Tysons, Va. – TEGNA Inc. (NYSE: TGNA) today announced that its stations will be significantly expanding their already substantial local news programming by launching live and on-demand, local newscasts from 7 to 9 a.m. daily in 50+ markets through streaming, connected TV apps, and station websites.
This unprecedented expansion of local news programming is designed to meet audiences’ growing demand for coverage of their communities wherever they want to watch and will deliver over 100 hours of daily breaking news, weather, and traffic to over 100 million viewers.
“Local news drives daily decisions,” said Adrienne Roark, chief content officer at TEGNA. “With the debut of our new programming, our audiences will now have the option to watch live news produced by their trusted stations during a time of day when local coverage has been largely unavailable. In addition to serving our viewers, it will also create new opportunities for our advertisers to reach audiences regardless of where they are and how they consume our content.”
Roark continued, “This content expansion reinforces our companywide commitment to local news and we’re confident that it will further strengthen our newsrooms, enhance the viewer experience, support our communities and deliver value to all stakeholders.”
TEGNA stations across the country, including KGW in Portland, Oregon, WCNC in Charlotte, North Carolina, and WKYC in Cleveland, Ohio, began testing the live digital news stream in the 7 a.m. time slot earlier this year. In some markets, viewership increased by nearly 50 percent month-over-month, spiking even higher during severe weather or times of breaking news.
Stations in 35 markets will be actively delivering live, local programming from 7 to 9 a.m. this summer, with 50+ markets expected to have live, local programming in that window this fall.
To watch the local morning livestreams from 7-9 a.m. on your TEGNA station:
Viewers can download and open the TEGNA station Plus app on a streaming device such as Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, or visit their local station’s website to access the live stream directly from a web browser. In select markets, this new programming will also be available on our secondary broadcast networks.
(Post taken from a release)
