Newsy, the E.W. Scripps-owned OTT news service, this summer will be launching a live, two-hour nightly newscast on its linear channel, Newsy Live.
The Why, which Newsy plans to formally announce at its Monday night NewFront event in New York, is the millennial-oriented service’s first live newscast. It will run from 7 to 9 p.m. on Newsy Live, which launched last year on Cincinnati Bell's pay-TV platform, as well as Sling TV and Pluto TV.
Newsy bureaus in Chicago, Washington and Columbia, Mo. will produce the show.
The Why will focus on in-depth stories, which could run as long as 10 minutes, said general manager Blake Sabatinelli. That is a notable departure for Newsy, which built its digital-first brand on short-form videos. Newsy originals typically run four to six minutes long per episode, Sabatinelli said.
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He said that the format jibes with Newsy’s strategy of tailoring content to the platform it airs on, as linear viewers do have a preference for long-form news offerings. Newsy Live already, for instance, airs series episodes as one half-hour block, he said.
Yet the show will not be produced in the mold of existing broadcast and cable offerings, focusing instead more on in-depth reporting and analysis of news stories, he said. “This live show, in our opinion, breaks the mold of what a traditional newscast is,” he said.
Newsy also will be launching three new original series this summer – Dirt Rich looks at blue-collar driven environmental efforts, Sold in America investigates human trafficking in the U.S., and Varsity Gamers looks at the growing competitive gaming industry.
