Risking its relationships with cable operators that pay retransmission fees for its programming, Hearst Television said it is making its news content available over-the-top and on an ad-supported connected TV channel called Very Local.
Very Local channels will be available in 26 markets where Hearst owns TV stations via Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Apple TV and Android TV.
Hearst is coming to the OTT party a bit late. Sinclair launched its Stirr service in 2019 and Gray Television has backed Syncbak’s VUit which features programming from 200 stations. Cox Media Group put its stations on VUit earlier this month.
Hearst said its Very Local channels are now available via VUit and Fox’s Tubi. In the near feature they will be on the Amazon News app and Sinclair’s NewsON.
Very Local will feature all aspects of local, regional and national news; consumer news and investigative reporting; and Hearst Television regional and national content brands such as its Chronicle news magazine series and its issues program Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien.
It will also include video content from Hearst magazine brands.
