Watchup

Featuring a wide range of content and channels that span local, national and international news, Watchup for Apple TV aims to offer a personalized, on-demand TV news experience.

The app generates customized newscasts for consumers who have registered their preferences on everything from location to topics of interest. Broadcasters on board include the Tribune, Meredith, Scripps, Bonten and Lilly station groups and Cowles-owned KHQ Spokane, Wash.

With the new station groups, 80% of U.S. homes can watch streaming local news anytime, anyplace. The announcement follows a similar deal with Tribune Media announced last month, which gave Watchup access to video content from 30 of Tribune’s broadcast stations.

Tribune Broadcasting will deliver online video reports from 30 of its TV stations to users of Watchup, a startup whose service delivers personalized newscasts to Internet-video devices. Tribune Media last fall led a $2.75 million round of funding in Watchup. Watchup users now can access local news segments from stations including KTLA Los Angeles, WGN Chicago and WPIX New York.

News app Watchup has raised $2.7 million in a new round of funding, led by Tribune Media and with participation from the McClatchy Co. Adriano Farano, Watchup’s co-founder and CEO, says the funding round signals a move to include more local video content in the app, which aggregates online videos that can be pieced together into customized newscasts for its users.

Watchup, the video aggregator app that straddles a place for users between a Hulu- and Flipboard-like experience of news videos, is on its way to a new platform. The company says that within a month there will be an announcement of a partnership with a video game console maker, where a premium version of the app will make its debut.

The iPad app, which originally billed itself as a “Hulu for news,” is celebrating its first anniversary with an overhaul of its interface that launches video upon opening and gives users more control over their video experience.