The Hill, the Washington, D.C., digital news operation acquired last year for $130 million by Nexstar Media Group, has launched a streaming channel on Plex.

The Hill TV features a morning show, Rising, interviews with lawmakers, extended stories about issues and legislation, summits and policy roundtables, as well as series including Changing America, which looks at topics including respect, sustainability and well-being.

The channel will also have local political programs, including highlights from Sunday talk shows produced by Nexstar stations. 

“The Hill’s objective is to bring free, trusted, and nonbiased information about politics and policy to more Americans,” Jason Jedlinski, general manager of The Hill, said. “In a time of increasing polarization and diminishing trust in media, we’re proud to provide a clear alternative for news and information to viewers, and a powerful opportunity to advertisers.” 

Also: Nexstar Digital Properties Register 45% Increase in Unique Users in January

In addition to its stations and The Hill, Nexstar owns the NewsNation cable news network.

Plex features 50,000 free TV programs, and movies, live shows and sports and music streaming to 180 countries.

“Our mission is to have the best free-to-watch live TV channel lineup available today with content and brands that appeal to large and diverse audiences,” Shawn Eldridge, VP, strategic alliances and content at Plex, said. “By adding a partner like Nexstar Digital with The Hill TV live channel, and its unmatched reputation for delivering premium unbiased news and content, we’re one step closer to achieving our goal.” ■

Nexstar Media Group’s digital division said it saw a 45% increase in total unique users at its websites and mobile applications in January.

There were 133 million viewers, generating 820 million page views, according to Comscore Media Trend.

Nexstar, a leading TV station owner, has been making investments in digital media. Last year it acquired The Hill, the political news site. Within Comscore’s news and information category, Nexstar Digital ranked No. 2, with The Hill the No. 2 site in the politics category.

“Our meteoric digital growth this past year is a reflection of the trust our users place in Nexstar Digital as a source of credible, relevant, engaging local news and entertainment,” said Karen Brophy, president of Nexstar Digital.

“Nexstar Digital continues to show progress with our content-first strategy, reflecting our organization-wide commitment to deliver trusted, unbiased, fact-based journalism that engages and informs our audiences across all screens and provides a brand-safe premium environment for our advertising clients. At Nexstar Digital, we deliver what matters most, including content, audiences, solutions, and most important, results for our advertising clients," Brophy said. ■

Nexstar Media said it acquired the political media publication The Hill for about $130 million.

The company said The Hill will complement its local and national news operations and beef up its digital presence.

The Hill averages 48 million monthly users and had 2.2 billion total pageviews in 2020, according to Nexstar, citing Comscore figures.

"The accretive acquisition of The Hill's independent, political digital media platform marks continued progress with Nexstar's 'content-first strategy' and reflects our organization-wide commitment to deliver trusted, unbiased, fact-based journalism that engages and informs our audiences across all screens and devices," said Nexstar president and COO Tom Carter.

"The Hill acquisition presents the company with a fast-growing and profitable political digital news platform. Jimmy Finkelstein, owner and chairman of The Hill, has done a truly excellent job in creating a national brand with strong profitability," Carter said.

Last year Nexstar bought BestReviews, a digital product review site. The company said it will continue to make strategic, accretive digital investments to scale its digital offerings.

Nexstar owns or manages 199 television stations in 116 markets. It also owns NewsNation, the cable network formerly known as WGN America.

Republican leaders in Congress are dropping broad hints that it's time (once again) to try to overhaul the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which has been increasingly burdened by legal challenges to FCC decisions (most recently and notably, net neutrality) as well as by dramatic  issues such as privacy and cybersecurity.

Senate Commerce Committee chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) said, "It’s time for Congress to be heard from again,” according to a report this week in the congressional newspaper, The Hill.

“There are way more moving parts now than there were back then,” Thune told the newspaper.

President Bill Clinton signed the 1996 Telecom Act into law on Feb. 8 of that year (see photo).

Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) and  Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), both of whom are considering a bid to chair the House Energy and Commerce Committee next year, agree that a telecom rewrite is overdue. Walden now chairs the E&C Communications and Technology subcommittee; Shimkus chairs its Environment and the Economy subcommittee and is a member of the Communications and Technology group.  

“You want to do a blank slate," Shimkus told The Hill.  He envisions starting the process by assuming "there’s no FCC, but we have the communication devices" and legislators have to create a regulatory ecosystem. Shimkus contended that the '96 law is not suited to today’s technology, calling that tech/law gap an incentive to update the Act.

“I’ve got to believe that’s compelling,” he said. “It shouldn’t be threatening. In fact, you should encourage the FCC to be involved.”

All speculation about Telecom Act reform in the 115th Congress is, of course, uncertain in today's volatile political environment. Control of the Senate may change, and the balance of power in the House may narrow.

Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House communications subcommittee, told The Hill that the process may depend on who chairs the full Commerce committee and "what kind of leadership and ...  vision [about] what needs to be done across the communications and technology sectors."

Telecom reform legislation has been bruited around Capitol Hill for nearly a decade, with prior Commerce Committee chairs acknowledging the need for updates in the volatile tech/telecom environment. Efforts to seek agreement between the legacy communications providers, including cable as well as telephone companies, and Silicon Valley upstarts have foiled many of the plans. Turf wars are also likely, as the FCC and Federal Trade Commission jurisdictions overlap on issues such as privacy and security. Not to mention the role of military/security concerns in the evolving spectrum wars.

An ambitious effort for a rewrite by House Republican three years ago floundered, and the next attempt will have to delve into the unchartered worlds of the Internet of Things and other applications that were barely in the lexicon early in the Obama administration.

As Thune acknowledged in The Hill report, the term "Internet" barely appears in the 1996 Act, even though the World Wide Web was well underway at that time.

"It’s a whole different world" now, Thune said. "We think that the policies, the regulations, that apply to the industry today need to be updated, need to be modernized.”

Yet finding consensus may be much more challenging than in prior years. Many analysts have pointed to the wider-than-ever range of organizations now touched by FCC rules, making it harder to find agreement. There has been considerable talk about separate updates of the telecom and media portions of the law, but that approach is increasingly difficult as the convergence of the two worlds (Comcast-NBCU and AT&T-DirecTV exemplify the situation) expands and rules affect all sectors of the telecom arena.

Not to mention the roles of non-traditional media providers such as Google and Amazon.

While the next leadership of pertinent Congressional units is unknown, the issue of telecom reform -- complex as it is -- is being positioned as a priority objective for the 115th Congress. It's just not clear how "high" a priority it will become.