NBC News correspondent Katy Tur will host a midterm election preshow on NBC News Signal, its new digital network.
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NBC is the latest media giant launching a digital news network.
The company, owned by Comcast, said Wednesday that it quietly launched the concept, called NBC News Signal, earlier this month with a weekly evening news program on Thursdays. Its goal is to make Signal a round-the-clock destination for original news programming in mid-2019.
NBC follows rival TV giants CBS and Fox News with plans for a streaming news service. CBSN’s round-the-clock digital news feed kicked off in 2014, and Fox Nation — a digital subscription video service — is expected to launch any day now. The paid supplement to its cable news network was planned to go live before the US midterm election on Nov. 6. (Editors’ note: CNET is owned by CBS.)
Described by NBC as “streaming news content for young adults,” NBC News Signal is currently available on NBCNews.com, in the NBC News mobile and streaming apps, on PlutoTV and through YouTube and Twitter. Like CBSN, it’s free with advertising.
“There is a growing segment of people who have never had a cable subscription, but who are just as hungry for smart news as the prior generations of news watchers who have consumed NBC News for decades,” Nick Ascheim, NBC News’ senior vice president of digital, said in a release describing Signal’s target audience.
The current evening show will widen to a daily format before the end of the year, running Monday through Friday at 4 p.m. PT. Additional daily programming, including a morning and afternoon show and hourly news updates called Brieflies are planned to roll out later this year and early next. Leading up to the midterm election, digital program “218: Race for the House” will air daily at 9 a.m. PT. On election day, NBC News correspondent and MSNBC anchor Katy Tur will host a pre-show on NBC News Signal from 4 to 6 p.m. PT.
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