SANTA MONICA, Calif.—Sinclair Broadcast Group’s OTT TV service STIRR is launching a channel dedicated to live 2020 election coverage, marking its one-year anniversary, the ad-supported streaming service said.

The channel, 2020 Live, will deliver continuous live election coverage of daily campaign event feeds from around the country. Coverage, which will include town hall meetings and stump speeches, will be presented without commentary to give viewers a bias-free perspective on the campaigns.

“STIRR’s offering of live, local news content reflects that its purpose isn’t to solely entertain, but to serve members of local communities and provide information that impacts their lives,” said Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley.

In its first year, STIRR has achieved 1.6 million app downloads, providing users with access to local news, entertainment and digital-first channels. Since the 2019 launch, the OTT service has begun delivering 100 linear channels and provided more than 5,000 hours of video-on-demand content. More than 130,000 hours of live, local news have been streamed via STIRR City channels, curated 24/7 linear TV stations with lineups based on viewers’ cities.

STIRR also plans to begin offering post-broadcast on-demand viewing of popular syndicated TV shows, including “Judge Judy,” “Dr. Phil,” “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” “Wheel of Fortune,” “Jeopardy” and other syndicated shows originally aired by a Sinclair broadcast station, before the end of March. Availability will be determined based on the city where the STIRR viewer is located.

“We’re incredibly proud of the growth and success the platform has seen throughout the year, and look forward to providing users with more value. With the addition of local broadcast TV syndication programming coming to the platform, we’re excited for what the next year has in store for STIRR,” said Ripley.

More information is available on the STIRR website.

MIAMI—Less than a year away from the 2020 U.S. presidential election, Noticias Telemundo is ramping up its election coverage with a particular increase in its digital operations. In a recent press release, the Hispanic-language network announced some of its planned digital programming as well as new hires for what it bills as its “biggest-ever electoral coverage.”

“Our web, app and social platforms will feature three times the volume of political content in comparison to 2016,” said Maria Luisa Tabares, director of Digital News Content.

Part of Noticias Telemundo’s digital strategy will include exclusive programming on popular and emerging digital platforms. One will be a daily YouTube native newscast done in English, while the network will also produce a news show for the new digital platform Quibi.

In addition, Noticias Telemundo has announced that it has doubled the size of its editorial team, bringing in multimedia journalists to produce stories specifically for digital, social and linear platforms.

Other efforts in the run-up to the 2020 election include partnerships with fact-checking organizations like PolitiFact and Animal Politico; a partnership with the Des Moines Register; and the previous actions of building a new studio and hirings that include Patsy Loris as senior vice president, elections 2020, and appointing Romina Rosado as the head of digital news.

“Latinos are increasingly consuming most of their political news online or via mobile devices,” said Rosado. “Our expanded digital operations will get us even closer to our audience during a critical electoral year.”

More information can be found at the newly redesigned Noticias Telemundo website.

NEW YORK—In an effort to assist with 2020 U.S. presidential election coverage, Stringr and Google News Initiative are teaming up to supply national and local news organizations with video content. Among the first to sign up to receive the coverage is Fox Television Stations.

With media organizations not always having the resources to cover every story on the campaign trail, Stringr and Google will provide broadcast, digital and raw video content to help supplement election coverage efforts. Stringr is expected to provide one broadcast and one digital segment per day, as well as two or more pieces of raw content, depending on events taking place.

Broadcast packages will include a voiceover for newscast networks. Digital packages are edited specifically for digital distribution and include captions. The Raw video assets will be of various events that can be edited by the organization.

In addition to Fox TV, current participants for the service include the Boston Globe, News Press & Gazette, Lee Enterprises and Flood Communications.

More details about Stringr and Google’s partnership are available online.

CHANTILLY, Va.—The 2020 presidential election will help U.S. local advertising revenue reach new heights, a projected $161.3 billion to be exact, according to a recent report from BIA Advisory Services.

BIA’s “U.S. Local Advertising Forecast 2020” forecast would be a 5.8% growth rate from the $152.5 billion in ad revenue from 2019, with political ad spending helping to boost revenue. Where this revenue comes from is also seeing significant change, as BIA sees increases in ad revenue from OTT and social media, though traditional media will remain the biggest resource.

Traditional media is expected to account for $94.4 billion of the ad revenue in 2020, up from $93.2 billion in 2019, which would make up 58.5% of the total revenue. Online/digital revenue will see a larger growth, however, earning an estimated $66.9 billion in 2020, or 41.5% of the total revenue; it earned $59.3 billion in 2019. OTT and social media are big drivers for this increase.

BIA forecasts that $1.06 billion in local activated advertising will be spent on OTT in 2020, and that number will grow to $2.13 billion by 2024. For social, $29.5 billion will be spent in 2020, growing to $44.6 billion by 2024. Social media ad revenue primarily comes from mobile devices, with them currently representing a 93.8% total and an expectation to hit 96% by 2024, as mobile native/social is the fastest growing segment of mobile advertising at 13.9%.

As far as the specifics of political ad spending, BIA projects that $6.58 billion will be spent for the 2020 elections. Over-the-air will account for nearly half ($3.07 billion or 47%), but online digital will bring in about 22% ($1.42 billion) and even OTT is getting in on the action, with an estimated $51 million (0.8%).

“The expectation of an aggressive presidential election next year, along with primaries and state-wide races, indicate that political ad spending will be a serious driver of local ad revenue next year,” said Mark Fratrik, chief economist and senior vice president at BIA. “Combine these factors with the ongoing growth of mobile and social advertising and the emergence and future significant advancement in over-the-top advertising, the revenue landscape for next year looks robust.”

The full “U.S. Local Advertising Forecast 2020” report is available on BIA’s website.

CHANTILLY, VA.—Candidates for office next year will spend $6.55 billion on local political advertising with nearly half being spent on over-the-air television, according to a new estimate from BIA Advisory Service.

BIA is forecasting political spending on OTA TV advertising will reach $3.08 billion, or 47% of the total, followed by online/digital outlets at $1.37 billion (21%), multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) at $919 million (14%) and radio at $312 million (4.8%). The rest will go to other media outlets, including direct mail, which normally is a major political advertising medium but will only capture a small percentage in 2020, BIA said.

“Campaigns will continue to rely on television as a dominant platform for advertising while supplementing with digital advertising across mobile and desktop,” said Mark Fratrik, chief economist and SVP at BIA Advisory Services.

Los Angeles, Phoenix and Philadelphia are expected to top media markets in terms of political ad spending next year. In Los Angeles, candidates will spend $168 million on TV, $76 million on digital, $55 million on cable TV and $17 million on radio, according to BIA.

TV spending in Phoenix and Philadelphia will be high with the former seeing $156 million in spending and the latter experiencing a TV ad spend of $135 million, the company said.

“In some of the smaller markets, one thing to keep an eye on is how the huge volume of political advertising could crowd out other local advertisers during primary and general election seasons,” said Fratrik. “That may have an impact on advertisers and media companies, and we’ll certainly factor that into our forecasting as we go through the fall.”

The estimates of 2020 political advertising will be part of BIA ADVantage, an advertising intelligence report focusing on 94 markets.

More information is available on the BIA Advisory Services website.