B+C Station Awards 2023: Tegna’s Station-Branded Apps Are Luring in New Audiences

With cord-cutting eroding traditional linear TV viewing, all of Tegna’s stations last year launched local streaming apps, helping them reach a new audience.

So far this year, people have streamed more than 2 billion minutes of content from Tegna stations, said Adam Ostrow, senior VP and chief digital officer, with the average user engaged for more than 10 hours a month. “We’re finding it, among all of our digital products, to be the most engaging one, so that’s been really exciting,” he said.

At this point, Tegna, B+C’s Multiplatform Broadcaster of the Year for 2023, has an installed base of more than 30 million users for its mobile apps and is looking to broaden the distribution of its connected TV apps.

The streaming apps offer the stations’ live local news programming and other original Tegna content from its Locked On Sports and Verify journalism units. 

Some stations are independently creating original programming for the apps and Tegna is working with stations on new franchises that can be scaled across all markets.

In Cleveland, WKYC anchor Maureen Kyle hosts a show called Mom Squad. Gordon Severson of KARE Minneapolis hosts a personal finance show, Your Money. And in San Diego, KFMB meteorologist Shawn Styles hosts the weekly Cooking With Styles.

The apps also enable Tegna’s stations to deliver developing stories without interrupting broadcast programming. 

A scheduling tool has been integrated into Tegna’s drag-and-drop content management system, making producing the app similar to producing a newscast. 

“Behind the scenes, we want to make it easier for our stations to program their 24/7 feed and provide the best possible experience to users,” Ostrow said.

Tegna has also been building up its Verify brand, which aims to counter the misinformation that appears on social platforms and other outlets. Across platforms including TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube, Verify has about 467,000 followers.

A weekly OTT show, Verify This, has increased its viewership for four straight quarters, accumulating 2.48 million minutes watched in the third quarter. 

Demand for Verify is likely to ramp up during the upcoming election season.

But Ostrow noted that “one of the things that distinguishes Verify from some of the other fact-checking brands that are out there is that we go a lot broader than politics.” Verify content also deals with personal finance and other topics.

“One of our most popular stories ever actually was about whether you should warm up your car before driving in cold weather,” Ostrow said. The answer, according to Verify, is no.