13-01-2023, 02:05 PM
(13-01-2023, 10:02 AM)mark Wrote: What an odd development. Is this situation unique to Nexstar - and, if so, why?
When they announced the merger with Tribune Media, CEO Perry Sook told the industry that the company would evolve into a “digital-first” company, which would adapt the Tribune mindset to their legacy stations and those acquired by Media General; additionally, Nexstar owns the content platform provider Lakana, which was formed from the merger of three legacy providers, and had been buying many different websites and Internet-related companies in recent years, including some former Tribune websites and digital newspaper The Hill. They even launched the Border Report website, a collaboration with KTSM in El Paso to offer coverage of U.S.-Mexican border related news.
Still, there has been little to no progress on doing such, as you said, with the local stations. The bigger groups have been going all in with streaming: CBS with its local streaming networks (available virtually everywhere on all Paramount streaming services), which has been imitated in some way by ABC, NBC and Telemundo; Fox with a robust local streaming presence and investing on national streaming networks which are connected with the local stations; Sinclair has not only live streaming on its local websites, but also offers a free streaming service, Stirr, which also offers the group’s free digital networks; Tegna and Hearst have also launched their own networks, which are more lifestyle based but they also offer some of their local newscasts; Scripps has an increasing number of streaming offerings, not only local, but national based (cue Scripps News, Court TV and related versions of its digital networks) and even Allen Media has put its local stations into the streamer it inherited from The Weather Channel, Local Now.