own platforms instead, as it focused on creating value for paying subscribers.
In the UK, The Sun still leads as the most popular UK newspaper on Youtube, up 7% to 6.4 million subscribers. Director of video Jon Lloyd said the paper had grown its video operation “even more aggressively” than planned in the past year.
The Sun has found mid-length news videos (around two to eight minutes) are harder to make work, and has instead pivoted towards longer-form content within a news format, including military analysis. It has also moved royal coverage onto a separate channel to better distinguish it from the predominantly male audience on its main channel.
The title remains the most-watched UK newspaper on Youtube with more than 5.5 billion views since its channel launched in 2007.
This year, the BBC climbed four spots to overtake previous top publisher Vice News (19.1 million subscribers), as well as ABC News (19.5 million) and CNN (19.5 million).
Three additional publishers also crossed the one million subscriber threshold since the last ranking – LBC, the Independent, British Forces Broadcasting Service and Double Down News – bringing the total number of most-followed news publishers to 119.
If you are aware of any news publishers with more than one million subscribers that have been left out of this chart please reach out to Press Gazette at alice.brooker@pressgazette.co.uk.
Several publishers are approaching the threshold of one million subscribers but not included, for example youth-focused explainer outlet TLDR News and The Atlantic, both of which have more than 900,000 subscribers.
Some 15 English language news publishers have more than 10 million Youtube subscribers, up from ten in 2025. Among these were Qatar-based Al Jazeera English (18 million), India-based NDTV (15.7 million), Fox News (15.2 million) and Inside Edition (13.8 million).
The Youtube channel with the most views since launch is that of widely syndicated daily US TV show Inside Edition, with more than 25.6 billion views across its 40,238 videos since its launch in 2012. This is followed by Fox News (25.1 billion) and CNN (20.4 billion).
Who is the most popular news influencer on Youtube?
In 2025, Press Gazette collected the data of some of the biggest news influencer accounts on Youtube, with the non-exhaustive list amounting to 28 channels.
This year, three additional accounts have been added to the list of accounts fronted by an individual or a small group of people with more than one million subscribers.
Many of these accounts, but not all, engage primarily in commentary or analysis of the news.
The accounts included were found through a mix of suggestions from the Youtube algorithm, third-party lists of news accounts and Pew-Knight research into news influencers that was published in November.
The new accounts for the 2026 list include former Vox journalist Johnny Harris who operates under his independent newsbrand Newpress. Although missed out in the previous ranking, Harris’ channel is the second most-followed news channel with 7.7 million subscribers.
Other new entrants include Russell Brand (6.7 million subscribers), who often airs conspiracy theories and is facing rape and sexual assault charges, and Dylan Page (1.1 million), who has amassed a large following under the name News Daddy on Tiktok.
The Young Turks has been kept on the main ranking because it more closely resembles a traditional multi-anchor, opinion-led broadcaster than an influencer channel. However, several of its affiliate accounts fronted by one or two people have been included in the latter table.
Similar to last year, we have included The Joe Rogan Experience in the influencer list due to the channel’s interviews having repeatedly created agenda-leading news and because the influence of his podcast is frequently contrasted with that of traditional media.
Rogan has 1.2 million more Youtube subscribers than BBC News with 20.9 million. His channel has received more than 6.5 billion views since its launch in 2013.
No news-related YouTube accounts come close to the popularity of the biggest Youtube channels overall. Mr Beast has 479 million subscribers, followed by Indian music label T-Series (311 million) and children’s entertainment brand Cocomelon (201 million).
Which news publisher has the most popular videos on Youtube?
Press Gazette also analysed publishers by upload volume and engagement to identify the most prolific Youtube news channels.
Vox emerged as the news publisher with the highest average views per video, following similar results in previous Press Gazette rankings, with 1.8 million watches per video.
Highest average views are calculated as all-time views divided by total number of videos.
This was followed by Business Insider’s Insider Science (1.4 million), despite it not having published videos for three years, and Vice’s flagship news channel (1.3 million).
Both Vice and Business Insider have multiple subsidiary news channels that appear in the highest average views. Business Insider’s main channel ranked fourth with 831,000 views per video, while Insider (688,700), Inside Edition (638,400) and Insider Tech (399,600) also feature.
Who is the biggest news influencer on Youtube?
Among news influencers, new entrant Johnny Harris (2.2 million) has overtaken Joe Rogan (1.8 million) for average views per video since Press Gazette’s last ranking.
Many big names saw average Youtube views declining – the Legal Eagle, ranked third for highest average views, dropped from 1.4 million in 2025 to 1.2 million in 2026. The Philip DeFranco Show fell from 1.1 million to one million, BlackConservative24 dropped from 635,900 to 603,600, and Piers Morgan Uncensored saw average views drop from 615,400 to 586,400.
This shows that while views overall are growing, attention is possibly being fragmented across different formats and creators.
What are the fastest-growing news publishers on Youtube?
Press Gazette has also ranked publishers according to how many subscribers have been gained since the last ranking, making them the fastest growing by follower count.
Indian news website Firstpost saw the highest growth in subscribers since January 2025, up 2.9 million to 9.5 million subscribers – 45% increase.
This was followed by Al Jazeera English, up by 2.9 million (19%) to 18 million subscribers.
American media company Meidastouch – up 79% by 2.8 million subscribers – saw the second-biggest jump in subscribers as a proportion of its subscriber count in January 2025 among news publishers. Last year it had 3.5 million subscribers, and this has almost doubled to 6.3 million.
Other news channels saw even higher proportionate growth in subscribers since last year: US-based Paul Barron’s self-named technology and business channel climbed 133% to 2.4 million subscribers, up from one million.
BBC World Service saw the biggest proportionate jump in subscribers among news publishers within the time period, up 90% to two million.
Most watched news publishers on Youtube
Among most-watched Youtube publishers, right-leaning US broadcaster Fox News leads with the most views since the 2025 ranking, with more than six billion watches ahead of second-placed MS Now (4.9 billion).
Most prolific news publishers on Youtube
Indian news channels India Today and WION (World Is One News) were both found to be the most active publishers on Youtube, posting 117,900 and 86,400 videos respectively over the time period.
India Today, posting roughly 250 videos a day, has overtaken WION (around 180 videos a day) as the most prolific news publisher on the platform after the latter was recognised as such in both 2023 and 2025.
Canada-based CTV News ranked third in most prolific news publishers, posting 85,700 videos since January 2025.
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