E.W. Scripps said it is combining the national news assets of its local station group with its Newsy network to create Scripps News.

The renamed network will have its debut on January 1.

Kate O’Brian, head of news for Scripps Networks, was named executive VP of the Scripps News division, reporting to E.W. Scripps CEO Adam Symson. The Scripps News division will include what is now Newsy, Scripps’s Washington Bureau and its national news desk.

Also: Why Newsy Over-the-Air Won’t Look Like Cable News

“In the creation of Scripps News, we are leveraging the company’s collective resources and building upon the equity of the Scripps name and stellar reputation for journalism,” Symson said. “The American people need greater access to free, quality local and national journalism produced by a company committed to fact-based news and information. Since the company’s inception more than 140 years ago, we have served audiences with the highest ethics and standards of independent journalism. The rebrand, merger of resources and reorganization reflects our company’s long-standing commitment and belief that journalism is central to our mission.”

Scripps News journalists will operate out of headquarters in Atlanta, with bureaus in Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Missoula, Nashville, New York, Phoenix, Seattle, Tampa and Tulsa. 

The Scripps News Washington Bureau will continue to cover the capital and produce investigative and enterprise stories for all Scripps outlets. Scripps News also will draw upon reporting from Scripps local newsrooms.

Also: More Scripps Channels Go FAST In Deal With Vizio

Scripps News programming will be available over-the-air and on connected TV. 

“Newsy, the Washington Bureau and our Local Media national news desk have produced impactful journalism, from documentaries and specials to investigative enterprise and day-to-day reporting,” O’Brian said. “We will take the best practices and grow our audience through consistently unique and meaningful news coverage.”

In addition to the new Scripps News Network, O’Brian continues to oversee Scripps’s Court TV.  ■

Newsy, which was launched by E.W. Scripps Co. as an over-the-air network in October, said it will relaunch its news program The Why, on January 10.

The Why, which will air at 10 p.m. on weeknights, is hosted by Tatevik Aprikyan, who will provide deep dives into topics in the news. It replaces the first hour of Evening Debrief, which will appear from 11 p.m. to midnight.

Newsy started out in 2008 online with the intention of being a fact-based service that provided “News with a Why.” The Why was originally launched in 2017 as a two-hour nightly news show devoted to in-depth storytelling. It stopped appearing in June 2020.

Also: Why Newsy Over-the-Air Won’t Look Like Cable News

“This is a special opportunity at Newsy,” said Aprikyan, who has been a reporter or anchor for stations affiliated with ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox. “We are going to provide viewers with the kind of information that offers insight into the complex issues of the day. It’s the kind of work that journalists live for. It’s a chance to make a difference for our audience.”

Originally from Armenia, Aprikyan’s family moved to Seattle when she was five years old. She speaks Armenian, Russian and French and has been an advocate for children's health, serving on the board of directors for non-profits providing humanitarian relief to orphaned children around the world. 

Her new broadcast will originate from Newsy’s studio in Chicago.

“This will be unique programming for primetime viewers,” said Eric Ludgood, head of Newsy. “Tatevik is an experienced journalist with great story-telling skills and a knack for engaging audiences.” 

Hank Mendheim will serve as executive producer of The Why. He was most recently executive producer of WLS-TV’s Windy City Live in Chicago. He previously produced news and entertainment programming for A&E, Bravo, Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel, Lifetime, Animal Planet, Sundance Channel, Hallmark Channel, Oxygen, MSNBC and The Weather Channel.

In addition to over-the-air TV, Newsy is available online at Newsy.com and streams on a variety of devices and platforms including Apple TV, Fire TV, Pluto TV, Roku, Samsung, Sling, Vizio and Xumo. ■

Haystack News said it launched a live stream of Newsy, E.W. Scripps’ national news network.

Newsy reports had been available via Haystack News. The live feed is being offered unders an expanded agreement with Scripps, which earlier this month launched an over-the-air version of Newsy.

“Newsy has long been a popular news provider on the Haystack News platform. We are very pleased to expand our agreement with Scripps and add Newsy to our growing portfolio of live streaming news channels, a terrific complement to our core personalized and curated on-demand offerings,” said Daniel Barreto, co-founder and CEO at Haystack TV.

Also Read: Why Newsy Over-the-Air Won’t Look Like Cable News

Newsy delivers the same news experience and programming to every device. Viewers can watch Newsy’s 24/7 live programming over the air using their TVs’ built-in tuners or digital antennas, on Newsy.com, as well as on their favorite streaming devices or services – including Haystack TV.

E.W. Scripps Co. on Monday launched its over-the-air version of its digital Newsy news service.

The new channel will be available in more than 90% of the U.S. on secondary digital broadcast signals, taking advantage of Scripps’ status as one of the largest owners of broadcast spectrum.

Also Read: Why Newsy Over-the-Air Won’t Look Like Cable News

Newsy will continue to be available via over-the-top streaming. The Newsy app will deliver the same feed as the broadcast channel via Apple TV, Fire TV, Pluto TV, Roku, Samsung Sling, Vizio and Xumo.

The unique distribution strategy puts Newsy in two fast-growing platforms with one foot in over-the-air and the other in over-the-top.

Also Read: E.W. Scripps Plans to Take Over the Air Nets Over the Top

Newsy will broadcast 24 hours a day seven days a week from its headquarters in Atlanta and at launch will have 17 hours of live daily news.

The channel is designed to offer opinion free-content, a contrast to cable news channels that cater to one end of the political spectrum or the other. That approach has been successful in cable. It’s less clear that a middle of the road approach will draw viewers over the air.

Also Read: Newsy Sets Lineup Before October Launch as Over-the-Air Network

Newsy has a staff of about 250 and will draw reports from 14 news bureaus located in Atlanta; Chicago; Dallas; Denver; Los Angeles; Missoula, Montana; Nashville, Tennessee; New York, Phoenix, Seattle, Tampa, Florida; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Washington D.C. It will also have content from the newsrooms of Scripps’ local stations.

“Newsy is positioned to accurately inform the public at scale with unmatched accessibility,” said Eric Ludgood, head of Newsy. “We will give the American people facts and in-depth information so they can better understand the events that shape their lives. We’re not going to tell them what to think. They can make up their own minds.”

When Newsy launches its over-the-air channel on Oct. 1, it will give viewers something they do not have now, according to TV news veteran Kate O’Brian.

“We’re not going to have pundits,” O’Brian, hired by the E.W. Scripps Co. as head of news for its national networks division to oversee both Newsy and Court TV, told Broadcasting+Cable. ”We’re not going to have talking heads. 

“I think there is an exhaustion level with 24/7 [news networks] that are just people talking,” she said. “I think the audience really wants to get context and try to understand the complex world we all live in. And a really great way to do that is through the visual medium.”

Many national news operations start up with promises to be fair and balanced and play stories down the middle, as O’Brian said Newsy intends to do. It hasn’t always been the most successful path.

“Look, it’s a different business model to appeal to the ends of the spectrum and there’s a big middle ground that isn’t being served really by the ends of the spectrum,” she said. “If they’re looking for 24/7 news, they’re our future viewers.”

But is there such a middle ground? Viewers seem to be more engaged with points of view they agree with, so increasingly networks have found the best way to attract ratings and ad dollars is to draw audiences either on the right or the left.

“I think what we’re doing addresses a need that we keep hearing is out there,” O’Brian insisted.

While Newsy will play it straight, it doesn’t plan to be boring. “We do not intend to be vanilla and white toast,” O’Brian said. ”I contend that you can have compelling, engaging, exciting content that isn’t vanilla and white toast and still appeal to a broad part of the audience.”

Newsy will also try to be different from what’s already out there in the news business. “With all humility, I don’t see that we have competition,” she said. ”We’re not at CNN’s level. We’re just starting to do this. We are not doing what [Nexstar Media Group-owned cable network] NewsNation is doing, because we’re doing something for an over-the-air viewer, and an over-the-top viewer, and not a cable news viewer.”

Founded in 2008 by the University of Missouri and acquired in 2014 by Scripps for $35 million, Newsy stands for “News with a Why.” It’s designed to help viewers understand the world and be fact-based rather than opinionated.

After Newsy launches over-the-air, it will continue to be distributed over the top via the Newsy app with the same 24-hour feed, making it available on any device for free. The over-the-air version of Newsy is not available on cable for now.

Also Read: E.W. Scripps Plans to Take Over the Air Nets Over the Top

Scripps is the largest owner of broadcast spectrum, so Newsy will be available over the air in 90% of the U.S. and in all major markets. That creates the potential for Newsy to have more viewers than ever before.

At this point, O’Brian said she does not have a viewership target to meet. The new network won’t be getting measured by Nielsen at launch.

“We are very mindful that we're going into a very busy landscape,” she said. “And so right now, we are not rated. We will give ourselves a little time to really move up in the viewership,” she said, adding that Scripps‘s research team will be able to monitor Newsy’s progress.

O’Brian recalled that early ratings weren’t always kind to news startups, including Al Jazeera America, which she helped launch in 2013.

“The subject of every news article about them started with, ‘Oh look, they only have X number of viewers,‘ ” she said. “I think we're going to give this team a chance to really get the audience that I think it's going to have.”

Leading up to the launch of the over the air channel, Newsy had added 10 new bureaus for a total of 13. Newsy’s editorial team now has about 250 staffers.

Also Read: Eric Ludgood Named Head of Newsy by E.W. Scripps

“We have a very, very large news-gathering operation,” she said. “We’re really focusing on video storytelling and on packages. It’s why we added so many reporters and why we added so many videographers and, in some cases, documentary filmmakers.”

Launch Lineup Set

Last week, Newsy announced its launch programming lineup, with live shows from 7 a.m. through 10 p.m. ET.

“We’re starting out a little aggressively, going live all day long, rather than growing from a prime time to other day parts,” O’Brian said.

“We're going to be covering everything,” she said. ”My background is in network news, but the network mentality is bolstered by our partnership with Scripps Local Media.

“It’s incredibly important that we have both of those things going on at the same time,” O‘Brien added. ”We’re going to tell our viewers what's going on in the U.S., in the world, but we also have unbelievable content from 43 different stations that will connect with viewers where they are.”

E.W. Scripps' Newsy, which will become a  free over-the-air news network on Oct. 1, set its lineup of live programming, which will run from 7 a.m. through 10 p.m. weeknights at launch.

Originally established as an online news service, Newsy's programming will come from a combination of network staffers and journalists from Scripps stations.

Newsy's programming day will start with Morning Rush, from 7 a.m. ET through 11 a.m. ET., anchored by Dave Briggs, Alex Livingston, Stephen Graddick and Veronica De La Cruz.

Also Read: E.W. Scripps Plans to Take Over the Air Nets Over the Top

Newsy Live will air from noon to 3 p.m. ET, anchored by Lindsay Tuchman and Jay Strubberg.

Newsy Reports, anchored by Rob Nelson, will appear from 4-7 p.m. ET.

Newsy will get viewers caught up on the news of the day with Evening Debrief from 7 to 8 p.m. ET, with a fresh edition for the West Coast edition from 11 p.m. until midnight ET. Natalie Allen anchors.

Newsy Tonight with Chance Seales appears from 8 to 9 p.m.

Also Read: Eric Ludgood Named Head of Newsy by E.W. Scripps

In the Loop with Christian Bryant will appear from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Newsy is gearing up its weekend programming, which will feature Strubberg and Tuchman on live programming. Other weekend shows include Good to Know, This Half Hour, In Real Life and The Race.

Newsy also announced hiring senior executives overseeing live coverage and primetime programs.

Tracy Carmony was named director of live news. Carmony had been with The Weather Channel. Jason Potts was appointed director of programs, overseeing primetime shows. He had been with the ABC Owned Television Stations group. Zach Toombs was named deputy director of programs. He’s been with Newsy since 2011 as a reporter, producers and head of the documentary unit.

E.W. Scripps said it hired Eric Ludgood as head of its Newsy unit.

Ludgood, who most recently was assistant news director at WAGA-TV, Atlanta, will be responsible for the editorial identity and programming for Newsy, reporting to Kate O’Brian, head of the news group for Scripps Networks.

He will be based in Atlanta.

“As we build toward the launch of Newsy as a truly national network news organization, I am thrilled to be bringing in someone of Eric’s caliber and character to lead our talented team,” O’Brian said. “His experience directing coverage for a multitude of big global events combined with his award-winning investigative journalism makes him a great fit for Newsy and for the mission-based Scripps culture.”  

Newsy is currently on over-the-top and connected TV platforms. It plans to launch an over-the-air version on Oct. 1, carried primarily over Scripps owned broadcast stations.

Ludgood spent 12 years at CNN, finishing as VP, CNN International in 2005. He later worked at TV stations in Atlanta and Raleigh, North Carolina. 

“I feel very fortunate to be joining Newsy at this important moment in its impressive evolution,” said Ludgood. “The vision for Newsy is ambitious, and I am eager to play a role in realizing that vision.” 

E.W. Scripps said it Newsy unit will be staffing up in preparation for  the launch of its over-the-air network Oct. 1.

Kate O’Brian, recently hired as head of news for Newsy and Court TV, has begun a search for someone to head Newsy, who will oversee editorial identity and programming for the network.

Also Read: E.W. Scripps Plans to Take Over the Air Nets Over the Top

The company has also posted 55 positions that it needs to fill. Some will be in Newsy’s new headquarters in Atlanta, where new studios are under construction.

Also Read: Scripps Reduces Losses in Second Quarter

There are also dozens of newsroom jobs and editorial positions in nine bureaus, including Phoenix, Denver and Seattle.

Newsy plans to take advantage of the resources of the Scripps Washington Bureau and Scripps’ local TV stations in 41 markets for its new channel.

The E.W. Scripps Co. said it will be launching Newsy, its streaming news channel, as a free over-the-air network as well on Oct. 1.

In addition to its broadcast stations, Scripps this year launched a national networks division consisting of Ion Networks, the Katz Networks and Newsy. Scripps previously said it will take its over-the-air networks over the top.

Newsy will be carried mainly by Scripps-owned Ion stations, some traditional Scripps stations and some outlets owned by other station groups.

Also Read: Scripps Network Gets Real Quick Name Change to TrueReal

“Amid an increasingly polarized and divided national climate, Newsy will seize upon this opportunity to serve more Americans seeking quality objective journalism,” said Scripps Networks president Lisa Knutson. “As TV viewers ‘self-bundle’ by combining free television with subscription video-on-demand services, Newsy will build on its successes in OTT by joining the other Scripps Networks in the over the air marketplace to bring these viewers high-quality, free news programming.”

Newsy will be headquartered in Atlanta and will have nearly a dozen bureaus including Washington, D.C., Chicago, Denver and Phoenix. It will make use of the Scripps Washington Bureau and Scripps’ local TV stations in 41 markets.

Kate O’Brian, recently hired as head of news for Scripps National Networks, will be putting together Newsy’s newsgathering and programming plans.

“Scripps expects to capitalize on the growing and younger OTA audience by continuing to build a leading news brand that caters to a younger generation of active news viewers,” Knutson said. “With the launch of Newsy OTA, we lock in more valuable TV real estate for viewers to engage with our programming, allowing us to further monetize our already unparalleled ad inventory."

Much like everything else that has transpired in 2020, election-night coverage promises to test news organizations as they have never been tested before. 

“I’ve been part of election teams since the 1980s,” said David Bohrman, executive producer of CBS News’s 2020 election-night coverage. “I’ve run election coverage at CNN and NBC, and now here at CBS, and this is the most complicated election I’ve ever been part of.” 

RELATED: Streaming to the White House

Marc Burstein, senior executive producer of ABC News Special Events, agreed, citing the difficulties of producing a major election-night special in the middle of a major pandemic: “We are having to prepare for anything and everything. It could be the longest night or it may not be. No one knows and we have to prepare for every possible contingency.” (NBC News, the other Big Three broadcast network news arm, did not provide executives to be interviewed.)

Or, as PBS NewsHour executive producer Sara Just observed: “It’s like trying to tie your shoes while riding a bicycle. We are confident we have a good plan for keeping everyone safe, but it is challenging. This is going to be a night like none other.” 

Much of this reflects a 2020 news cycle that has produced a slew of once-in-a-lifetime stories and tragedies. “I’ve been at CNN for almost 30 years and this is the most intense news environment I’ve ever seen,” Sam Feist, senior VP and Washington bureau chief at CNN, said during B+C’s News Technology Summit last month. “We are covering an election, maybe the most anticipated election in our lifetime, along with a pandemic and a national reckoning over race.”

RELATED: The New Math of Election Coverage

“When we look back on 2020 we will think, ‘Wow, that was the most extraordinary news year ever,’ and we did it with an arm and a half tied behind our back,” Feist added.

These national calamities and controversies have also spiked viewer interest in the results and significantly raised the competitive stakes for news organizations. 

“There are more eyes on this election than we’ve had in our lifetimes,” Cherie Grzech, VP of politics and the Washington bureau at Fox News, said. 

The Most Unusual Election Night

The heightened scrutiny comes as news organizations are grappling with what might on Nov. 3 be the most unusual election night in television history.  

Unlike other presidential elections, where networks covered voters casting ballots and reported the results the same day, early voting this year is hitting record levels. Mail-in voting is also expected to hit record levels, and many votes might not be counted until after Nov. 3. That, in turn, could delay results and make the process of reporting and calling races a much more complex and uncertain process. (See “The New Math of Election Coverage,” page 12.)

Technology and production plans have also been upended by a pandemic that has killed more than 220,000 people. In addition to having many people work from home, networks are using more studios and control rooms to spread out employees and are revising coverage plans by recruiting additional legal experts to explain potential voting irregularities and rethinking how to deploy journalists. Many typical election-night gatherings are likely to be canceled and travel restrictions will make it more difficult to get boots on the ground. 

One thing that hasn’t changed is election night’s importance. All the major commercial TV news organizations are investing millions of dollars in new sets and technology to stand out from the competition and attract new viewers. 

“Election night, for us and for all the news networks, is our Super Bowl,” Fox News senior VP of news and politics Alan Komissaroff said. “It is our biggest night and we are determined to put our best foot forward. There isn’t a nook and cranny of the building that we are not using. We’ll be using every piece of technology we have been using in the past and a few new ones as well.”

As in earlier years, many networks will broadcast their coverage from new sets, studios or facilities that feature the glitziest graphics and massive, high-resolution, floor-to-ceiling walls and screens for data and results. 

Coverage will include big touch screens where correspondents and anchors take deep dives into results and augmented reality systems. Some networks, such as Fox News, will even be debuting virtual reality systems. 

The challenges facing news organizations this year may also improve the quality of coverage. For example, COVID-19 restrictions limiting in-studio guests will result in using a much wider array of sources and voices from remote locations, network executives said. “This has been kind of a breakthrough moment this year in terms of adding more people to the conversation,” Fox News’s Grzech said. 

Another positive development is the rapid expansion of streaming services. Their growing availability means viewers will be able to easily access a much wider array of stories and coverage, both on digital media and on broadcast networks, where TV anchors can draw on the expertise of digital teams. (See “Streaming to the White House,” page 11.)

The difficulties of election coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic have also forced news organizations to integrate their operations more tightly with local stations, digital outlets and even radio organizations rather than fly reporters into key battleground states. This reporting from seasoned local journalists could provide national audiences with a better understanding of the results in those locales. 

CBS, for one, will add extensive coverage to CBSN by streaming 10 local feeds, while Newsy will draw on coverage from parent company Scripps’s 60 TV stations. 

“We have a team of four or five people who will be monitoring the local stations and we’ll be able to carry their feeds at key times,” said Matt Simon, supervising producer for PM content at Newsy, who is also overseeing election-night initiatives.

RELATED: Stations, Networks Eye Boom in Political Ad Spending

PBS NewsHour will also be drawing on the expertise of local reporters. “One of the great advantages of public broadcasting is that there are over 350 stations across the country that we work with,” Just said. “They know their communities best, and throughout our programming we will be turning to a lot of those reporters for their expertise.”

Built for Primetime

The complexity of predicting races and explaining voting trends is likely to make networks even more cautious and thoughtful when providing context or caveats in their reporting. 

“Transparency is the watchword for us,” ABC’s Burstein said. He said coverage will explain what is known as well as what isn’t known, so viewers understand why certain information or vote totals aren’t available. “The decision desk [which calls races] is always careful and conservative, but this year we will be more conservative than ever.” 

For its election-night coverage, ABC News will use a renovated studio that has been expanded to 5,500 square feet. It features 28 new video screens with about 35 million pixels, including a high-resolution video floor. 

A variety of features that enables moving video walls and screens will provide more flexibility to tell the story from different angles. Enhanced capabilities for augmented reality and other graphics are also part of the mix. 

“We will have tools to tell the story in ways we’ve never had before,” Zach Toback, VP of news and nonfiction production and studio operations at ABC News, said. “There is video everywhere, there is video on the ceilings, all across the walls, that creates a very immersive space. It is the largest renovation that we’ve done in any facility since the early 1980s.”

PBS NewsHour will be upping its production values with new LED walls that allow anchors and reporters to better display graphics and analyze results, VP of operations Matt Speiser said.

Univision will show off a new set that improves its graphics capabilities and helps it follow COVID-19 restrictions. “We are trying to simulate as much as possible the expansiveness of the coverage we’ve had in the past and do an even better job this year,” said Lourdes Torres, senior VP of political coverage and special projects for the Spanish-language broadcaster. “We have a huge newsroom and the idea is to expand the set into the newsroom and basically have all the elements — video walls, touch screens — embedded in the newsroom.” 

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, many Univision staffers have been working from home, with only about 25% of the typical newsroom staff on-site. For election night, though, Univision will be bringing more people into the building to supplement the remote workers. 

To keep staff safe, Univision will place staff in additional control rooms and spaces to maintain social distancing, a strategy many other networks and news organizations are adopting. “We will have training, special cleaning teams, security to remind people about masks to keep people safe,” Torres said. “It is really a pretty elaborate plan.”

Safety Must Come First

Since the start of the pandemic, the Associated Press has decentralized video production operations and set up systems for people to work at home, AP deputy managing editor for visual and digital journalism Derl McCrudden said. But for the final days of election coverage, AP will be bringing a small video production crew back into the New York and London hubs. 

That will allow AP to provide live election coverage for customers with the curated AP Direct channel and four other live channels that provide outlets with HD-quality video. “Many broadcasters air these feeds live around the world,” McCrudden said. 

ABC will be spreading out staff over four control rooms and three studios. “We are being very careful with our COVID protocols,” Katie den Daas, executive producer at the streaming service ABC News Live, said. “We will have more control rooms than we’ve ever had, so we can be socially distant. We have added HEPA filters to our control rooms. Everyone wears a mask and some people in the control rooms will be getting the N95 masks of the sort used by medical professionals,” she said.

Said CBS’s Bohrman: “Everyone involved is being tested every day, everyone in the studio, everyone in the control room.” Network coverage will originate in a new high tech set at the ViacomCBS headquarters in Times Square, a first for the news division on election night. “The studio is zoned off to separate people and to make sure there is not any movement between the zones,” Bohrman said. “This is the biggest team effort in broadcast news, but we are finding ways to do it in a COVID-safe way.”

All of these efforts, executives said, will help to keep staff members safe as they report on the most unusual election of our lifetimes. Bohrman stressed the importance of overcoming obstacles and getting the story right — both for the networks and for the country. 

“We and all the broadcast networks know that we need to help restore the faith in the electoral system,” he said. “It has been put under a lot of doubt by a lot of people and we need to be open and above board and clear as to the numbers to provide viewers with information they can trust.”

“This is our night,” den Daas at ABC News Live said. “That night might drag on for a while, but that’s OK, because this is what we do. This is why we got into journalism: To make sure we are here when Americans need someone to bring them the big story.” 

Streaming services are set to have an outsized impact on this year’s election coverage, both in terms of audience size and in the contributions they will make to more traditional broadcast coverage.

“There has been a lot of speculation about streaming in the news business but this year has shown that streaming is taking hold in a big way,” said Seni Tienabeso, executive producer of ABC News Live Prime, a primetime streaming show anchored by Linsey Davis. “The pandemic has really accelerated what was already happening in terms of people looking for other avenues to watch news, and you can see that in the audience growth. We had over 9 million people alone watching ABC News Live for the first debate. That is a huge number that ranks with any other broadcast.” 

Tienabeso and others said the streaming services are providing audiences with a much wider array of stories and coverage than viewers have ever seen. 

RELATED: Cover Story: The Longest Night

Users who open the CBS News app will be able to access 12 different live feeds from 24-hour streaming service CBSN, said Christy Tanner, executive VP and general manager of CBS News Digital. They include a live feed of the CBS broadcast coverage, the national CBSN feed and 10 local feeds from CBS’s owned stations. 

“This will give us enormous flexibility in covering live events, races and outcomes simultaneously,” Tanner said.

To make it easier for viewers to find breaking news and content, CBS is launching a new capability to provide live, interactive alerts. “Viewers will get an interactive graphic on the screen when something is breaking and they will be able to use their remote to navigate to it,” Tanner said. 

Streaming services will also give audiences additional
ways to access network feeds on authenticated apps, streaming services or YouTube, where PBS NewsHour will be streaming election coverage. 

Univision will stream its national broadcast coverage starting at 7 p.m. ET on Nov. 3, senior politics editor Carlos Chirinos said, with digital teams filling breaks in the network coverage with original digital content. 

“We will be providing a heavy focus on the local level, because all politics is local,” Chirinos said. 

RELATED: The New Math of Election Coverage

The continuous nature of streaming services also gives news organizations more space and time to explain what promises to be a very complex election. “If you are just approaching this like a horse race for 12, 24, 36 hours or however [long] this goes on, that isn’t helpful to voters,” ABC News Live executive producer Katie den Daas said. “We’re preparing for the long haul so that people can turn on ABC News Live and get the kind of information they want.” 

Part of that will be improved data analytics. Journalists from the ABC News-owned polling analysis website FiveThirtyEight.com will appear on ABC News Live, den Daas said. “They will be able to explain what is happening and why,” she said. “As we inch closer to election and we are inundated with numbers and polling, they’ll be able to really frame and discuss what those numbers might mean or not mean.” 

On election night, Newsy will draw extensively on its investigative and longer-form reporting on such subjects as voting by mail, the ballot-counting process, voter suppression concerns, the integrity of the election and the Hispanic vote, Matt Simon, supervising producer for PM content at Newsy, said. 

“It is easy to go to roundtables of pundits and much harder to produce analysis that is based on fact and data and still find a way to make it compelling and interesting but that is our mission,” Simon said. 

Pandemic-related restrictions have also prompted networks to adopt much more coordinated strategies between their various platforms.

RELATED: Stations, Networks Eye Boom in Political Spending

Fox News will have a separate control room, said VP of politics and the Washington Bureau Cherie Grzech, from which she will talk to TV, digital and radio reporters, then route feeds to the various control rooms handling Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, Fox Nation and Fox News Radio. 

“You will see reporters on multiple platforms throughout the evening,” Grzech said. “We are definitely trying to maximize the ability to move our people from one Fox platform to another.” 

Expanding the scope of its relatively new ad-based, aggregated video offering, Roku will be adding live and linear news feeds from partners such as ABC News, Cheddar, Newsy and People TV to The Roku Channel.  

RELATED: People/Entertainment Weekly Network Becomes ‘PeopleTV’ 

Those additions, set to be rolled out in mid-May as part of an update, will arrive about seven months after the debut of The Roku Channel, which initially focused on TV shows and movies and packs in about half the ad-load of traditional TV. The Roku Channel is now a channel in the top 15 and is the number-three ad-supported channel on the platform, Roku said.  

RELATED: Roku Launches its Own Free, Ad-Based Streaming Channel 

Among the additions, The Roku Channel is being billed as the OTT “launch destination” for ABC News Live, a new 24/7 live linear news stream from ABC News. Roku’s free, ad-based service is also coming to select Samsung smart TVs this summer.  

RELATED: The Roku Channel Coming to Select Samsung Smart TVs 

In a discussion with users about what they wanted added to The Roku Channel, access to live news stood out, Rob Holmes, Roku’s VP of programming, said.  

ABC News Live on Roku represents a “transformative opportunity” as viewers seek out new sources for news, Colby Smith, VP of ABC News Digital, said, noting that ABC News has been experimenting with this capability and can now ingest up to 10,000 live streams at any time.  

ABC News Live will include elements from ABC’s broadcast channel but enable the network to deliver a director’s cut of sorts for The Roku Channel. The new streaming service will also be the centerpiece for a new, yet still unnamed show from ABC News, Smith noted.  More about ABC News Live and the strategy behind it will be featured in  the April 30 edition of Multichannel News.

Though The Roku Channel is the launch centerpiece, ABC News Live will also be available on the ABC News sites and apps.  

 Alongside the news offering for The Roku Channel, which is part of Roku’s fast-growing Platforms business, the streaming specialist is also adding a “Collections” feature for the offering that lets users drill down into curated thematic collections, such as Action and Horror, as well as a Continue Watching element that lets viewers pick up viewing where they left off.   

The Roku Channel’s news offering is another example of a curated content that will employ the new Collections component.  

Those updates will be phased in through a software update (OS 8.1) slated to start in May, and will also add a multicast private listening mode via the Roku mobile app for iOS and Android mobile devices that allow up to four users to listen in.  

Newsy said a new wave of distribution deals with cable operators have extended its reach to 26 million cable homes, and is now on track to push that number to about 40 million next year.

Newsy, acquired by E.W. Scripps in 2013, said its new traditional MVPD footprint comes way of deals with Comcast, AT&T and Charter Communications, among others.  

Of that group, Newsy said Comcast transitioned approximately 6 million subscribers to Newsy in October, and expects Newsy to reach 10 million Comcast subs by Q4 2018. Scripps, the company pointed out, has also renewed its broadcast television retransmission agreement with Comcast, which now includes its seven Scripps legacy stations, beginning Jan. 1, 2020. 

RELATED: Newsy Nabs First Cable Carriage Deal

Those deals come as Newsy continues to supplement its OTT-focused distribution strategy with one that also centers on cable operators. That added focus on the traditional MVPD sector followed the acquisition of Retirement Living Television’s carriage contracts. Newsy is also carried by OTT TV services such as Sling TV and YouTube TV.

RELATED: Scripps-Owned Newsy Becoming a Cable Channel After RLTV Purchase

“These companies have welcomed Newsy in part because of the terrific traction it has received with millennial audiences on OTT,” Adam Symson, Scripps’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “Given that the vast majority of Americans have cable or satellite service, Newsy’s programming will help these companies retain the younger customers who are looking for the alternative to the noise on today’s cable news channels.”

Those new distribution deals, he added, also help Newsy further develop a dual revenue stream model that factors in carriage fees and ad dollars, “even as we expect to retain a low digital cost structure.”

Layer3 TV said it has added Newsy to its linear lineup.

Newsy Live, a news channel tailored for millennial audiences, is appearing on Layer3 TV channel 147, and includes Newsy’s new live, two-hour nightly show, The Why.

RELATED: Newsy Preps to Launch Live Newscast on Linear Channel

Layer3 TV is available in Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Dallas/Fort Worth and Longmont, Colo., and has New York City on deck.

Newsy, acquired by The E.W. Scripps Company in 2013, has been complementing its OTT offering with linear-style carriage with MVPDs such as Cincinnati Bell, as well as distribution on virtual MVPDs such as Sling TV, Pluto TV and a new TV streaming service from CenturyLink. 

“Launching ‘Newsy Live’ on Layer3 TV allows us to introduce a growing number of consumers to the Newsy approach to news programming,” said Blake Sabatinelli, general manager for Newsy, in a statement. “As television viewing continues to evolve, Newsy will give Layer3 TV a news network created by millennials, for millennials.”

“Newsy’s fresh take on news coverage offers something our subscribers will quickly embrace,” said David Rapson, senior director of content partnerships for Layer3 TV. “From news to entertainment, Layer3 TV is constantly seeking to deliver the best content that resonates with our highly engaged audience.”

Adding more millennials-focused fare to the mix, Sling TV has added Newsy and Flama to its core, $20 per month “Best of Live TV” package.

Newsy, acquired by  E.W. Scripps’s in 2013 for $35 million, offers a blend of on-demand coverage spanning world and national news, culture, technology, science, and policy. Univision and Bedrocket launched Flama, a digital network  focused on young Latino audiences, in April 2014.

Distribution on Sling TV will expand Newsy’s and  Flama’s reach. Dish Network no longer breaks out how many of its video subs are on Sling TV, but The Wall Street Journal  reported last month that the OTT-TV service has more than  600,000 subscribers.  Sling TV launched nationally in February 2015.

"Launching Newsy on Sling TV brings our brand of news for younger Americans to a platform that is catering to those who don't subscribe to traditional pay TV," said Blake Sabatinelli, general manager of Newsy, in a statement. "Sling TV subscribers are a perfect fit for the unique take on news and entertainment that we provide. Our team's approach to bringing context to the day's big stories adds much-needed perspective viewers won't get from old-school news brands."

Newsy’s other distribution outlets also include Watchable, Comcast’s new OTT video service skewed to younger audiences, Pluto TV and Xumo, an OTT platform currently focused on smart TVs, with plans to extend access to Web browsers and mobile apps.  Newsy has also developed apps for iOS and Android mobile devices, Apple TV, Roku, Amazon’s Fire TV and is optimized for the Google Chromecast.

Flama, meanwhile, has gained access on several platforms, including Verizon’s go90 “mobile-first” OTT service.