TV streaming service Xumo said it made a deal to add ABC News Live to its channel lineup.
“ABC News Live offers exceptional, world-class coverage of the most important stories and events around the globe, and now, millions of Xumo viewers can access it 24/7 across our premium, multi-screen distribution network of smart TVs, mobile, web and streaming devices,” said Stefan Van Engen, senior vice president, content partnerships and programming at Xumo.
With political activity heating up, Xumo has seen consumption of its news vertical increase 10% month over month since July. News accounts for more than 25% of the content consumed on Xumo.
Most of the viewing on Xumo is live and linear content on its 180 channels, Van Engen said.
With news linear feeds are particularly attractive compared to on-demand stories stitched together,” he said. “We just know the audiences on live TV crave topical and relevant information. On our platform we see live linear news streams driving more engagement than stitched VOD content.”
Xumo also has channels from NBC News, CBS News, Cheddar, Newsy and Newsmax on its service. Van Engen expects that the viewing on ABC News Live will be mostly incremental, rather than cannibalizing existing news viewing.
News viewers on streaming services tend to be younger than those on broadcast or cable, particularly viewers watching on mobile devices.
ABC News Live was launched a year and a half ago and provides programming 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including breaking news events and ongoing coverage of the 2020 election.
“We are excited to bring ABC News Live to Xumo viewers everywhere, and reach an even wider audience through its broad distribution across many of the most popular streaming platforms,” said Colby Smith, senior vice president and general manager, ABC News Digital and Live Streaming. “As America’s Number 1 streaming news channel, we’re thrilled to provide Xumo users a new and straightforward source of 24/7 news and information.”
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Both services are ad supported so that revenue will likely be split. Usually, a big operation like ABC News, part of Disney Ad Sales, will sell the bulk of the commercial inventory, although Xumo does have its own in-house ad sales operation.
