NewsOn, Sinclair’s free streaming platform offering content from local TV broadcasters, said it added eight stations owned by News Press & Gazette to its lineup.

The new stations on NewsOn are California stations KION, Monterey, KESQ, Palm Springs and KEYT, Santa Barbara; KRDO, Colorado Springs, Colorado; KMIZ, Columbia, Missouri; KTVZ, Bend, Oregon; and KVIA, El Paso, Texas.

“NPG is pleased to expand the footprint of our local station brands and take advantage of the excellent streaming technology offered by this new partnership with NewsOn,” News Press & Gazette VP of content and station promotion Michael Fabac said.

NewsOn now offers local news from 286 TV stations owned by 23 groups covering 81% of the U.S.

“We’re pleased to have NPG stations join our lineup,” NewsOn VP and general manager Ron Stitt said. “With more local news content from additional markets across the U.S., we’re aligned in our goal of increasing the reach and impact of local news.”

Sinclair Broadcast Group’s NewsON free streaming service said it added Capitol Broadcasting’s new streaming channel WRAL News Plus to NewsON’s channel lineup.

“We're excited to bring WRAL’s award-winning local news content to NewsON's growing platform,” WRAL VP and general manager Joel Davis said. “As the trusted news source for the Raleigh-Durham area, we're always looking for ways to expand our reach and connect with more viewers. This partnership with NewsON helps us expand the reach of our trusted, local news content to viewers in both North Carolina and across the country.”

WRAL news content is also available on the VUit and Local Now streaming news platforms.

“WRAL has been a local TV digital pioneer since the dawn of the web, with a succession of innovations and successes, and we are pleased to see them join our stable of great stations,” NewsON general manager Ron Stitt said. “Now, NewsON’s multiplatform user base will have access to local news content from the Raleigh-Durham market through WRAL News Plus.” 

NewsON offers live and on-demand local newscasts, FAST channels, and news clips from over twenty ownership groups, providing viewers instant access to local news content from 256 local TV stations covering 91% of the US population.   

“As the streaming landscape continues to evolve, we need to help ensure that watching WRAL News is as frictionless as possible,” Capitol Broadcasting VP of transformation Jon Accarrino said. “Making our news product available in more places, like NewsON, helps to increase its accessibility and meets the viewer on the platform of their choice.” ■ 

Sinclair Broadcast Group’s NewsON streaming platform said it made a deal licensing news content from 13 of Paramount Global’s CBS-owned local stations.

Many of the stations are in top markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco.

NewsON users will be able to watch live newscasts, CBS News Local FAST channels, and story clips from the stations. NewsOn will add CBS’s local streaming station from Detroit when it launches.

Also Read: NewsON Gets App Makeover

“We are really thrilled to work with CBS News and Stations and bring their news product to NewsON’s multi-platform user base,” said Ron Stitt, General Manager of NewsON. “CBS has been a leader in development of OTT/CTV local news and we are pleased they are joining and supporting a large body of network affiliates who participate in NewsON to ensure they are connecting with CTV audiences and maximizing reach and revenue with their content.”

Also Read: Gray Pulling Local Station News Content From Sinclair's NewsOn

The addition of the CBS stations gives NewsON content from more than 250 stations covering about 92% of the country. 

“We are excited to distribute our 13 local streaming channels on NewsON,” said Sahand Sepehrnia, senior VP of Streaming, CBS Stations. “Ron and the team are innovators and true champions of local news, and we are optimistic that the addition of our streaming channels will help expand their consumer offering and grow our audience.” ■

The Next TV Summit panel “RIP Broadcast TV?” looked at the viability of the original TV platform in the era of streaming TV. It also discussed how broadcast TV is extending its reach on newer platforms. Rob Weisbord, chief operating officer and president of broadcast at Sinclair Broadcast Group, spoke about the importance of the broadcast “ecosystem” in retaining its relevance, including diginets and mobile apps. “We look at everything as spokes to a wheel,” he said. 

That includes Sinclair streaming network Stirr and news app NewsOn. 

As much as the major subscription streamers dominate the traditional primetime, Weisbord said consolidation is inevitable for that sector. Programming costs, he added, mentioning Netflix movie The Gray Man, are not sustainable, and perhaps the streamers will consider licensing content to station groups. 

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Jim Long, CEO of LocalBTV/Didja, said Sinclair has the right idea about connecting with viewers on all platforms. “Sinclair is doing exactly what they should be doing,” he said. “Be where the consumers are.”

David Bloom, senior contributor, NextTV, moderated the panel, part of NYC TV Week. 

The panelists made the point that, as much as viewers rely on Netflix, Hulu and other subscription streamers, those platforms don’t provide local programming. “Localism is the most important thing to us,” said Kevin Dunaway, VUit VP, affiliate relations & content development, adding how VUit has 300 station partners. “We want to partner with [stations] because that content is important to all those areas.”

Dunaway made the point that a local programming event, be it a sports game or a parade, can often get significant viewership beyond the event’s home market. 

With viewers facing so many viewing options, some say there’s greater demand for local content. “We always say that content is king, but maybe it’s even more true than before,” said Stephane Guez, CTO at Dalet. “If you don’t do it well, people are going to click somewhere else.”

ATSC 3.0 looks to enhance local broadcasters’ relationships with viewers, and users, in their communities. Guez called ATSC “just another way to make it easier to combine traditional broadcast and IP distribution.”

Another unique selling point for local broadcast is over the air, and free. “We have a very attractive proposition,” Weisbord said. “We have 50 plus years of heritage doing this and nothing replaces that heritage.”

NYC TV Week continues Wednesday with the Hispanic Television Summit. ■

NewsOn, Sinclair Broadcast Group’s local streaming news service, has launched on Samsung smart TVs as part of the Samsung TV Plus platform.

The NewsOn app provides viewers with news content from almost 200 TV stations in more than 100 markets.

Also: Gray Pulling Local Station News Content From Sinclair's NewsOn

“We are excited to introduce NewsOn to a new audience across millions of Samsung Smart TVs in the U.S.,” said Ron Stitt, general manager of NewsOn. “As a leading source of trusted local news content on OTT platforms, we are looking forward to expanding this free service to viewers on Samsung’s Smart TVs.”

Also: NewsON Gets App Makeover

Samsung TV Plus comes pre-installed on Samsung sets made since 2016 and provides viewers with access to 200 channels. Samsung TV Plus can also be downloaded on some Samsung Galaxy devices. ■ 

Gray Television said it will be removing its local content from Sinclair’s NewsOn, one of a number of platforms streaming local news to out-of-market viewers.

Gray is an investor in VUit, a local news streaming platform launched last year by tech firm Syncbak, and is focusing out-of-market streaming efforts there.

In March, Gray ended its relationship with Haystack News, another streaming news aggregator.

Gray has its own apps that stream its stations in local markets. “We really believe it’s really important for us to be on all screens and all devices,” Gray senior VP of digital media Mike Braun told Broadcasting+Cable.

But having the Gray stations on similar news aggregation apps “could create some viewer confusion,” he said. “I think it helps if the market is not confused about where to find us.”

About 95 of Gray’s 102 stations are on NewsOn, including WVLT-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee; WVUE in New Orleans and WOWT-TV in Omaha, Nebraska. NewsOn's lineup includes nearly 300 stations owned by 16 different groups covering 165 markets.

Braun said Gray’s contract with NewsOn expires at the end of the year and that Gray intended to remove its stations at that time. “If the user base still does want us there, we’ll absolutely be open to a conversation,” he said. ■

A spokesperson for Sinclair said it has not been notified by Gray that Gray stations will be leaving the platform in December. 

"While we would be sorry to see the partnership with Gray end, their departure will not materially affect NewsOn’s traffic or bottom line. We expect much of Gray’s local station viewing will be absorbed by competitors, as we have seen before," the spokesperson said. "Unlike some of its competitors, NewsOn is at scale, creating a solution that elevates all local TV news in OTT, and its station partners benefit financially and through a proven increase in viewership.”

Also: Altice USA’s News 12 Joins NewsOn’s Streaming Lineup

Gray is in the process of acquiring Meredith Corp.’s local stations. Many of those stations are currently on NewsOn. Braun couldn’t comment on what would happen to those stations, but noted that they were also already on VUit.

Gray’s stations will remain on the Amazon Fire TV local news app, which Braun described as a different service on a different platform.

VUit recently announced that it added more stations to its platform. Braun said that showed VUit’s vitality.

“We believe it’s just the beginning and it’s going to continue to grow,” he said. “The latest deals that they’ve made to bring on more local broadcasters really encourages us that we picked the correct platform.”

Keeping Gray’s content from competitors would also help VUit. “It’s fair to say that we want to build the audience base on VUit. There’s no secret we have an investment in. Why wouldn’t we believe in the product that we’ve invested in,” Braun said. Being on multiple apps would also dilute Gray’s ability to sell advertising, he said.

Some broadcast execs expect that eventually there will be a shakeout among the news aggregation sites.

“I think consolidation has been seen on all fronts in local broadcasting. So I would not be surprised to see some consolidation take place on the streaming front,” Braun said.

Haystack News said that since Gray left its platform, it has continued to grow, adding dozens of stations owned by Nexstar Media.

Also: Haystack News Launches Live Stream of Newsy

“We at Haystack value our past working relationship with Gray Television, and respect the company’s decision to limit consumers’ access to its local news content to its owned platforms. Haystack would welcome back Gray content in the future and we wish the team all the best,” said Daniel Barreto, co-founder and CEO of Haystack TV.

“Haystack News remains committed to easing consumers’ access to the news they care about and helping news channels further monetize content and extend audience reach via our curated and personalized platform,” Barreto said. ”It’s clearly resonating with consumers and publishers alike, as we achieved record revenue for seven months straight.” ■

Sinclair Broadcast Group’s streaming news service NewsOn said it has reached a deal to add Altice USA’s News 12 New York to its lineup.

News 12 offers hyper-local coverage of The Bronx, Brooklyn, Connecticut, the Hudson Valley, Long Island and Westchester.

“The addition of News 12 New York comes at an exciting time for us as we continue to expand our local station partnerships while enhancing our product offering,” said Ron Stitt, general manager of NewsOn. “This station creates a positive impact for our viewers across the country interested in New York City local news.”

NewsOn said it now gets local news content from 294 stations in 167 markets owned by 16 stations groups. 

“We’re excited to kick off our partnership with NewsOn by offering viewers around the country even more ways to access our local news content on News 12,” said Jon Steinberg, president, news & advertising, Altice USA. “We’re proud to join our industry partners in this collaboration of sharing local news on a national scale and bring our award-winning content to new viewers.”

NewsOn recently updated its apps for Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV and iOS and Android devices.■

Sinclair Broadcast Group is looking to expand its free, ad-supported website and app that lets viewers check in with local TV newscasts from 275 stations across the country, to see how wildfires are being tackled in Oregon, if rains have let up in Western Massachusetts or how new voting-access laws are being covered in Texas. 

NewsON has been around since 2015, originally owned by several station groups that contributed broadcast feeds to the service but, since 2017, wholly owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which had joined the consortium in 2016. 

Sinclair this month took note of several upgrades to the service, including a new (since February) web-based version of the service on NewsON.us and better search and display functions on the over-the-top channel, which is available on Roku devices, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, and iOS and Android mobile devices. 

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Sinclair officials said the service has been growing in terms of viewing and revenue. Without giving out specific numbers, Sinclair said for the first six months of this year, NewsON’s viewing minutes are running over 30% ahead of where they were in the six months pre-COVID (March 2020), average sessions per user (per month) are up over 10% in that span and revenue run rates are up over 50%. Sinclair offers advertisers options to geo-locate their spots or have them retransmitted as they air on the stations.

Some other figures: NewsON has news content from more than 275 stations owned by 15 station groups, with the biggest absence from the affiliates being Nexstar, which was in the consortium but left after Sinclair took it over. (ABC owned and operated stations also left, in 2020.) Live and on-demand local newscasts on NewsON come from more than 165 local markets covering more than 75% of the U.S. population, according to Sinclair.

Upgrades to the viewer experience put in place since this spring reported by Sinclair include:

--Improved discovery of breaking news, so that when a local story gaining national attention occurs, a dynamic breaking news banner at the top of the screen alerts viewers to stations with coverage of the event.

--Additional market imagery, with each market represented in the app now identified with a featured image for the designated market area. 

--Simplified access to stations marked as favorites (see screenshot), allowing viewers to easily access news outside of their own market. 

Scott Ehrlich, senior VP of growth networks and content at Sinclair, said “the idea of having the broadcast news industry working together to deliver to consumers a national offering of local broadcast news is something we’ve always thought was important. And as OTT has developed over the last few years and as it’s gotten more important to have a local presence as part of an OTT strategy, NewsON has really kind of come into its own.”

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News viewing clearly grew in the last couple of years with interest in the presidential election, with protests over the George Floyd murder and with the COVID pandemic. “It put particular focus on local broadcast news, because local broadcast news was the feet on the street telling those stories, the stories in Seattle, the stories in Portland, the stories across the country,” Ehrlich said. “And as a result the business has continued to grow and we’re investing more and we’re expanding in all those kinds of things” that were outlined in Sinclair’s news release about the NewsON upgrades. 

Like other OTT services, NewsON wants to keep adding platforms to keep growing and building on its gains, Ehrlich said, with talks ongoing with platform providers and with other station groups. 

Hearst Television has promoted Roger Keating, senior vice president, digital media, to chief strategy and business development officer, the company said.

Keating, a former cable industry executive, joined Hearst in 2008 to lead its digital media business. In that role he established a number of cross-industry initiatives, including the Dyle mobile television alliance, the local video-news aggregator NewsON and the Pearl consortium’s advanced TV advertising initiatives, Hearst TV said.

"Roger has provided our company and our industry prescient leadership in a rapidly changing media landscape,” Jordan Wertlieb, Hearst TV president, said.

In his new position Keating will work on developing additional partnerships and business opportunities.

Keating's resume includes stints at Time Warner Cable, where he ran a number of regional businesses, and Comcast, where he launched the MSO's high-speed broadband business, Hearst TV said. He also led AOL’s health and travel verticals and founded “Zatso,” a venture-backed online video news site.