It’s time to stream on-demand news
Newsrooms need to climb on the online streaming rocket before it soars out of reach.
Netflix is nearing 100 million subscribers and the company’s stock surged above $200 for the first time Friday. They have “House of Cards” and “Orange is the New Black” but hardly any news.
Same goes for Amazon Prime. Close to 80 million subscribers pay up for Amazon video content, but beyond “Vice,” who does news well?
Newsrooms big and small should offer up news shows for streaming. It’s a revenue stream that could help pay the bills and keep journalists doing what they do best: asking the tough questions and reporting the cold, hard facts.
Streaming services could also benefit from offering news programming to an alienated news audience that has unplugged from cable.
A quarter of Americans are expected to cut their cable cords and end TV contracts by the end of this year, according to an April report by The Convergence Research Group.
Consumers want variety. It’s an opportunity multimedia newspapers and TV newsrooms need to capitalize on before the streaming wave passes them by.
A creative streaming news show could reinvent the way people get their news. Podcasts seem to be catching on so why not on-demand news? A daily news show with a unique twist streamed on Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and more could take off.
Or, to quote Kevin Spacey’s Frank Underwood in the Netflix hit “House of Cards” political drama, “If you don’t like how the table is set, turn over the table.”