NBCU News Group has announced that its streaming channel NBC News Now will expand its weekday live programming throughout the fall and add to its weekend live programming and originals beginning early next year. The company is adding roughly 200 people to its digital group in order to make all of this happen.
“Today, we’re excited to share that NBCU News Group will build upon that success by making a substantial investment in streaming and digital over the next 12 months: expanding our live original programming, adding international distribution and hiring nearly 200 new positions across our news brands, with the majority of these new roles supporting NBC News NOW’s growing streaming operations,” NBCU News Group chairman Cesar Conde told staff in a memo sent Tuesday.
Axios‘ Sara Fischer was on the news first.
This move represents NBC News’ biggest investment in its streaming and digital services since it said it would hire roughly 70 people in fall 2019.
The additional staffers will fall under the supervision of svp of global news for NBC News and MSNBC Catherine Kim; svp of NBC News and Today Libby Leist; svp of NBC Nightly News, NBC News Now and breaking news specials Janelle Rodriguez, as well as NBCU News Group svp of commerce Ashley Parrish.
So, who will be hosting these new programs on NBC News Now? NBCU News Group chairman Cesar Conde announced that NBC’s senior national correspondent Tom Llamas (a streaming news anchor when he was at ABC) will host a new, daily primetime news program; NBC News senior Washington correspondent and MSNBC anchor Hallie Jackson will host a daily evening show and a weekly special newsmagazine series, and MSNBC’s This Week host Joshua Johnson will host a daily evening news analysis and explainer show.
All anchors will host these new streaming programs in addition to their linear TV shows. For Jackson and Johnson, that’s MSNBC, while Llamas will continue to report for all NBC News programming.
This is yet another example of TV news networks expanding their investment in digital news. Earlier in July, Peacock announced the rebranding of the progressive streaming news channel The Choice as The Choice From MSNBC, and will launch a few new shows on the channel hosted by MSNBC talent.
Last week, CNN Worldwide announced the Q1 ’22 launch of CNN+, a new subscriber-based streaming service than plans to feature 8-12 hours of live programming per day, original series, some brand new for CNN+ and some from the network’s archives, among other content. CNN+ will hire 450 people for the new streaming channel.
Fox News has Fox Nation, a subscription-based service which focuses on entertainment and conservative opinion programming. It also has the Fox International streaming service for fans of the network living abroad, and Fox Weather, which launches later this year.
CBS News was the first major news outlet to launch a standalone streaming service with CBSN coming into the picture in 2014. That ad-supported service airs a live news program in the morning, runs taped stories for most of the day, before returning in the evening with live news. The same is true over at ABC with ABC News Live.