Celebrating a FRONTLINE Milestone: 1 Billion Views on YouTube

Since FRONTLINE began in 1983, the series has produced more than 800 documentaries. And over the past several years, we’ve embarked on an initiative to open up our multi-decade archive and make as many of those documentaries part of the public historical record as possible.

In addition to all our new FRONTLINE investigations, we have been digitally premiering classics from our archives for free on our YouTube channel, as well as on our website and in the PBS App.

The response from the public to these films, both new and new-to-streaming, has been remarkable.

In fact, I’m pleased to share an amazing FRONTLINE milestone: We’ve just marked 1 billion views on our YouTube channel.

In an era of varying threats to the news media, we see this development as an affirmation of continued public demand for the type of tough, fair and context-rich journalism FRONTLINE has worked hard to bring our audience since day one.

It’s worth noting that about 10% of those billion views have been added just this year alone, with particularly strong engagement around our new reporting on the battle over the Federal Reserve, the alliance between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and President Donald Trump, and the ongoing U.S.-Iran war.

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As I reflect on today’s viewership milestone, I am more energized than ever to continue our most fundamental work: producing trusted, in-depth accountability reporting on the people and forces shaping our times. I’m also more committed than ever to making our journalism archive an accessible and streamable public resource, both in the U.S. and around the world.

As a thank you this summer to our core — and increasingly international — audience, we’re resurfacing our legacy of reporting on stories across the globe. Starting this week, we’ve begun releasing a selection of episodes of FRONTLINE/World, a special series that ran from 2002-2010.

I am grateful to every single person who has helped to make today’s viewership milestone happen — including our reporters and producers in the field; our entire FRONTLINE team; our champions at GBH, PBS, and local public media stations across the country; the funders that have supported our independent journalism; and the members of the public who we have the continuing honor to serve, challenge and inform.

Onward to the next billion views.