CBS News launches a rebranded streaming network with new slate

CBS News is rebranding its streaming channels as CBS News Streaming Network, with a new slate of programming featuring more of the network’s broadcast talent, including a Person to Person series hosted by Norah O’Donnell and Gayle King tapped to anchor the first of new CBS ReportsDocumentary projects

There are also new weekly shows featuring other artists from the CBS MorningsFranchises include Tracy Smith, Lee Cowan and Michelle Miller, Tracy Smith, Tracy Smith and Jeff Glor. Steve Hartman, Ben Tracy and Ben Tracy are also included. The new studio, which measures 4,000 square feet, will broadcast live reports from the CBS Broadcast Center. It makes heavy use LEDs and touchscreen monitors. New graphics and music will be added to the lineup.

Last year, Wendy McMahon and Neeraj Khemlani were elected presidents and coheads of CBS News and Stations. They have made many changes to boost streaming across all divisions.

Khemlani stated that McMahon and George Cheeks, the CBS President and CEO, asked them to lead the combined divisions last year. “we could start to envision how you bring this enormous reporting scale, across the board, together, with streaming as the tip of the spear.”

“You start to say, ‘Imagine a new service that you can stream that has national and global streams, local news, content that you love from the most iconic franchises in the business, it comes really quite simple.”

McMahon stated that “as we start to shift, as we start to evolve, will more fully leverage our live breaking news capabilities across the entire CBS stations footprint,”With a user-friendly experience “that alerts you to special coverage to big moments as they are happening, and then enables you to move seamlessly in a frictionless fashion from national to local back to national, and that is all in one session.”

The announcements also come as there has been some speculation about the future plans for King and O’Donnell, whose contracts reportedly expire this spring. CNN reported last week King had decided to renew.

Khemlani refused to discuss personal contracts but stated, “Gayle and Norah and Tony and the entire roster, they are showing incredible leadership in terms of their streaming [shows]. They all want to be a part of that future and be the pace cars for the entire news division. So it is no longer a question of contracts and anything else. It’s really about time. It’s also about passions and there’s incredible IP in the vault.”

CBS Evening News with Norah O’DonnellThe Nielsen ratings for ‘The Streaming Channel’ continue to show it in third, although Khemlani indicated that the broadcast is in fact in its fourth place. “the closest it has been to its competitors in 27 years.”He said that “when you think about CBS News’ DNA, it’s really about original reporting and exquisite storytelling.”

Asked if this means that O’Donnell will remain in the anchor slot, he said, “We have no current plans to change what we are doing. We’re leaning into our strength.”

News divisions have been increasing the importance of their streaming channels and adding more marquee names from traditional news networks. In addition to O’Donnell, King and Dokoupil, CBS News Streaming also is tapping into a number of the news division’s popular and classic franchises.

CNN has been developing plans for a subscription streaming platform, CNN+. It will debut this spring and feature a mix new hires like Chris Wallace and Audie Cornish.

CBS, however, launched its streaming service as an ad-supported free offering in 2014. Its unique feature was specialized local channels that were tied to specific markets owned by the network. CBS News Miami will launch on Monday. A Detroit channel is planned for later in the year.

The series programming comprises:

Person-to-Person, described as a new take on the Edward R. Murrow interview series, will feature O’Donnell interviewing newsmakers starting with researcher and author Brene Brown. The Tuesday premiere of the monthly series will be at 10:30 PM.

CBS ReportsCBS News special reports and documentaries will be featured under the same banner as CBS News in 1959. The original Shaker song was performed by Aaron Copland. Simple gifts. Gayle King will be the anchor of the first project, which will take place on February 25, and is called Trayvon Martin: 10 Years Later, that comes from the network’s race and culture unit. Another project is Wasteland, a four-part series with CBS News correspondent and executive producer Adam Yamaguchi on the impact of waste and garbage on the country’s waterways.

Here comes the SunSmith and Cowan will anchor the weekly series called ‘The Week in Review’. It will feature original reporting from CBS Sunday MorningThey feature extended interviews, as well as moments not yet seen. Premieres Tuesday at 6:30 AM with additional airings.

Eye on America, a weekly series featuring Miller, co-host of CBS Saturday Morning, is an extension of the CBS News segments that spotlights people’s stories in communities across the country. The series will also feature segments from local stations. The premier will take place at 8 PM Monday and then there will be additional airings.

The UpliftDokoupil will host the weekly series titled. “profiles of people who overcome the odds, make their communities better and simply put a smile on our faces and give viewers faith in humanity,”According to the network. It’s based on a “good news”The segment debuted on Facebook Watch in 2018 and the streaming channel. The premiere will occur at 10:30 PM on January 27th, with additional showings the following days.

Steve Hartman on the RoadHartman’s segment will be revived in a series for the network, originally created by Charles Kuralt. The timeslot needs to be announced.

The Dish Miller, Jacobson, Glor host this series of food segments on CBS Saturday Morning. This segment features chefs and culinary personalities.

Climate WatchThe impact of climate changes will be highlighted by Ben Tracy, a senior national and environmental correspondent at CBS News, and other reporters.

MoneyWatchFinancial segments will continue to run throughout the day.

The nighttime lineup begins with Red and blueThe politics show that features the Washington team’s correspondents and anchors. A live newscast will air at 7PM ET. Jericka Duncan is the anchor CBS Weekend News National correspondent, Lilia Luciano, will anchor from New York Monday. Elaine Quijano, Lilia Luciano, from Los Angeles, Wednesday, and Lana Zak, from New York, Thursday, and Errol Barnett, in Washington, Friday.

A mix of different types of music will be featured in the 8 PM to 10 AM ET slot. Person-to-Person, Eye on AmericaAnd CBS ReportsAlong with content from shows like 60 MinutesAnd 48 Hours. The meeting will take place at 10 PM ET. CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell.

Dokoupil will anchor from time to time during the daytime, including Mondays between noon and 4:30 pm. Miller, Glor and Jacobson will also anchor the daytime hours, joining Quijano and Zak, Vladimir Duthiers and Anne-Marie Green, who were the anchors on CBSN.

CBS launched the first New York-based local channel in 2018 and has added more channels in Los Angeles and San Francisco, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Minnesota and Philadelphia. McMahon announced that they will increase local coverage by an additional 15,000 hour, taking the total to 45,000. Two Texas stations were also set up a local innovation lab earlier in the month to explore new ways of creating news content and using data.

McMahon stated that local streams increased 37% in 2021 compared to the previous year and that minutes watched was up 40% last year.

“I actually think there is a bit of a renaissance that we are experiencing in the local TV space,”She said. “And in some respects it is because of the relevance of community based content and community based journalism. When you think of every story that has played out over the past two years, they have played out differently based on where you live.”

She pointed out the gavel-to–gavel coverage on CBS News Minneapolis of the Kim Potter trial as a local story with national resonance. “You get a sense of the power of harnessing this local storytelling, this local content, because while it was relevant to the Minneapolis and St. Paul audiences, it also was incredibly relevant to Chicago, to Georgia, to Philadelphia.”

CBS News stated that it had 1 billion streaming channels for the second consecutive year in 2021. Khemlani claimed that the average age was in their early 40s. Networks have used varying numbers to publicly claim progress in streaming. However, audience measurement has been a source of consternation as well as competition.

“For us, the number of streams, how long people engage with it when they start to watch it, those are all critical measures for what we are doing,” Khemlani said. Khemlani added that there are also “news opportunities and partnerships”International sister networks, including Telefe South America, Channel 5 London, and Network 10 Australia. “The game is mass distribution,”He said.

Khemlani also discussed whether streaming expansion was a way to create a better user experience. “digital first culture,”He meant cost cutting elsewhere. He claimed that streaming “is its own business. It’s growing. As we continue to grow scale across the board, we can self finance that. It’s not about making cuts. It’s about investing…It’s about integrating.”

CBS News has recently hired Anthony Galloway, a journalist for The Wall Street Journal, as its senior vice president of CBS News Streaming. Robert Costa, a Washington Post reporter, is the chief election and campaign correspondent.

Asked about a New York Post report recently highlighted cost cutting in the news division, Khemlani said, “I would say to you that articles out there have talked about people who are no longer with the company. Every single one of those positions has been and will be filled. I can’t speak to other reporting conclusions, but I can speak to the investment path that we are making…We are talking about re-imagination and expansion.”

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