Advanced Television

Scripps making Newsy an OTA network

April 7, 2021

The E.W. Scripps Company will soon launch its OTT news network Newsy over the air (OTA) as well – serving the free, growing OTA market of cord-cutting self-bundlers in the US.

Newsy’s distribution OTA will make it the only American news television network with ubiquitous OTT and OTA distribution.

At its launch on October 1st, Newsy will be available over the air in at least 80 per cent of US television homes – and in all major markets – carried primarily by Scripps-owned ION stations and select Scripps local television stations and those of other station groups.

“Amid an increasingly polarised and divided national climate, Newsy will seize upon this opportunity to serve more Americans seeking quality objective journalism,” said Scripps Networks President Lisa Knutson. “As TV viewers ‘self-bundle’ by combining free television with subscription video-on-demand services, Newsy will build on its successes in OTT by joining the other Scripps Networks in the over the air marketplace to bring these viewers high-quality, free news programming.”

“Scripps expects to capitalise on the growing and younger OTA audience by continuing to build a leading news brand that caters to a younger generation of active news viewers,” Knutson added. “With the launch of Newsy OTA, we lock in more valuable TV real estate for viewers to engage with our programming, allowing us to further monetise our already unparalleled ad inventory.”

Newsy is available on connected TV platforms including Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV and Google Chromecast as well as over-the-top services including Pluto TV, Xumo, Samsung TV+ and Vizio WatchFree.

Newsy, Court TV, ION, Bounce, Laff, Grit, Court TV Mystery and the forthcoming Defy TV and TrueReal make up the Scripps Networks portfolio.

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