ABC Owned Stations Group said it has launched an update to its local news apps that emphasizes live streaming and adds features that drive more viewer customization.

Among the new features, My News lets viewers pick topics and locations they are most interested in following, and a new personalized alert system allows users to opt-in have info on specific topics and locations pushed to them.

The updated local news apps also provide exclusive live video streams, including live news broadcasts, and are now placed more prominently and are available as users navigate through other news content. Viewers also have the ability to toggle between live streams.

Other components include Top News (a curated view of the day’s biggest stories, with breaking news that auto-plays when the app is opened), Explore (a deeper dive into topics such as sports, entertainment and weather-related events, with access to as many as 15 locations), and Weather (dedicated coverage on local weather conditions).

"This is our boldest refresh to date, designed and modernized for the mobile news consumer," Wendy McMahon, the recently announced president, ABC Owned TV Stations Group, said in a statement. "With ‘My News,’ viewers can have a personalized local news experience, programming a feed and opting into alerts around the issues and areas that are most important to them.  The video offerings are also more robust - enabling our audiences to always be connected to the local brands and content they trust.”

ABC Owned TV Stations include WABC-TV, New York; KABC-TV, Los Angeles; WLS-TV, Chicago; WPVI-TV Philadelphia; KGO-TV, San Francisco; KTRK-TV, Houston; WTVD-TV, Raleigh-Durham; and KFSN-TV, Fresno.

With the Senate on the line and close races in key battleground states—North Carolina, Colorado—the TV political ad money is piling up.

According to Kantar Media/CMAG data from the Center for Public Integrity, TV ad spending on Senate races totalled $321.4 million as of Oct. 13. That is an increase of almost $100 million in the past four weeks.

That total includes local broadcast TV, national network and national cable (no local cable). It also includes ads that mention a candidate but do not overtly call for his or her election or defeat. It only counts ones that have run, not future ad buys.

So far 372,200 ads have run.

The following are the top nine states in Senate TV ad spending.

1. North Carolina        $46.6 million

2. Georgia                  $34 million

3. Colorado                 $30 million

4. Michigan                 $28.9 million

5. Kentucky                $27.9 million

6. Iowa                        $23.8 million

7. Arkansas                $21.8 million

8. Louisiana                $21.6 million

9. Virginia                   $10.1 million