Commentary

Could Local TV News Morph Into A Digital Media OTT Service?

• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, 9 hours ago

New digital media platforms by virtually all traditional media continues to climb -- local TV stations included. 

Much effort has been focused on low-yielding websites, social media pages, and other platforms. The problem is that it doesn't look like TV.

New independent digital media platforms don’t compete with established local TV station groups for local news content. Now, some TV station groups, such as CBS, are amping up news coverage, with live, local video streaming OTT services.

CBS is starting CBSN New York, the first major local market streaming service featuring news content from its New York-based outlets: WCBS and WLNY. This move follows CBSN, the national digital CBS news service launched in 2014.
Many TV station group owners have talked about the lackluster expansion when it comes to growing digital media advertising revenues.

Here’s the bottom line: Traditional local TV advertising is expected to rise around 6% to $18.2 billion this year; with digital advertising gaining around the same level — 6.3% — to $1.1 billion, according to lBIA Advisory Services.

Digital revenue should be increasing more. Think of what digital media advertising growth -- 30%, 40% or more per year -- has been regularly for Google, Facebook and others established digital media companies; 6% isn't a good number.

What accounts for this number, if TV station owners/managers say local TV has more to offer than digital? Does this come from misunderstanding the digital marketplace, or just a misallocation of sources, still favoring traditional linear TV business?

For a long time, on its live, linear outlets, TV stations have increased their news programming content as a way to maximize revenues from established news production costs. Now, all this seems firmly myopic when looking at the future.

Here’s the good news about establishing a live, local TV news OTT site: younger news viewers. Nearly 80% of CBSN’s viewers are between the ages of 18 and 49, with an average age of 38.
True, we don’t know the specifics around reach and scale of CBSN. But overall, these numbers show promise. CBSN’s average monthly viewers have grown nearly 30% year-over-year in 2018.
That 30% is a strong growth number, what digital media expects with these days.

So while looking to break a few news stories, more TV stations should also be looking to break a few business molds.