Gannett, Sinclair Among Those Partnering in Drone Test

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Ten media companies, including NBCUniversal, Sinclair Broadcast Group, The Washington Post, Gannett and E.W. Scripps, are partnering with Virginia Tech to test drones for news gathering. Virginia Tech is one of six organizations designated by the FAA to test drones. The unmanned aircraft are intriguing to news organizations for their image capturing capabilities.

The partnership is "designed to conduct controlled safety testing of a series of real-life scenarios where the news media could use small U.A.S. technology to gather the news," according to a statement in the New York Times, another partner in the venture.

The other coalition members are Advance Publications, A. H. Belo, The Associated Press and Getty Images.

Michael Malone
Michael Malone

Michael Malone is content director at B+C and Multichannel News. He joined B+C in 2005 and has covered network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television, including writing the "Local News Close-Up" market profiles. He also hosted the podcasts "Busted Pilot" and "Series Business." His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The L.A. Times, The Boston Globe and New York magazine.