But CNN+’s failure obscures the enthusiasm the other major news networks — NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox — have for the streaming medium. Streaming executives interviewed for this story avoid over-hyping the medium but see it as TV news’ future. The news divisions hired hundreds of staffers and invested hundreds of millions in streaming news operations. And some have been rewarded already for their investment. Fox has attracted about 1.5 million subscribers to its Fox Nation streaming app. NBC News Now produces 10 hours of programming daily and boasts that viewers pour 31 million hours of content a month. CBS News, which has an aggressive local streaming news component to its strategy, says it will beam 45,000 hours of local weather and news in 2022. News underdogs like Cheddar, Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, Newsmax, Newsy, and others have likewise planted their flags in the streaming frontier — and given the medium’s relatively low barriers to entry, new players can be expected to join the fray.
The news networks aren’t chasing an illusion. Last year, for the first time, viewers spent more time streaming programming than they did watch broadcast TV, marking a shift in viewer preference. Their overwhelming choice was for entertainment, but the news networks sensed momentum and technological advantage in serving the streaming audience. Long-gestating cultural trends and maturing technology have converged to streaming’s advantage, shifting TV news’ future away from the airwaves and cable, where it has lived for decades. “The majority of our audience is under the age of 45,” says Janelle Rodriguez, the NBC News executive in charge of streaming, countering the idea that news is a gray and wrinkled program choice.
Some outlets will still chase the largest possible audience, as the broadcasters always have. Still, the streamers could potentially serve niche news interests — producing video news as varied as a pre-Internet newsstand. We…