We’ve been informed of some positive CBS-related news on this Thursday.
The CBS streaming news service, CBSN, has officially launched CBSN New York, the first of the company’s planned major local market CBSN-branded streaming services that will provide 24/7 news coverage and live breaking news events from major markets served by CBS stations.
CBSN New York is available through CBSNewYork.com, the CBS Local app, CBSN, CBSNews.com, and the CBS News apps for mobile and connected TV, and will feature live streams of the station’s regular newscasts along with additional one-hour newscasts throughout the day that are produced exclusively for CBSN New York. The New York market service will also featured a mix of CBSN New York-exclusive talent, including Alex Denis, as well as existing CBS2 New York and WLNY 10/55 talent.
The service will also have live breaking news and on-demand content.
The ability to offer a secondary content distribution platform for locally produced content to capture audience, additional ad revenue and to extend the CBSN brand undoubtedly makes OTT an attractive proposition.
“The launch of CBSN New York represents the beginning of an exciting new era for our local media business,” said CBS Television Stations president Peter Dunn. “We are thrilled to be able to provide our premium local news content on all of the most popular platforms and open the door to multiple revenue streams. CBSN New York and the other streaming local news services launching in 2019 will be a perfect companion to the award-winning national and global news reporting provided by CBSN.”
“CBSN viewers have told us they want more local content, and we know there will be a tremendous appetite for the high-quality, live-streaming local coverage from our stations around the country,” added CBS News evp and gm Christy Tanner.
CBS Television Stations and CBS Interactive will continue the rollout of CBSN Local services with the launch of CBS Los Angeles early next year, featuring content from KCBS and KCAL, followed by other major markets where CBS owns local stations.
The powers that be at CBS TV stations and CBS News digital want to capitalize on strong streaming numbers.
According to the network, CBSN now averages more than 1 million streams per day, and hrough November, CBSN’s average monthly viewers are +29 percent year-over-year.
Through November, unique visitors to CBSNews.com and the CBS News mobile app are +49 percent year-over-year, and CBSN sponsorship dollars are +48 percent year-over-year.
Brands like Pfizer and Raytheon are heavily involved with the service.
CBS News Digital sold sponsorships to a variety of new and returning partners in 2018 for a variety of brand-safe content on topics including tech, business, and health. Pfizer continued to sponsor CBSN’s documentary series, CBSN Originals, and secured Raytheon as a sponsor of its Election Hacking series with Dan Patterson on CBSN leading up to the midterms. And its Uplift series dedicated to showcasing positive news proved enticing to sponsors, says Tanner, with Subaru sponsoring the content both on social and CBSN.