Social platforms are now where Latin American (LATAM) news is discovered, debated, and shared at scale. In fact, according to Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025, roughly 58–64% of respondents in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru report using social media as a source of news. Some legacy publishers seem to have their social video strategies dialed in to meet this reality, while others are getting surpassed by newer social-first creators. As competition intensifies, understanding how audiences actually engage with news on social has become a critical advantage for publishers.
Using 2025 performance insights, we look ahead to what social video trends mean for LATAM news publishers in 2026 — and how to act on them now. Our analysis of News & Politics content across social platforms reveals what’s driving views, engagement, and audience growth throughout the region. The findings in this article are designed to help LATAM publishers, media strategists, and digital teams looking to grow their audiences on YouTube and TikTok.
Here are 15 data-backed insights that reveal how LATAM news publishers can compete more effectively on social by aligning strategy with real audience behavior, not assumptions.
LATAM News Publishers on Social Video
Insights powered by Tubular Labs from 1/1/25-7/31/25
#1
LATAM social video content (across video categories and social platforms) generated 4.05T views.
#2
News & Politics content posted by media companies made up 27.1B of those views across 293K uploads.
→ This signifies a major whitespace opportunity for LATAM publishers to take up a bigger piece of the pie and cater to the growing number of people who use social as a news source.
YouTube Trends for LATAM News Publishers
#3
News, Government & Politics was the #9 most-viewed category on YouTube in LATAM, with 41.9B views of content posted by publishers, influencers, and brands combined. This placed the category ahead of Music, despite fewer uploads.
#4
YouTube videos under 30 seconds deliver the highest engagement per video for News, Government & Politics videos. Meanwhile, most uploads are videos between 1-5 minutes, which actually delivers the lowest engagements per video.
→ This tells us that most LATAM News publishers aren’t currently using data to inform their social video content strategy because they’re posting the least effective video duration. Now is the time to capitalize on the under-utilized growth tool: 0-30s videos!
Source: Tubular Labs | Video Intelligence | YouTube Video Duration | Uploads vs. Engagements Per Video | LATAM News & Politics Publishers | 1/1/25-7/31/25
#5
Videos uploaded on Sundays earned the highest engagement.
→ Schedule posts ahead to publish on critical days, even if they’re outside regular working hours.
#6
When looking at Mobile vs. TV News Consumption in LATAM, mobile devices account for 66% of YouTube views for LATAM News & Politics publishers, compared to 24% of views on TV.
→ Post video formats that are mobile-friendly (vertical and under 30 seconds) rather than just long-form, landscape videos.
Two leading News & Politics publishers are earning a massive amount of engagement from YouTube Shorts compared to their number of uploads.
#7
Milenio’s YouTube Shorts made up just 15% of their uploads but drove 31% of total cross-platform engagements.
#8
NMás posted 2.8× more mid-length videos, yet earned nearly half of their engagements from Shorts.
Pro-tip: Splice long-form videos into several Shorts to get the most out of your content.
#9
Our partners at Chartbeat were happy to share insights into how device preference shifts with video length for their LATAM News publishers. As you can see, audiences watching on TVs, tablets, and game consoles prefer videos more than 20 minutes in length, while mobile and desktop audiences prefer videos under 1 minute.
#10
Top LATAM News publishers post an average 6.8 YouTube Shorts per day, but posting frequency varies widely.
→ Imagen Noticias posts 43 Shorts per day
→ Televisa Querétaro posts just 0.3 Shorts per day
Tubular’s data allows you to dig into the details of your competitor’s content strategy.
TikTok’s Role in LATAM News Engagement
#11
TikTok drives 71% of all cross-platform social interactions with LATAM news media — despite representing a smaller share of total uploads.
#12
News, Government & Politics videos posted by media companies, brands, and influencers ranked as the #6 most-viewed TikTok category with 92.0B views.
#13
For the top 10 LATAM News Publishers on TikTok, viewership grew 55% YoY. This signals that TikTok audiences are hungry for news content and search for updates on the latest news stories.
→ Experiment with this platform in 2026. Test different data-backed strategies and find what works for your organization.
#14
Looking at leading LATAM News publisher, C5N, we see that TikTok content accounted for just 25% of cross-platform uploads but drove a whopping 71% of total engagements.
→TikTok is a growth engine that publishers would be wise to leverage.
#15
LATAM audiences look to different platforms for different topics, and understanding these differences can inspire and refine your social video content strategy.
→ For example, if your content covers immigration or women’s rights, it might make sense to cross-post it on Instagram and TikTok, but post a different topic, such as law enforcement, on Facebook.
Key Takeaways
Everyday, more and more LATAM audiences look to social as a primary News source. Now is the time to build a social video content strategy that will lock in your legacy as a leading publisher across platforms.
The News & Politics category only made up 0.67% of uploads in LATAM which signals a massive growth opportunity for publishers to take up a bigger piece of the pie.
Short-form video is underutilized across LATAM despite driving the highest engagement per video on both YouTube and TikTok.
TikTok is a key growth engine for News, earning massive engagement compared to the fewer number of uploads.
Posting strategy matters as much as posting frequency. Timing, like posting on Sundays, can create measurable performance improvements.
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