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NBC to create OTA subchannel for younger audiences

I don't know if this is a smart move. Yes, it's true, conventional network TV news doesn't seem to be reaching younger viewers. But what is the answer?

I get Newsy on my cable system. It is news for younger people. But it's also dumbed down, cheap news too. Yes, the anchors are all under 35. Nobody wears a tie or formal clothes. But nobody is going out covering stories. It's all rewritten wire copy, with still photos, anchored by young people in a newsroom, just not sitting at a desk. There's no organization to the newscasts, no descending order of most important to less important. Is that what young people want? Or does Newsy just not bother to load the automation correctly?

Will NBC put the money and talent into LX News? Will "youthful" be an excuse for "inexpensive and lazy reporting"?
 
Gregg. said:
I don't know if this is a smart move. Yes, it's true, conventional network TV news doesn't seem to be reaching younger viewers.
Click to expand...

Since when has news reached (or attempted to reach) younger viewers in any era? I was one of the few of my age group "back in the day" that regularly watched network news (usually Cronkite, in my case) if I was home. But a lot of the time, I wasn't home. I was either going to school, working, or having a life.

But what is the answer?
Click to expand...

Wait for the kids to grow up, start working and paying taxes, and start families. Just like in decades past. By that time, they won't be interested in some channel that caters to 18 year olds. They'll be watching whatever legitimate newscasts that'll be around 10-20 years from now.
 
OTA TV subchannels are not unlike HD radio channels. Yes some cable companies are carrying them. But they're not usually adjacent to the main channel.

In the meantime, younger audiences have Newsy and Cheddar, and they're usually grouped with the other cable news channels.
 
This is true. However, there are thosebwith voice activated remotes and other grouping mechanisms which can (begin to) render placements somewhat less significant than in decades past.

Speaking of decades past, just because one views something as not having happened before doesn’t mean it’s not a worthwhile effort to attempt, nor that thought and planning has been put into it. I mean, sure, they could take the easy route and launch the 7,812th channel with tired old reruns. Instead, it sounds like they’re taking a swing at something. Regardless of how it turns out long term, that in itself is something positive.
 
It would be revealing to know how that TBD subchannel geared towards young viewers is doing.

OTA television is not really a "thing" with them. If NBC wants to capture them some streaming service
is likely the way to go.
 
zeebre12 said:
Is this going to be one national channel or several different channels for each specific market?
Click to expand...

It has stated that it'll be one national feed first before expanding with several local feeds.
 
Sort of like the Satellite News Channel that failed on cable back in the 80's.
They had locally produced feeds. If the revenue model did not support it in that model
it likely won't now.
 
KeithE4 said:
Since when has news reached (or attempted to reach) younger viewers in any era? I was one of the few of my age group "back in the day" that regularly watched network news (usually Cronkite, in my case) if I was home. But a lot of the time, I wasn't home. I was either going to school, working, or having a life.



Wait for the kids to grow up, start working and paying taxes, and start families. Just like in decades past. By that time, they won't be interested in some channel that caters to 18 year olds. They'll be watching whatever legitimate newscasts that'll be around 10-20 years from now.
Click to expand...

Yeah I believe the only news program NBC has a millennial target audience is the Today show they aren’t targeting them for the evening news I don’t believe.
 
Syfy said:
Yeah I believe the only news program NBC has a millennial target audience is the Today show they aren’t targeting them for the evening news I don’t believe.
Click to expand...

I still think "Today" is targeted to women in their 40s and 50s just like it always has been.
 
KeithE4 said:
Since when has news reached (or attempted to reach) younger viewers in any era? I was one of the few of my age group "back in the day" that regularly watched network news (usually Cronkite, in my case) if I was home. But a lot of the time, I wasn't home. I was either going to school, working, or having a life.
Click to expand...

I have always depended on the evening network newscasts since childhood. My childhood home in the '90s did not have a cable TV line on my side of the block. I was probably the first on my block to get DirecTV when it launched in 1994-95.

These days CNN (and later MSNBC and FNC) are no longer the television equivalent of all-news radio; it's all about speculation, distortion, and hype. The 30-minute daily summary approach does not allow for long discussions and editorializing. I have always appreciated this approach with the evening network news, without the noise found in the constant vigil of cable news, especially as a OTA cord-cutter. Local newscasts have increasingly incorporated network news stories and national/international events recently.
 
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