NEW YORK—As part of a strategy to make streaming an even more important part of its operations, CBS News and Stations has revamped and rebranded its streaming news service, announced an expanded slate of new programming and built a new studio to support the service's ambitions. 

The expanded investment in streaming comes at a time when the major news organizations are pouring more money into streaming operations, with CNN planning to launch its direct-to- consumer service CNN+ in the next few months. 

Among the broadcasters, CBS was a pioneer in streaming news services, launching CBSN in 2014 and becoming the first to launch a streaming local news service in 2018 with CBSN New York. 

As part of the revamped streaming efforts, CBSN is now being rebranded as the CBS News Streaming Network, which has both national and local feeds. 

On January 24, the company also launched a new streaming news channel in Miami, with another local news channel set to bow later this year in Detroit. That will bring its total local new streaming channels to 14. All of the local news channels are part of the rebranded CBS News Streaming Network. 

It is also planning to build on a record 2021 year, when CBS Stations local streams increased 37% from 2020, by ramping up its news content, which totaled about 30,000 hours in 2021.

By the end of 2022, CBS Stations will introduce another 15,000 annual hours of live news programming resulting in 45,000 total hours of live local news and weather coverage, the company said. 

As part of the ramped up production slate, the company has also built a new state-of-the-art studio in the CBS Broadcast Center in New York.

The newly completed studio includes 4,000 square feet of space, three pedestal robotic cameras, four main LED walls, four LED columns and numerous display and touchscreen monitors. This will be the base of operations for new and existing programming, the company said. 

The studio features Planar TVF Series LED video wall technology in a 1.5 millimeter pixel pitch as well as Planar TVH Series LED video wall technology in a 1.6 millimeter pixel pitch. Video Visions was the AV integrator.

“We’re unlocking the power of CBS News – streaming the best of our reporting and storytelling on television to viewers everywhere,” said Neeraj Khemlani, president and co-head of CBS News and Stations. “From up-to-the-minute reporting from our new live news desk, signature interviews by Gayle King and Norah O’Donnell, adventures on “CBS Sunday Morning” and “60 Minutes,” true crime on “48 HOURS” – and reporting out of Washington to Kyiv to Beijing – we’re delivering a 24/7 experience with quality journalism from the best news brands in the business.”

“CBS News and Stations’ local streaming channels are growing at a rapid pace and will continue this year through the significant expansion of coverage in all of our markets, giving us an additional 15,000 hours of live local news per year by the end of 2022,” said Wendy McMahon president and co-head of CBS News and Stations. “Our commitment reflects the relevance and importance of local news to audiences across the country. We are excited to launch CBS News Miami today and look forward to completing the rollout of our local streaming channels later this year when we debut CBS News Detroit. Unifying our brands and newsgathering resources positions us to deliver the best local-to-national-to global streaming news experience to our consumers however they want to watch.”

BALTIMORE, M.D.—CBS News and Stations have launched CBSN Baltimore, the 12th of ViacomCBS’ 13 local direct-to-consumer streaming news services in major markets across the country.

It also announced that CBSN Miami will be the next streaming local service to launch. 

CBSN Baltimore features anchored programming and coverage of live breaking news events in the region, produced by WJZ-TV.

“We are very excited to launch CBSN Baltimore and extend our community-leading newscasts to our viewers on a 24/7 basis,” said Audra Swain, vice president and general manager, WJZ-TV. “As our audience viewing patterns continue to evolve, WJZ will be at the forefront of the ever-changing digital space with original content and programming on CBSN Baltimore. We plan on using this platform to present extended versions of news stories and community specials that are hyperlocal and of great importance to our audience. In addition, we will be expanding our franchise of ‘Purple’ programming on CBSN Baltimore, and will feature more hours of Ravens news coverage than any other station in the market.”

CBS became the first major media company to launch a local OTT news service when CBSN New York debuted in December 2018. Since then, the company has launched CBSN Local services in Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco Bay Area, Minnesota, Philadelphia, Denver, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth and Sacramento. Following today’s debut of CBSN Baltimore, CBS News and Stations will soon be launching CBSN Miami.

CBSN Baltimore is available through CBSN, on CBSNews.com and on the CBS News apps for mobile and connected TV devices. In addition, the service is available through CBSBaltimore.com and the CBS Local mobile app.

CBSN Baltimore also launched on Paramount+ on August 23 and will be available on Pluto TV on August 24. 

NEW YORK—Christy Tanner, the executive vice president and general manager of ViacomCBS, CBS News Digital has announced that she will be leaving CBS News. 

Tanner, who joined CBS in 2013, played an important role in building up CBSN, the first 24 streaming news network from one of the major broadcast networks. Tanner and her teams also made the groundbreaking move to localize that service with feeds from the company’s owned stations. 

CBSN emphasized fact based reporting and commissioned 80 documentaries to take deeper dives into important issues, an approach that proved popular. In 2020, CBSN had more than 1 billion streams. 

In a memo to staff announcing Tanner’s departure, George Cheeks, the president and CEO of the CBS Entertainment Group noted that “Christy and her world-class team have established CBS News Digital as the marketplace leader in streaming news innovation, expanding our breaking news, editorial and reporting capabilities while continually setting growth records. I am grateful to Christy for leading my deep dive on CBS News Digital and continuing to make it a crucial part of our overall news offering.”

Cheeks added that “under her transformational leadership, CBSN has consistently dominated the OTT competition – 30% ahead of CNN and 70% ahead of NBC News Now in monthly unique users from September 2020 – April 2021, according to comScore. CBS News Digital delivered triple-digit YOY audience growth in Q4 and Q1, with CBSN surpassing 1 billion streams in 2020. During the past year, CBSN launched globally in 89 countries, and this week launched CBSN Sacramento, the company’s 11th CBSN Local stream in partnership with the CBS Stations team.”

In a note to her teams, Tanner wrote that she had decided to leave ViacomCBS eight years after joining CBS Interactive and five years after joining CBS News Digital. 

“I’m so proud of all that we have accomplished together: We focused on the public’s need for trusted reporting while significantly expanding our editorial coverage,” she wrote. “We delivered groundbreaking digital and streaming products. We consistently drove double- and triple-digit audience and revenue growth, smashing our own records month after month. We are integral to the company’s AVOD and SVOD strategies.”

MINNEAPOLIS—Residents of Minneapolis are getting an early Christmas present from CBS, as the network is launching CBSN Minnesota, the latest of its local direct-to-consumer streaming news services.

CBSN Minnesota, which launched on local station WCCO, is the fifth CBSN local OTT news service CBS has made live, following in the footsteps of services in New York, Los ANgeles, Boston and San Francisco. CBS plans to have 13 CBSN services in major cities by early 2020, specifically Philadelphia, Chicago, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Denver, Miami, Sacramento, Pittsburgh and Baltimore.

Viewers can use CBSN Minnesota to access live streams of WCCO’s regularly scheduled newscasts and coverage of breaking news, as well as a library of local news content via on-demand viewing.

CBSN Minnesota is also available nationally through CBSN, on CBSNews.com, the CBS News app for mobile and connected TVs, as well as WCCO’s website and the CBS Local mobile app.

WASHINGTON—The open impeachment hearings of President Donald Trump scheduled to begin next Wednesday are sure to grab headlines, but Americans will be able to watch the proceedings live as a result of the announced plans by many broadcasters to provide sweeping coverage of the proceedings.

In a blog post written on Common Dreams, Michael Winship and Bill Moyers explained how the Watergate impeachment hearings that were covered “gavel-to-gavel” by PBS in 1973 was public television’s “shining hour” and that PBS should repeat that practice once again with these new impeachment hearings.

However, it seems PBS needed little convincing. Friday, the same day Winship and Moyers’ story was posted, PBS announced its plans to cover the impeachment hearings, saying that it would provide live coverage of the hearings on TV and digital. The hearings will also be reaired during primetime on WORLD, the digital channel carried by 157 public TV stations; they will also be available on-demand on all PBS digital platforms.

Other broadcasters have set their coverage plans as well. CBS News will offer live “wall-to-wall” coverage on its CBSN streaming news service, while it will also preempt regular daytime programming for coverage of the hearings. C-SPAN has also announced its impeachment coverage plan.

The hearings will begin Wednesday, Nov. 13.

BOSTON—CBSN, CBS’ direct-to-consumer streaming news service that will provide a local focus, has launched in its third market, Boston, on Tuesday, Sept. 24. The new CBSN Boston streaming service offers 24/7 anchored programming, coverage of live breaking news events in the region and a library of local news content that is available for on-demand viewing.

This is the third market that CBSN has launched its service in, following CBSN New York in December 2018 and CBSN Los Angeles in June of this year.

CBSN Boston lineup consists of live streams of WBZ-TV’s newscasts, as well as one-hour newscasts at 7 a.m. and 1 p.m. that are produced exclusively on the platform each weekday. The streaming platform will also have an 8 p.m. newscast that will be simulcast by WBZ-TV’s sister station, WSBK-TV.

CBSN Boston is available to viewers through the CBSN, CBSNews.com, on the CBS News apps for mobile and connected TVs or through CBSBoston.com and the CBS Local mobile app.

“The combined resources of CBS Television Stations and CBS Interactive are placing our CBSN Local services at the forefront of addressing consumers’ interest in receiving local, relevant and useful information on all platforms,” said Adam Wiener, executive vice president and general manager of CBS Local Digital Media. “With today’s launch in Boston we continue moving forward with an accelerated plan to launch CBSN Local services in all of our local news markets.”

CBS already has plans to launch its next CBSN service in San Francisco sometime during the fourth quarter of 2019. It will launch in nine more markets in 2020, including Chicago, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Philadelphia, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Denver, Miami, Sacramento, Pittsburgh and Baltimore.

NEW YORK—Following launches in the last calendar year in New York and Los Angeles, CBS has announced that it intends to roll out its CBSN Local streaming news service in all 13 major U.S. markets that have CBS Television Stations local news operations.

The CBSN Local streaming service features 24/7 anchored programming, live breaking news coverage and archived, on-demand local news coverage for the respective regions.

In addition to CBSN New York, which debuted in December 2018, and CBSN Los Angeles, launched in June, CBSN Boston and CBSN San Francisco are expected to launch before 2019 ends. The other nine markets—Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Philadelphia, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Denver, Miami, Sacramento, Pittsburgh and Baltimore—will go live in the early part of 2020.

“The early success of CBSN New York and CBSN Los Angeles has exceeded our expectations,” said Peter Dunn, president of CBS Television Stations. “It is clear there is significant demand for high-quality local news coverage on streaming services, and we are moving forward with excitement as we prepare to launch CBSN Local services in all 13 of our local news markets.”

CBSN Local streaming channels are available through CBSN, on CBSNews.com and on the CBS News app for mobile devices and connected TVs. It is also available through local CBS stations’ websites and the CBS Local mobile app. In the future, CBS expects to make the CBSN Local channels available on CBS All Access in the area they represent.

NEW YORK—A new portfolio of destinations for streaming local news –both anchor-presented stories and live breaking news—will soon be available on connected TVs, computers, tablets and smartphones.

CBS Television Stations and CBS Interactive Aug 1 went public with plans for the new online, direct-to-consumer streaming news service. CBSN Local services will be available via the 24/7 CBSN streaming news service of CBS News and CBS Interactive, CBS said.

“CBSN Local is the exciting next chapter in how our stations will serve audiences seeking local news on all of the most popular content consumption platforms,” said Peter Dunn, President, CBS Television Stations.

First up for CBSN Local will be New York City. WCBS, the broadcaster’s flagship station, and sister WLNY, will launch in Q4 2018. Next will be KCBS and KCAL in Los Angeles with other major market CBS O&Os to follow.

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“The addition of CBSN Local services delivering high-quality coverage from our stations around the country will bring a new level of depth to CBSN’s 24/7 original reporting,” said Jim Lanzone, CEO, CBS Interactive and Chief Digital Officer, CBS Corp.

Each CBSN Local service will offer live streams of CBS Television Stations’ regularly scheduled early morning, daytime and evening newscasts. Other daily newscasts will be produced exclusively for CBSN Local, CBS said.

Breaking live news coverage and a library of on-demand content will also be available from each CBSN Local service.

The ad-supported CBSN Local services will be led by anchors and reporters at local CBS Television Stations.

The new local streaming services will complement the network’s other streaming services, including CBSN and CBS Sports HQ. Ultimately, they will be included as live channels in CBS All Access in their local markets.

NEW YORK—There’s a new release for the Xbox 360, but it’s not a game, it’s a digital streaming news service. CBS News has announced that its CBSN streaming service will now be available in the CBS News app on Xbox 360 consoles.

CBSN features all resources of CBS News and is free to access with no authentication required. The app allows viewers to access live, anchored coverage and original reporting of breaking news, current events, and political, entertainment and sports news.

In addition to now being available on the Xbox 360, CBSN is also available on Xbox One, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, Roku, CBS News apps on iOS, Android and Windows 8.1, and CBSNews.com.