NBC News Now — which is a free streaming service distributed across more than 20 platforms — serves as a seamless extension of NBC’s linear programming, and that linear-to-streaming symbiosis is believed to be the key to NBC News’ future. “The tradition of providing high-quality, free content is in the DNA of NBC and so it’s the future and the past, merged together,” says Janelle Rodriguez EVP of programming. “We’re using the same studios, control rooms, and are treating it like one big production.”
The NBC News streaming service will simulcast Sky News Today with Wilfred Frost on weekday mornings at 5 a.m. ET, an expansion into the early morning hours. The program is the first time that a Sky News program will be simulcast on the streaming service, and will be the first NBC News Now show to originate from outside the U.S. (it will be based at Sky News’ London headquarters).
Amid continued erosion of the cable bundle (and therefore the reach of cable news channels), NBC News is embarking on a fresh pitch for its NBC News Now streaming offering. The free, ad-supported streaming service (which the company says is profitable) launched four years ago, but NBC News EVP Janelle Rodriguez, who oversees News Now, thinks there is more to do. “We want to keep reintroducing ourselves to new audiences who are seeking out that kind of 24-hour news accessibility,” she says.
Exclusives
The Allen Media Group free digital streaming platform Local Now has added three NBC News FAST channels to its lineup. In partnership with NBC News, Local Now has expanded its news and entertainment footprint […]
Chuck Todd‘s Meet the Press Daily — an extension of NBC’s venerable news program Meet the Press — is relocating from MSNBC to streaming outlet NBC News NOW, where it will now be known as Meet the Press NOW. The newly branded hour will stream weekdays at 4 p.m. ET beginning Monday, June 6.
On Nov. 2, voters won’t decide who wins the White House or whether Republicans or Democrats gain control of Congress, but NBC’s Kristen Welker and Chuck Todd will lead coverage that evening that could prove to be a harbinger for programming to come: a two-hour streaming show, Meet The Press: Election Night Special, on NBC News Now that will examine the ins and outs of important gubernatorial, state-level and local mayoral elections.
Mike Milhaven, Jill Billante and Lisa Crivelli will executive produce the new streaming news shows on NBC News Now. Milhaven is the lone hire from outside of the NBC News family, he joins from ABC News, where he was a producer on Good Morning America.
Competing economic incentives are leading NBCUniversal, Disney and WarnerMedia to make difficult decisions about how to program their streaming services. The tension between how to balance streaming video, theatrical release and linear TV is leading to some peculiar choices bound to confuse consumers in what’s becoming an increasingly jumbled landscape.
NBCU News Group said it plans to hire 200 people over the next few months as it adds several new hours of live, original programming for NBC News Now, its over-the-top streaming service. NBCU News Group said the additional headcount is on top of more than 70 new hires of late. The expansion plans include doubling the size of the Today newsroom, growing NBC News’ breaking news and beat reporting team, expanding the MSNBC digital footprint and investing in ecommerce initiatives and CNBC Pro.
Streaming service NBC News Now has added two live hours to its weekday lineup, installing Washington TV veteran Aaron Gilchrist as its anchor. The noon-to-2 p.m. ET block will cover cover national and international news. Gilchrist is a former anchor of News4 Today on NBC’s Washington O&O WRC.
At 6 a.m. today, the network officially debuted NBC News Now, an ad-supported digital news channel available to stream on the NBC News mobile app, Apple TV, Roku, Amazon FireTV and NBCNews.com/now.
NBC News plans to introduce a streaming service called NBC News Now in early May. Speaking at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas, on Sunday, NBC News President Noah Oppenheim said the free, ad supported streaming service will launch with eight hours of programming, including live updates at the top of every hour.
