NEW YORK—NBC News plans to launch a streaming service called NBC News Now in early May.
Speaking at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas, Sunday, NBC News President Noah Oppenheim said the free, ad-supported streaming service will launch with eight hours of programming, including live updates at the top of every hours.
CBS News and ABC News have also launched live news streaming services. Those news operations do not have a 24-hour cable news network like NBCU’s MSNBC.
News tends to skew older, but streaming news has proved attractive to some younger viewers, although Oppenheim said NBC News Now would not be limited to appealing to young people.
“We will be doing original work that will be specific for the streaming service, we will be drawing from the reporting that takes place across all the other NBC News properties,” he said. “We will actually be reaching into other corners of NBCUniversal, E! News, sports, you name it, for some of that content."
”When breaking news mandates, we’ll go up live as well,” Oppenheim said. “So for folks who don’t have a traditional cable subscription it will be great way to access the reporting of NBC News.”
NBC News’ parent company recently acquired Sky, which has a big news operation oversees that the streaming service will be able to draw from, he added.
The service will be available via the NBC News app, where there will be a link to NBC News Now.
