SAN FRANCISCO & LOS GATOS, Calif.—OTT news source Haystack TV has upped its game as a provider of viewer-specific personalized news with the launch of Newsline, a dynamic, interactive news ticker that gives Roku platform users of its app the ability to make quick jumps to breaking news via an interactive news crawl.
The app relies on a new system of interactive overlays developed by Haystack TV, an ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) OTT service. Newsline lets viewers interact via news crawls to access local weather conditions, forecasts, weather alerts, stock market data, local news headlines, top stories and other news, including international, entertainment, business and science and technology stories, the company said.
“Innovation has long been the foundation of Haystack TV, and the introduction of Newsline reimagines TV news viewership and drives engagement for our growing user base,” said Haystack TV President and co-founder Ish Harshawat.
“Newsline is a feature that demonstrates how Haystack is reinventing the news watching experience by adding greater accessibility and interactivity.”
The new interactive ticker is the just the latest step in Haystack TV’s strategy of offering viewers customized news via its free AVOD OTT service. Viewers already can custom newscasts in their “My Headlines” channel by selecting news channels sorted by topical categories, such as “Coronavirus” and “Decision 2020.” Haystack then curates the news from each channel based on viewer selections.
Haystack TV offers local news and weather from broadcast stations covering 90% of the major metropolitan areas in the United States, including all of the top 30 DMAs.
Newsline is expected to become available on other supported smart TV and streaming platforms in the near future, the company said.
More information is available on the company’s website.
