Today, Bloomberg Media has announced a slate of original long-form programming that’s optimized for its OTT platforms.
The move represents Bloomberg’s expansion into more investigative journalism and into broader-business focused programming, and a major step in diversifying Bloomberg’s offerings for a younger, digital audience.
The first slate of programming spotlights the advancements occurring in multiple industries including space, transportation, science, and health, as well as their potential economic impact.
When one thinks of Bloomberg TV programming, the first thought often is of an anchor delivering breaking financial news from a climate-controlled studio. So, how did the company conclude that there is a demand among Bloomberg viewers for long-form content and investigative journalism?
“The finance news is just one piece, but what we’re trying to do here is capture a larger piece, which is the general business news,” Bloomberg News global head of video and executive producer Tre Shallowhorn tells TVNewser. “There’s a tremendous appetite for general business news, because you can take that prism and look at a wide array of areas of interest through that prism. So whether that’s tech, whether that’s science or luxury, there’s always a business news story attached to it.”
Will existing Bloomberg on-air talent have the opportunity to contribute to the new vertical?
“Absolutely, I think the all the opportunities are on the table here,” said Shallowhorn. “This is a new experience for us, both from a creative side and the production side. We’re not closing the gate on anything. We’re open to developing internal talent. We’re open to working with external talent. We’re open to, frankly, anything and everything.”
These upcoming original series will live across Bloomberg’s entire digital network. They’ll initially be accessible on Bloomberg’s new streaming video service, Bloomberg TV+, and later the content can be also be consumed on Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg’s YouTube, and the network’s various social channels.
Slate of Bloomberg OTT originals:
- Giant Leap: A growing number of industries, including mining, tourism, and telecommunications, are investing millions of dollars to open new frontiers of revenue in near-earth orbit. The four-episode series profiles the breakneck competition to get to space, to live in space, and to work and sustain life there as humankind strives to colonize and prosper in the expanse beyond earth’s atmosphere.
- Moon Shot: The four-episode series explores some of the major breakthroughs scientists are striving to achieve across multiple disciplines, including the harnessing of fusion energy, eradicating dengue – the fastest spreading tropical disease, discovering extraterrestrial intelligence and the advancement of neuromorphic computing.
- Accelerate test-drives the vehicles of the future, providing viewers with an in-depth exploration of the science, ethos and implications of those vehicles. Each episode will look at a different revolutionary transportation technology and its inventors, exploring what the future could look like if the technology were to be widely adopted.
- Prognosis, sponsored by Stanford Health Care, profiles the cutting-edge treatments that are changing the current state of medicine. Each episode will follow the story of a patient undergoing a radical new kind of treatment and the doctors attempting to cure his or her disease. The series follows the successful launch of the new coverage area on digital on the future of healthcare that also includes a weekly podcast and newsletter.
- Storylines takes a look at the world of investigative journalism. The premiere episode profiles a Bloomberg News investigation into Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro’s selling off Venezuela’s gold reserves, as the United States imposed sanctions on the country.