Latest from Tv Technology in Election-coverage

LiveU Powered Nearly 40,000 Hours of Live U.S. Election Coverage

Phil Kurz — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 17:02:32 +0000

HACKENSACK, N.J.—Underscoring how far field newsgathering has come, LiveU said more than 4,000 of its encoders, the largest-ever fleet deployed for a single event, were used to cover the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

That was nearly double the number of LiveU encoders deployed for Election Day coverage in 2020. Other use statistics painted a similar picture. For instance, 925 customers from 56 countries used the LiveU ecosystem to transmit more than 40 terabytes of data during the 48-hour period considered to be Election Day, representing almost 40,000 hours of live content, the company said.

"This election created an unprecedented amount of action, excitement and interest worldwide, with LiveU's EcoSystem at the heart of the coverage,” LiveU Senior Vice President of Sales Brian Tully said.

(Image credit: LiveU)

“A vast amount of video traffic flowed through every stage—from the on-location encoders to the production control rooms,” he said. “It was truly incredible to see all the election content created, produced and shared using our technology. Our teams were operating at full speed, ensuring the highest levels of reliability, video performance and customer support across the country, including Howard University, West Palm Beach and the battleground states.”

LiveU's flagship LU800 units were used nationwide in diverse scenarios—within both remote (REMI) and on-site production workflows—transmitting live feeds to control rooms across the U.S., Latin America, the U.K., Europe, Middle East, Asia-Pacific and Africa. News crews used their LiveU packs around the country to cover every key moment, from supporters’ reactions to the victory and concession speeches, the company said.

LiveU Matrix, the company’s cloud-native IP-video distribution solution, played a key role with the distribution of 23,000 hours of live feeds and 7,500 feeds shared, almost double the content distributed during the 2020 election. The LiveU Matrix platform enabled broadcasters worldwide to exchange high-quality, low-latency live feeds and create collaborative news pools, helping to expand content coverage from battleground states to campaign headquarters, it said.

For the first time in a major event, LiveU Ingest was instrumental in the production process, with broadcasters deploying the story-centric solution for automatic recording and story metadata tagging, integrated with their MAM systems, it said.

About 6,500 recordings of live feeds and more than 4,000 hours of content were recorded over the election day period. Cross-station content visibility enabled participating stations to access each other's content. Customers could process video faster in the field, knowing that everything was automatically recorded, it said.

LiveU's Mobile Data service was also in use, combined with LAN access at the key campaign sites and leveraging the LiveU Reliable Transport (LRT) protocol.

With a dedicated Election Day task force in place, LiveU’s 24/7 phone and email support was bolstered by engineers deployed on-site at candidate headquarters, ready to support and provide more equipment as needed, it said.

During the Republican and Democratic conventions, the company provided customers with the option of adding LiveU Private Connectivity, providing uncontested connectivity via a dedicated Private 5G connection. LiveU will also make it available on Inauguration Day.

More information is available on the company’s website.

Election Night TV Viewing Fell Off Dramatically in 2024

George Winslow — Thu, 07 Nov 2024 16:41:21 +0000

NEW YORK—Despite all drama leading up to Election Day, Nielsen is reporting that viewing across 18 networks on election night was notably lower than 2020, with over 42 million viewers turned in between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET on Nov. 5.

That was 25% less than the 56.9 million viewers aged 2 and older in primetime during the 2020 election, Nielsen said.

Overall, about 28.45 million homes tuned in during that time slot, with more than half of all viewers, 24.35 million aged 55 and older. There were 4.39 million viewers in the 18 to 34 demo and 11.4 million in the 35 to 54 demo.

Reported networks include: ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, The CW, Merit Street Media, Scripps News, Telemundo, Univision, CNBC, CNN, CNNe, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, MSNBC, Newsmax, NewsNation and PBS.

As previously reported, Fox News was the most popular network, followed by ABC and MSNBC.

Fox News Leads Primetime Election Coverage Race With 9.8 Million Viewers

George Winslow — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 21:33:29 +0000

Fox News Channel easily led broadcast and cable networks in audiences for its primetime election coverage with an average of 9.8 million viewers in the 8-11 p.m. (ET) time slot, while ABC attracted 5.7 million viewers 2-plus and MSNBC pulled in 5.5 million.

NBC earned the fourth largest audience at 5.3 million, followed by CNN at 4.7 million and CBS at 3.5 million.

While the election night coverage was highly anticipated, following the most expensive campaigns in history, early indications are that viewing averaged 36.6 million viewers across the broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC) and three biggest cable news channels (CNN, FNC and NBC), according to The Hollywood Reporter. That is way down from the 50.7 million who tuned into those outlets four years ago during primetime.

Fox News Media properties (FNC, Fox Business Network, the Fox broadcast network and Fox News Digital) had 13 million viewers 2-plus, according to the division. About 4 million of those were in the adults 25-54 demo used to sell advertising, with FNC getting about 2.9 million of its 9.8 million viewers from the 25-54 age group.

ABC has about 2.2 million in that demo, followed by NBC (2.1 million), CNN (2 million) and CBS (1.2 million).

In its first coverage of a presidential election, NewsNation attracted 257,000 P2+ and about 65,000 in the 25-54 demo.

In the six p.m. to 3 a.m. ET time slot, FNC had an average of 8.2 million P2+ and 2.4 million in the 25-54 demo while CNN had 3.5 million P2+ and 1.5 million in the 25-54 age group and MSNBC has 3.9 million P2+ and 1.1 million viewers aged 25-54.

NAB Chief LeGeyt: Broadcasters Work To Uphold Democracy ‘Amid an Unprecedented Wave of Misinformation’

George Winslow — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 17:39:00 +0000

As Americans go to the polls in one of the most bitterly contested elections in U.S. history, National Association of Broadcasters President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt has published an opinion piece outlining how broadcasters have been defending democracy with fair and fact-based reporting while facing “increasingly face threats … of broadcast license or spectrum revocations.”

In the opinion piece published on Nov. 5 in The Hill, LeGeyt described broadcaster efforts to combat misinformation during recent hurricane-relief efforts, as well as their work during the 2024 election cycle.

“Now, as voters head to the polls today, local broadcasters will again be on the front lines as our democracy faces one of its most pivotal tests,” he wrote. “Amid an unprecedented wave of misinformation and digital manipulation, local broadcast journalists will be equipped to deliver truth and transparency to the electorate— whatever the result—on and in the days following the election.” LeGeyt also stressed how those efforts by broadcasters are built on longstanding investments in technologies and resources to improve their reporting.

“To start, local broadcasters invested in new technologies that allow us to verify facts in real time,” he noted. “These efforts, combined with new initiatives such as Verify, elDetector, T Verifica and FactCheck.org, allow us to better dispel misinformation and deepfakes through rigorous fact-checking. Our members also devoted significant resources to train our thousands of broadcast journalists across the country to quickly recognize manipulated images and misleading claims. Finally, stations across the country launched initiatives like Martes de Acción to empower Latino communities and ensure all legally eligible voters, from diverse backgrounds and languages, have a clear path to electoral participation.

“Yet, even as we serve our communities, broadcasters increasingly face threats to their ability to do their jobs — either physically through verbal intimidation and violence directed towards our journalists, or politically through threats of broadcast license or spectrum revocations and harassing lawsuits,” he noted.

“As you reflect on our election coverage this week and over the course of this cycle, be mindful that these pressures to limit or even revoke the rights of newsrooms to operate without interference pose a serious threat to our ability to fulfill this civic responsibility,” LeGeyt continued. “Every limitation placed on the press pulls us further from a free and open society. Protecting the First Amendment is not just about preserving a right — it is essential to safeguarding this mission. It allows broadcasters to continue empowering their communities with the truth that strengthens our democracy and defends the freedoms we hold dear.”

Despite those threats, LeGeyt stressed: “I am confident that this week, as local broadcasters deliver the truth our nation needs, Americans will see firsthand the strength and confidence in our institutions that only an informed democracy can bring.”

Running Mates: How Sky News’ U.S. Election Plan Takes Remote Production to the Next Level

jenny.priestley@futurenet.com (Jenny Priestley) — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 19:34:39 +0000

While this year’s U.S. presidential election has seen plenty of drama already, the events of Nov. 5 could still prove to be explosive. As the race to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. reaches its final hours, viewers around the world will be tuning in to see who gets the keys to the White House for the next four years.

In the U.K., Sky News will bring viewers the results throughout Nov. 5 and into Nov. 6. The broadcaster will have presenters based in Washington, D.C., at both candidates’ events and the key swing states. But in a first for Sky News, its main gallery will be based in the United Kingdom, with the team employing remote production throughout the project.

Planning for the election has been ongoing since 2020, as the fixed cycle of U.S. elections means that broadcasters know what date they’re working toward, something that is unusual in the news business. But planning took a step forward in November 2022 when Republican Donald Trump announced his candidacy for a third run at the White House.

“We’ve been thinking about the story in a news gathering capacity for a long time now,” Emily Purser-Brown, Sky News’ Washington bureau chief, said. “The primaries were a really big deal at the beginning of this year, and from an output and programming perspective, we’ve been in very serious planning for several months.

“There was a moment I think that we and the rest of our colleagues in the media thought we might have a U.S. and a U.K. election running right alongside each other and so some of our planning was around that contingency. I think it’s a relief to all of us in the news business to be able to cover the stories at different times.”

Purser-Brown added that planning election coverage while also keeping up with the story has been a huge challenge over the last few months. “It’s been a wild summer of developments and keeping not just at pace with that, but hopefully in front of it, whilst planning and trying to execute a big project of this nature with many 10s of colleagues in London has been a lot of work.”

Separation of Powers
Sky News is basing its on-air team in D.C. Studio N1 in NBC’s Washington news bureau, home to the Sunday morning public-affairs show “Meet the Press,” America’s longest-running program. Because Sky and NBC have existing fiber infrastructure between D.C. and London, the gallery will be based at Sky’s HQ in Osterley, West London.

“We are very lucky to have the ‘Meet the Press’ studio. It’s an iconic studio and it’s in constant use, and this is one of the challenges,” said Niel Finlay, senior director at Sky News.

“We have very limited time with the studio, so we don’t want to change it too much, especially as it’s quite iconic and we can’t disturb the studio too much because NBC need to use it in the two hours after we have it for rehearsal,” Finlay said. “The current set has a neoclassical and federal style architecture, which refers to the Capitol building and other architecture around it, so we’ll be leaning into their set, but we’ll be trying to make it distinctive by using our graphics with our presenters and our journalism.

Inside NBC’s Washington studio. (Image credit: NBC)

“We’ve done some latency checks. We were in their studio at the end of July/beginning of August, for a tech check, and we were really impressed,” he continued. “We’re lucky being top-end broadcasters, we’ve already got that infrastructure in place. It’s just one of the facts, when you run a remote production, there is going to be slight latency in there, but it’s nothing that we aren’t used to dealing with. We’ve got all the cameras coming into the studio, we’ve got sound coming into our gallery, and we’re piping back all the graphics that are feeding the video wall.”

The master gallery in Osterley will be fully crewed with the team working alongside a director in Washington. Finlay said there was some discussion as to whether to run the production completely remotely, but it was decided that there should be someone on the ground to guide the U.S.-based crew.

“Not to blow our trumpet too much about the whole remote production part of it but Sky News and Sky Sports have been leaders in remote production for many years now,” he continues. “Our Millbank facilities in London are remote production robotic cameras, we do have some technical people down there when we need to. But this election is just our next step onwards, where we’re effectively controlling someone else’s studio.”

Access
Sky will have some technical people in the U.S., but the collaboration with NBC means that a lot of the production staff will come from the U.S. broadcaster.

“Editorially, we have got two overnight presenters plus a screen presenter, so we have to have enough production team to be able to cover that as well as all our teams in the field,” added Lucie Charlton, Sky News output editor. “This isn’t just a one- night production, either. We’ve got the days running up to it, and however long it may be before the results are called. So you have to have enough editorial team to cover all those correspondents and presenters.”

Sky News will have correspondents on the ground across the United States, including with both campaigns as well as several of the swing states, particularly the likes of Pennsylvania and Georgia. “One of our core principles is eyewitness journalism. To do that, you need to have boots on the ground,” Charlton said.

To help cover all of the locations where they intend to have reporters, Sky News will rely on LiveU for feedback feeds and on NBC’s infrastructure in certain locations.

“This election night project is really an extension of our day to day relationship with NBC,” Purser-Brown said. “Particularly here in America, we work hand in glove with NBC, it’s a close working partnership from news gathering to picture sourcing, to, in this case, the technology.”

Talking Points
Back in D.C., Sky News intends to make full use of D.C. Studio N1’s location on Capitol Hill with all of its windows looking out on historic landmarks. The studio also includes four window archways, which Sky News will use as graphics screens. One of the screens will also be employed as a way for the presenters to speak to correspondents and guests.

“That helps us add to the set but it’ll also help us to tell the story throughout the night,” Charlton said. “The bit I’m excited about is one of the big archway screens will be used as a map of the United States, and as the night goes on, each state will go red or blue as the result comes in and the audience will be able to see that happening in real-time behind our presenters. The other screens allow us to show live shots and images of the White House and the Capitol building as well.”

Augmented reality powered by Unreal Engine will also come into play during the night—although the team is reluctant to give too many details as it wants to surprise viewers. “We do have an AR White House that our graphics and innovation teams have made, and that includes the grounds of the White House and all those kind of iconic shots that you see on TV,” Charlton explained. “It will allow us to show how close we are getting to the winner of the election and that magic number of 270 electoral votes. All that will help feed into our coverage throughout the night.”

A ‘Meet the Press’ panel in NBC’s Washington studio. (Image credit: NBC)

Lewis Goodall is also joining the on-air team for the election and will be in charge of a famous piece of kit—the touch screen used by Steve Kornacki as part of NBC’s broadcast. “Lewis will be talking us through all the data throughout the night. We’ll have state-level and county-level data coming in so we can see exactly who’s voting for whom, in which state and county and and really tell the story on a granular level,” Charlton said. “We’ve had access to a level of data for the U.S. election before, but this type of data and this type of technology, the way the touch screen works, it’s very quick and responsive. It allows us to tell the story really quickly, so it’s quite exciting, and it’s going to be our kind of shining star hopefully of the night.”

Game On
Working alongside its U.S. sister network is a big challenge for Sky News, and one that Finlay said needs to be acknowledged. Not only is the Sky News team dealing with the time difference between the U.S. and U.K., but its also getting to grips with different technology, including a different comms system. “We use Riedel for comms, and it’s always a challenge mixing comms systems. The tech team have gone down an embedded audio route, so we’re going to embed and de-embed audio streams to feed into presenters. We need to have ISO recordings coming back as well. We might want to clip particular moments up so we need all the cameras and ISOs and sound paired together.”

“We’ve obviously been working with NBC for a long time, but on this scale, and using one of their studios, using all their data that’s coming through and using their touchscreen, is just the closest and biggest collaboration that we’ve ever done,” Charlton added. “It’s all very new to us but so far, it’s all been very successful.”

This story originally ran in TV Technology sister brand TVB Europe.

NewsNation Launches ‘Election Pulse’ Graphics for Its First Presidential Election Coverage

George Winslow — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 16:54:17 +0000

On election night, NewsNation will showcase a number of newer technologies and upgrades, including an Election Pulse tool to better visualize election results and a relatively new Washington studio that debuted this summer.

The Election Pulse visual tool will provide real-time updates on the projected outcome of the presidential race nationally and in key states. Throughout the night, an on-screen “probability needle” will move based on voting results, patterns, and remaining uncounted ballots, Paige Lobdell, executive producer of special projects and events at NewsNation, said in an interview.

“This is our first election as a 24/7 news organization,” Lobdell said, adding that Election Pulse is part of a wider array of new technologies and infrastructure the relatively new cable network will use in its election coverage.

NewsNation Election Pulse (Image credit: NewsNation)

As part of its coverage, NewsNation anchors will spearhead coverage from its New York studios. Throughout the night, the network will draw the newsrooms of local Nexstar Media Group stations and showcase a relatively new Washington studio that went live in the last few months.

“NewsNation will be drawing on the power of the Nexstar stations,” Lobdell said, allowing it to draw on the expertise of 110 local newsrooms at Nexstar stations across the country. “A lot of times, the national media just flies in and reports on what’s happening, but our newsrooms have people who live and work there,” she said. “They have great insights into things that are going to be very important as the night goes on.”

For Election Pulse, NewsNation partnered with Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ). On election night, NewsNation will have cameras on DDHQ staff based at Georgetown Law School throughout the evening so viewers can see exactly what’s happening.

“On TV, you’re going to get what’s the most important to the viewers at the moment, which is who has the greatest chance of winning this race at a particular time,” Lobdell said. DDHQ is providing the data and the analytics while NewsNation will rely on its internal graphics systems to visualize the information. NewsNation’s New York and Chicago newsrooms and its New York studios use Ross Video’s Xpression, Tessera and DataLinq solutions. In Washington, NewsNation augments Tessera with a homegrown video system called Optic, which is based on OBS software.

The Washington studio has windows on two sides that offer a live view of the nation’s capital as well as Union Station, Lobdell said. “One wall with windows features a track with an additional LED wall that maximizes our presentation space if we choose to not shoot against outside glass,” she said. “The other two walls are made up of LED panels. One is a large curved screen, the other is a flat wall that complements an alternative view from the main set usually focusing on scenic landmarks from Washington. The graphics for that set also come from Ross—mainly Tessera graphics.”

NewsNation’s Washington newsroom (Image credit: NewsNation)

The JHD Group-designed set has four robotic cameras and a Steadicam, Lobdell said. Cameras are from Sony and use Ross robotics. “Our entire studio has multiple gels that allow us to electronically raise and lower them to compensate for different lighting temperatures when shooting against the windows,” she said.

“As our first big election as a 24-hour news network this is a big milestone for us,” Lobdell said. “On the tech side, I’m really excited about all the different ways we are going to be able to bring information to views through different graphics,” from the Election Pulse to the big board graphics.

On election night, Nov. 5, “NewsNation Decision Desk 2024” will be co-anchored by Chris Cuomo, Elizabeth Vargas and Leland Vittert and air from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. ET. Host of “The Hill Sunday” and political editor Chris Stirewalt will contribute from Washington.

Throughout the evening, “NewsNation Now’s” Connell McShane will breakdown voting results and provide up-to-the-minute reporting from the big board and primetime host Dan Abrams will offer insight and analysis.

The CW will provide a simulcast of NewsNation’s election night coverage from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. (ET). McShane and NewsNation Live’s Anna Kooiman will anchor overnight coverage from the network’s New York studio.

Telemundo To Use VR for First Time in Election Coverage

George Winslow — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 16:19:21 +0000

MIAMI—In recent weeks a crew of about 150 have been transforming Telemundo’s Miami headquarters into two studios that will play a central role in its election-night coverage Nov. 5, enabling the Spanish-language network to use virtual reality technologies in that coverage for the first time.

“We have created a beautiful, really interactive stage here at the Telemundo center,” with virtual and augmented reality capabilities to dramatically convey election night voting patterns and developments, John Perez, senior vice president, production and technical operations, network news at Telemundo Enterprises, said in an interview.

Telemundo crews have created two studios totaling 20,000 square feet by repurposing what is normally the second-floor newsroom at Telemundo Center. The network will use a 15,000-square-foot studio as its Election Center and another 5,000-square-foot studio as a 360 virtual reality set.

While Telemundo regularly uses augmented reality in its newscasts, this will be the first time it will employ virtual reality in its election coverage, Perez said.

Anchors Julio Vaquiero and Arantxa Loizaga on Telemundo’s election night set. (Image credit: Telemundo)

Overall, the coverage will feature eight sets, including real and virtual reality, eight 4K video screens with 8.5 million pixels, more than 250 lighting instruments and 12 on-camera locations.

More specifically, the entire production space is wrapped in over 3,000 feet of painted light, with 8.5 million pixels of LED video technology and over 250 lighting instruments. At the center is a three-part curved anchor desk with LED displays for real-time election updates, key race alerts, and state projections.

The anchor area is complemented by a 20-foot curved LED video wall and three LED screen displays with integrated touchscreens. In addition, multiple vertical Planar LookThru monitor towers are located on the building columns and ceiling to add depth and visual appeal, Perez said.

Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) will play a pivotal role in election night coverage to deliver visualizations, real-time updates on election results, key race alerts, and state projections.

As part of that, the center staircase of Telemundo Center has been transformed to showcase AR elements such as projected winners and “Camino a Los 270” (Road to 270), which will visually represent the path to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.

To offer that, Telemundo tech teams have integrated Vizrt’s broadcast solutions and Unreal Engine to create lifelike animations and real-time visualizations. “It will make the election night coverage more engaging and informative,” Perez said.

The 360-degree virtual reality set, inspired by the U.S. Capitol, consists of four virtual sets with elements that create a parallax effect, enhancing the depth and realism of the broadcast. This virtual environment will allow viewers to feel as though they are fully immersed in the election night action, Perez said.

AR and VR graphics will be used to display real-time social media content from both campaigns, providing a comprehensive view of the election landscape as it unfolds.

A Facebook video showing the real-time creation of the studios is available here.

CBS Stations Debut AR/VR Presidential Election Center

George Winslow — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 20:18:32 +0000

An ambitious effort to develop and deploy AR/VR technologies at CBS’ owned stations will be taking center stage on Nov. 5 in five markets, when CBS Stations will debut what the division is calling “unprecedented augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) presidential election coverage” on Nov. 5 from CBS’s New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Bay Area and Colorado studios.

As previously reported by TV Tech, the technologies were first developed by tech teams at the CBS Bay Area stations and then deployed to four other markets as part of an effort to reinvent local newscasts and provide viewers with a more immersive experience.

The AR/VR election coverage will be led by Jessica Moore and Dick Brennan in New York; Ukee Washington, Natasha Brown, and Don Bell in Philadelphia from the virtual steps of the United States Capitol building; Chris Tye in Chicago, Juliette Goodrich, Sara Donchey, Ryan Yamamoto, and Devin Fehely. in the Bay Area, Michael Spencer and Karen Leigh, in Colorado.

On Election Night, the stations said that viewers will be able to watch results across a national and local VR map that will be driven by CBS anchors in their respective markets. More specifically here are the plans for the five markets where the technology has been deployed:

CBS New York, the only Station in the tri-state region with AR/VR technology, will bring the biggest races in the area to life in its virtual reality studio on Election Night beginning at 5:00 p.m. ET., with a two-hour America Decides special at 9:00 p.m. ET that will stream exclusively on CBS News New York when the polls closes. They will broadcast LIVE the most significant local and national races, showing the local races that control the balance of power, including who will determine power in the House and a critical New Jersey seat. Viewers will have an immersive experience locally and be transported to battleground states using an interactive multidimensional map, breaking down the results and the race to the White House. Viewers can watch the AR/VR studio results on WCBS and the CBS News New York streaming channel.
CBS Chicago, the only Station with an AR/VR studio in the region, will cover the LIVE national races, presidential race, and the local balance of power elections, bringing viewers up-to-the-minute interactive results beginning at 7:00 p.m. CT From the first Chicago school board elections to the state attorney’s race, with analysis from former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the CBS News Chicago Election Team. Viewers can watch the AR/VR studio results on WBBM-TV and the CBS News Chicago streaming channel. Streaming coverage begins at 7 p.m. on CBS News Chicago.
CBS Philadelphia, the only Station in Pennsylvania with AR/VR technology, will provide viewers with an immersive election night experience out of its studio, with LIVE virtual segments in every Election Day show from 9:00 a.m. ET through the Nov. 6th 9:00 a.m. ET show. Viewers will experience immersive battleground election results in a visually stunning, informative space with an interactive floor map that will bring each battleground state front and center as a multidimensional storytelling tool: breaking down the vote county by county in critical Philadelphia voting areas. Another key immersive experience is that Philadelphians will be transported to the White House front lawn with up-to-the-minute precision – so close viewers will see the grass blowing in the wind. Viewers can also stream election results on CBS News Philadelphia, which will stream results exclusively the moment polls close on Election Night. Viewers can watch the AR/VR studio results on KYW-TV and the CBS News Philadelphia streaming channel.
CBS Bay Area is the innovation studio that developed the proprietary AR/VR codes for CBS Stations. The Station will have LIVE team coverage of all the biggest local races and national election coverage from 3:00 p.m. PT to midnight. The Station will collaborate with CBS Los Angeles and CBS Sacramento to extend LIVE statewide election coverage. In addition, the team will broadcast complete wall-to-wall coverage of local election results on KPIX+ channel 44 cable 12 and CBS News Bay Area streaming channel from 5:00 p.m. until midnight.
CBS Colorado, the only Station with an AR/VR studio in the region, will use VR technology to report election results on the most important issues facing Colorado voters. Viewers will experience live results with animated graphics to illustrate county-by-county and district-by-district data, helping the viewers better understand which candidates are leading and why. Viewers can watch the AR/VR studio results on KCNC-TV and the CBS News Colorado streaming channel.

Additionally, CBS Stations will cover the election live across its 14 owned markets, including key battleground states Michigan and Pennsylvania. Viewers can watch and stream all the election coverage LIVE here. For CBS News and Stations comprehensive “America Decides: Election ‘24” Team Coverage Across Broadcasts, Streaming and Digital” click here.

CNN To Stream Election Night Coverage for Free

Mike Demenchuk — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 16:37:18 +0000

WASHINGTON—CNN said its coverage plans for Election Night next Tuesday (Nov. 5) will include around-the-clock special coverage from the CNN Election Center in Washington and will stream live, for free, on the network’s connected-TV and mobile apps, as well as on CNN.com.

Subscribers to the Max streaming service will also have access to a live stream of CNN’s coverage of the race between Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate, and the Republican standard bearer, former President Donald Trump.

CNN will also extend its election-night “Magic Wall” data and storytelling technology to digital, allowing viewers to track up-to-the-minute results and follow key races from their mobile devices in real time. CNN’s app will also feature live and on-demand vertical video from correspondents stationed across the U.S., allowing app users to access CNN reporting as it happens.

Live election coverage will also be featured 24/7 on the network’s home pages and live blogs, alongside CNN’s Election Center, a data-rich home for interactive, real-time results from federal, state and local races. Viewers can also engage with reporters via the live chat feature on CNN.com or the CNN app.

CNN’s “Election Night in America” coverage will stream live and for free on Nov. 5 from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. (ET), the network said. Coverage will begin on Sunday, Nov. 3, on CNN with special “Countdown to Election Day” editions of “The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer,” “Erin Burnett OutFront,” “Anderson Cooper 360,” “The Source With Kaitlan Collins,” “CNN NewsNight: State of the Race With Abby Philip” and “Laura Coates Live.” Special episodes of CNN’s programming lineup will also air Monday, Nov. 4.

“Election Day in America” programming starts at midnight on Nov. 5 and continues throughout the day. Special coverage will start at 4 p.m. ET (Nov. 5) and will be anchored by Jake Tapper and Anderson Cooper, with Dana Bash, Erin Burnett, Audie Cornish and Chris Wallace. John King will man the network’s Magic Wall. John Berman and Kasie Hunt will take over anchor duties at 2 a.m. (ET) through the early morning hours.

DirecTV To Beta Test Multiview Capabilities for Election Coverage

George Winslow — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 16:56:29 +0000

DirecTV is planning to launch a new Election HQ hub on Nov. 4 that will streamline access to election coverage and provide users of its Gemini and Gemini Air devices with new multiview capabilities for watching four news sources simultaneously.

Election HQ will feature live feeds of Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC, and News Max alongside statistics like Senate and House breakdowns by party and state-by-state presidential projections powered by the Associated Press.

The coverage and statistics will feature the latest presidential election news, as well as other important national and state elections and important ballot initiatives across several states.

DirecTV streaming customers using Gemini or Gemini Air will have access to the same simultaneous news feeds through a preloaded app that will automatically appear in their “Featured Apps” carousel.

The launch of the election app is notable because it marks the beta test for multiview functionality on a DirecTV streaming platform.

DirecTV satellite customers with a Genie device will be able to access “Election HQ” on channels 71 and 200.

Both the app and the mix channel will be available across DirecTV platforms from Nov. 4 until the presidential election results are definitive, DirecTV said.

Fox News Channel To Debut New Immersive Graphics Technology for Election Night Coverage

George Winslow — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 14:15:52 +0000

NEW YORK—Fox News Channel said it will debut new immersive graphics technology during its election night coverage next Tuesday (Nov. 5).

As part of Fox News’ renovation of its Studio M earlier this year, the network’s engineers worked to improve the viewer experience with several technology and design upgrades. Those included new augmented reality (AR) technology for anchor Bill Hemmer’s “Bill”-board showing election data, recently developed virtual set technology and new touchscreen applications for Fox News Voter Analysis.

The tools will enable Fox News reporting teams to provide the audience with the most updated polling information and voter analysis throughout its marathon coverage, Fox News reported.

Debuting on election night, the newly developed “Bill”-board technology was enhanced to include augmented reality attributes and 3D interaction allowing Hemmer to further drill into election data in real time.

With the new tools, Hemmer can interact and telestrate in 3D space, as the infrared sensors can track anchors and objects. The 3D space is also equipped with voice to text, where natural language will trigger augmented reality graphics. These new tools will be visible in population maps, outstanding vote maps and battleground state historical voting charts.

Fox News also said it has created several sophisticated multimedia presentation concepts to enhance the election-viewing experience, including a “Path to 270” map, showcasing the presidential nominees’ potential line to the critical electoral votes needed through dynamic 3D interaction. Using those tools, Fox News anchors can present various scenarios by moving virtual objects representing electoral college votes on the path to winning the presidency.

Additionally, the network developed a “Top 5 Closest Races” tool, which gives a snapshot of races that are too close to call. This provides real-time updates on the candidates’ standing and the impact on the electoral landscape, allowing the audience to visualize the intensity and uncertainty of the closest battles for the presidency, Fox News said.

In addition to the technological enhancements, Fox News also made several design improvements to Studio M, which has served as its election headquarters over the last two presidential cycles. On election night, co-anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum and panelists will convene behind a bespoke “super desk,” designed for the anchors and their teams to use during special news coverage.

Studio M also now features a two-story-high accent feature wall and a 20-foot-long ultra-high-definition media wall for showcasing video and photo elements during the broadcast. Additionally, dimensional accent walls and extensive lighting placements were developed to create multiple presentation areas in the studio.

C-SPAN To Provide 17 Hours of Live Election-Night Coverage

George Winslow — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 20:25:55 +0000

WASHINGTON, D.C.—C-SPAN has announced that starting on Election Day (Nov. 5) it will provide its most comprehensive election night coverage ever to date.

As part of its plans, C-SPAN will be starting its coverage earlier and will be providing more live coverage than ever before, with 17 hours of nonstop live coverage.

In addition to the presidential race, C-SPAN will focus on the state races which ultimately will decide control of Congress. In partnership with C-SPAN, Spectrum News will also be providing local coverage.

More specifically, C-SPAN, the nonprofit public-affairs television network funded by cable TV operators, said its coverage will include:

Earlier Start Time and Continuous Live Coverage: Programming will begin earlier, at 7 p.m. (ET) on Nov. 5, with in-depth, live coverage continuing through at least noon on Wednesday (Nov. 6).
Partnership With Spectrum News: Additional reports from our political news partner with detailed exit poll results and live local coverage from battleground states and states with key Congressional races. Also, Spectrum News+ election coverage will simulcast on C-SPAN2 throughout the night.
Live and On-Demand Speeches: Access to full victory and concession speeches available for viewing on C-SPAN’s website.
Interactive Results: Track up-to-the-minute, detailed results for the national campaign down to the congressional district level on C-SPAN.org.
Hosted Coverage: The 17-hour nonstop commercial-free TV coverage will be hosted by C-SPAN's Greta Brawner, Peter Slen, Tammy Thueringer, Pedro Echevarria and John McArdle and produced by C-SPAN Political Editor Nate Hurst. Political experts, including Kirk Bado, Managing Editor of “The Hotline,” and NOTUS reporter Evan McMorris-Santoro, will discuss key races influencing the balance of power in Congress. The production also will incorporate reporters on the ground in battleground states including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada, with live coverage from campaign headquarters. C-SPAN is expecting to present at least 20 victory and concession speeches from races around the country.

C-SPAN’s election night coverage will be available on C-SPAN, C-SPAN Radio, C-SPAN.org, the C-SPAN Now app and on C-SPAN’s YouTube page.

More information on its coverage is available here.

Gray’s Local News Live Outlines Election Night Plans

George Winslow — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 18:35:44 +0000

ATLANTA—Gray Media has laid out the election night coverage plans for Local News Live, its 24/7 news network.

Local News Live is planning to start streaming election night coverage at 7 p.m. (ET) Nov. 5 on Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV, iOS, and Android streaming devices. The Local News Live feed will also be carried on localnewslive.com and more than 500 Gray Media digital properties.

Earlier in October, Gray launched new streaming apps for Local News Live that will enhance coverage.

On election night, Debra Alfarone, Rasheeda Kabba, Graham Ulkins, and Camila Rueda will anchor team coverage from Local News Live studios in Washington, D.C., with access to reporters on the ground across 113 markets. Additionally, White House Correspondent Jon Decker will report from the campaign headquarters of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate and senior national correspondent Peter Zampa will report from the headquarters of former President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate.

Local News Live will station reporters in all seven battleground states: Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada. The results desk will provide viewers with real-time updates of the presidential contest and other major races.

The team will also provide extended coverage on the balance of power in Congress and the local impacts of the national political battle.

“Local News Live has the unique ability to tap into the expertise of Gray journalists across the U.S. to cover this historic election from the local perspective of communities and cities nationwide,” Gray Chief Operating Officer Sandy Breland said.

“The Local News Live and D.C, Bureau teams, combined with our reporting force in more than 100 markets, amount to the most complete coverage of national and regional races through a local lens,” Lisa Allen, general manager of Gray’s Washington operations, said.

The new Local News Live apps are available to download for free by searching “LNL” on Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV, iOS, and Android streaming devices.

67.1M Viewers Tune into Harris-Trump Debate

George Winslow — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 15:37:48 +0000

NEW YORK—The ABC News Presidential Debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump drew an estimated audience of 67.1 million viewers, according to Nielsen. The debate aired live on 17 television networks reported by Nielsen

The 67.1 million viewers was significantly greater than “CNN Presidential Debate” (51.266 million) in June between President Biden and Trump, based on Live + Same Day Data from Nielsen Media Research.

Reported networks include: ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, Merit Street, Scripps News, Telemundo, Univision, BET, CNN, CNNe, FOX News Channel, FOX Business, MSNBC, Newsmax, NewsNation, PBS.

About 26.4 million viewers tuned into Disney and ABC’s linear and streaming platforms making the debate ABC’s most-viewed multiplatform program of the year

With 19 million total viewers on ABC, the debate the most-watched debate on any network in 16 years.

ABC News live on streaming and digital platforms, including Hulu, Disney+ and ABC Owned Television Stations, had 7.4 million viewers in early reporting, boosting the total multiplatform audiences to 26.4 million. The debate was also most-viewed live event by hours streamed on Disney+ in the U.S. to Date.

The debate ranked No. 1 in total viewers and adults 25-54 in each of ABC’s top 6 owned TV stations.

In terms of total viewing across all networks, the audience skewed older, with 41.3 million over the age the age of 55. Nielsen reported the following:

Persons 2+ (67,135,000, 21.2 rating)
Households (45,571,000, 36.2 rating)
Persons 18-34 (6,470,000, 9.0 rating)
Persons 35-54 (16,880,000, 20.6 rating)
Persons 55+ (41,349,000, 41.0 rating)

In terms of individual breakdowns by networks, Fox reported these final Nielsen figures, with Fox News being the top cable network and ABC toping the broadcasters:

Fox New Channel: 9,062,000 People 2+; 1,942,000 Adults 25-54
Fox: 4,845,000 P2+; 1,901,000 A25-54
FBN: 295,000 P2+; 62,000 A25-54
CNN: 4,389,000 P2+; 1,575,000 A25-54
MSNBC: 6,381,000 P2+; 1,236,000 A25-54
ABC: 19,049,000 P2+; 6,596,000 A25-54
NBC: 10,075,000 P2+; 3,744,000 A25-54
CBS: 6,189 ,000 P2+; 1,904,000 A25-54

Digital Democracy: The Role of Cloud Production in Transforming Election Coverage

Robert Szabo-Rowe — Mon, 09 Sep 2024 14:52:36 +0000

During the last U.S. general election in 2020, remote production was starting to gain momentum in sports broadcasting but had yet to become prominent in other TV segments. Cloud-based production was still in its early stages.

Fast forward to today, and the technology has advanced rapidly. What was once considered groundbreaking has now become standard practice, and this election cycle will see cloud-based production utilized on an unprecedented scale. The impact of these technological advancements means that coverage of this year’s election cycle – including numerous federal, state, and local elections across the country – will be more extensive, inclusive, and thorough than ever before.

Remote Production and Connectivity
Election coverage is distinct from other live media due to the often-remote nature of interviews and productions. Establishing connectivity from diverse locations – such as politicians attending a factory opening in Michigan, an agricultural farm in Iowa, or a local debate in California – is crucial. Broadcasters and operators are increasingly leveraging bonded cellular and cloud-based production technologies to capture and deliver these feeds where needed.

The flexibility of these technologies ensures that no location is too remote. This connectivity enables real-time broadcasting from virtually any part of the United States, ensuring that every voice is heard and every perspective is covered. This marks a significant improvement from past election cycles, where logistical challenges often limited extensive coverage to more accessible areas.

The cloud enables smaller media entities and influencers to rapidly produce and generate election content, even using a phone as a camera feeding signals to a cloud-based production platform."

Additionally, cloud-based production offers unmatched scalability and flexibility. Production teams can quickly adapt to the fast-paced nature of election coverage, responding in real-time to breaking news, unexpected events, or changing circumstances. This allows broadcasters to provide continuous, up-to-the-minute coverage without the constraints of physical infrastructure.

The ability to rapidly deploy resources and integrate various media formats – from live video feeds to social media updates – creates a richer, more interactive viewer experience. This enhances the depth and breadth of election coverage and increases audience engagement and participation, making the entire process more dynamic and inclusive.

Empowering Smaller Media and Citizen Journalists
A key aspect of this year’s election cycle will be the involvement of smaller media outlets, citizen journalists, and social media influencers in reporting, commentating, and influencing voters – especially younger generations. Political parties are increasingly recognizing the power of these platforms, with dedicated teams working to promote positive messages about their candidates on TikTok and Instagram.

The cloud enables smaller media entities and influencers to rapidly produce and generate election content, even using a phone as a camera feeding signals to a cloud-based production platform. This approach significantly reduces production costs, making it affordable to create high-quality productions. Smaller news operations and citizen journalists can produce broadcast-quality content for less than $100 per hour.

This shift fundamentally changes the economics of election coverage. Voters can view, share, and engage with a broader spectrum of political voices and commentators than ever before. The democratization of production technology ensures that not only major players but also smaller, independent voices can participate in and shape the election narrative.

The Impact of Cloud-Based Production on Election Coverage
Whether it’s a national election, a state referendum, a local council race, or a political debate, cloud-based production services offer the versatility and efficiency needed to meet diverse broadcasting requirements. Cloud video services provide an end-to-end solution that includes remote IP video production, clipping and editing, and transmission. These services enable broadcasters to produce and deliver broadcast-quality live programming to and from anywhere in the world, including near-real-time social media highlights.

For production, cloud-based platforms handle all aspects of the workflow, from editing and graphics creation to communications and talk-back. This cloud-based production-as-a-service model gives content producers the flexibility to use their crew or rely on external providers to supply experienced operators who can deliver high-quality programming.

As more viewers follow election events via social media, cloud platforms offer clipping and editing tools to create and post event highlights as they happen. For instance, during a national election night, social media teams can clip and edit key moments from candidate speeches, exit poll announcements, and voter reactions in real time, ensuring that the most engaging content reaches the audience immediately.

The cloud’s transmission capability provides IP delivery of feeds from any location to multiple destinations via the internet, ensuring high-quality transmission that can support HD and UHD broadcasts. For events in remote locations with limited internet access, cloud-based transmission can be supported with bonded cellular services for either the primary feed or as a backup, leveraging 5G where available.

The comprehensive range of capabilities and flexibility offered by cloud-based production platforms give political event producers unmatched agility. They offer broadcast-quality production, highlight creation, and delivery not only for live national and regional elections but also for streaming political debates, town hall meetings, and press briefings. This technology complements existing remote production and delivery services, allowing content producers to choose the level of service they need to effectively cover the political landscape.

Cloud-based production is revolutionizing election coverage, providing the tools necessary for comprehensive, high-quality broadcasts that can engage audiences across multiple platforms. As technological innovation continues to accelerate, the role of cloud production in election coverage will become even more integral.

A New Era for Election Broadcasting
The rapid evolution of production technology has made this year’s election cycle coverage more expansive and inclusive than ever before. With the rise of cloud-based production, even the most remote locations can be brought into the conversation, and a diverse array of voices can be heard. Smaller media outlets and citizen journalists now have the tools to produce high-quality content at a fraction of the cost, ensuring a broader spectrum of political discourse.

Looking ahead, the role of innovative platforms will be crucial in shaping the future of broadcasting. By democratizing access to high-quality production tools, these technologies are not only enhancing election coverage but also paving the way for a more inclusive and representative media landscape. The future of election broadcasting is here, and it promises to be bigger and better than ever before.

How Newsrooms Can Get Ahead in the Election News Marathon

George Winslow — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 19:25:37 +0000

2024 is a big year for newsrooms with a record number of elections taking place around the globe.

To enable news departments to deliver reliable, engaging and data-driven election results to viewers quickly, we have put together a comprehensive guide on the changes in viewing habits and audience expectations over the last few years, and how leading newsrooms are using graphics and technology to meet them.

What to Expect

Ross Video’s Election Graphics Guide is a comprehensive resource designed to help newsroom directors enhance their election coverage with better graphics and more efficient workflows.

In this guide, we discuss how the news media landscape has evolved and explore the technology newscasters are relying on to provide more engaging, more accurate real-time data to keep their viewers informed.

Specifically, the guide covers essential topics such as data integration, real-time updates, and effective templated design strategies, making it an invaluable tool for anyone involved in producing election-related content.

Who Should Read This Guide?

News Producers & Newscast Directors
Broadcast Professionals
Graphic Designers

For expert insights on how newsrooms can get ahead in addressing their elections needs with cutting-edge graphics and production workflows, download your free guide.

LiveU Reports Vital Role in Covering UK Election

tom.butts@futurenet.com (Tom Butts) — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 16:39:35 +0000

Broadcasters and news agencies from 40 countries used LiveU IP-video gear to provide real-time, round-the-clock coverage of the recent UK election. The company's field units, cloud production and distribution solutions enabled reporting from hundreds of polling stations and other locations across the country. LiveU's solutions were instrumental in covering key election spots, with the broadcasters prioritizing high-profile constituencies with the most impactful election counts, the company said.

Nearly 900 LiveU field encoders (including the multi-cam LU800 and compact LU300S) were deployed by over 180 LiveU customers over the 48-hour period (July 3-5) complemented by the LU-Smart smartphone app. Around 18,000 live sessions were recorded, totaling over 5,000 hours, with over 10.5 TB of live transmissions.

LiveU says its cloud-native IP-video distribution platform, LiveU Matrix, was the backbone of pooled political content, such as around the party leaders, allowing broadcasters to securely share key moments with each other in real-time, reducing production costs. Over 400 distribution channels were used. LiveU's cloud-native video production solution, LiveU Studio, expanded the reach of interviews, speeches, and aftermath coverage across digital channels as part of a seamless production workflow, the company said.

"It was a privilege to support our customers and election coverage at this scale," said Matt Stringer, Sales Director at LiveU. "Our entire EcoSystem was in use, from field units to cloud services, ensuring that every aspect of the election was captured and broadcast in real-time both on linear and digital platforms. LiveU was used to capture all the key moments, including important election count locations and leader speeches. Our support teams had our customers backs, knowing that we had local support and 24/7 provided reassurances to our customers in the field."

PurpleTV Adds Video-Taped Radio Talk Shows from Civic Media

George Winslow — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 18:39:39 +0000

MILWAUKEE—The recently launched PurpleTV, political broadcast TV channel has ramped up its content with a deal with Civic Media.

Civic Media owns a network of 20 radio stations across Wisconsin in 12 distinct news/talk media markets, that will allow PurpleTV to offer video-taped versions of some of the shows on those radio stations.

The shows went live in the runnup to Republican National Convention (RNC) that's taking place in Milwaukee from July 15 – 18.

PurpleTV airs over-the-air on channel 16.1 on WWMW in Milwaukee and is streamed live on its website.

"Programs like The Maggie Daun Show, Matenaer on Air, The Todd Allbaugh Show, and so many others in the Civic Media family do a great job of covering politics, and their coverage of the RNC is sure to be exceptional, too," said Ken Switzer, director of marketing and communications for PurpleTV. "We want to help expand their coverage to broadcast television and reach a wider, potentially different audience than the one they already have."

As previously reported, PurpleTV was launched as an over-the-air service to tap into heightened interest in politics during the 2024 election cycle. It does not offer a conventional TV watching experience and was designed to more closely resemble an internet feed or social media stream. It provides bite-sized videos and informational text to the "purple majority"—those who aren't, politically speaking, all red or all blue.

PurpleTV said it will soon announce an expansion to other broadcast TV stations both in Wisconsin and other swing states. Matthew Davidge, CEO of PurpleTV said, "We'll be taking PurpleTV to West Palm Beach and other TV markets where people could use a purple perspective."

Milwaukee has, at 27%%, one of the highest percentages of over-the-air (OTA) audiences in America as measured by the percentage of TV households, the service reported. Channel 16 reaches 2.25 million people, so approximately 600,000 people can view PurpleTV.

BBC's Election Coverage Relied on TVU’s Cloud Production Workflows

George Winslow — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 15:07:00 +0000

LONDON—TVU Network has announced that the BBC’s 2024 U.K. General Election coverage used TVU's cutting-edge cloud platform to manage 369 live feeds from vote counting locations across the UK.

All the feeds were captured using the TVU Anywhere mobile app. The feeds were streamed on BBC iPlayer, the BBC News website, and transmitted to a giant virtual mosaic screen at the BBC’s London studio headquarters London Broadcasting House, providing audiences across the U.K. and around the world with an unprecedented, immersive experience. The broadcast reached a peak audience of 4.6 million viewers in the U.K.

A BBC custom created tripod and smartphone kit running the TVU Anywhere app for cellular bonded live transmissions was sent to every vote counting location, allowing BBC News to capture real-time video feeds regardless of local pressures on cellular networks. The user-friendly remote production setup was easily configurable, even by staff without a technical background. The compact design of the kit assembled by BBC representatives already attending the count combined with the lack of reliance on broadcast vehicles allowed the corporation to generate more live content in an environmentally friendly way, TVU reported.

“This approach not only upheld the BBC's highest quality standards but also pioneered a new method of election broadcasting that would have been near impossible using traditional methods” said BBC News’ Geraint Thomas, who led the project. “The TVU cloud platform allowed us to scale up a vast number of feeds and handle peak traffic seamlessly without investing in additional hardware. This was both an editorial and technological innovation that transformed the viewing experience, bringing the vote counting process closer to our audience, setting a new benchmark in election coverage.”

TVU also noted that hundreds of live feeds, which would typically require extensive server setups, were ingested and recorded in real-time on the TVU Search cloud platform. These feeds were displayed in a large mosaic view using TVU Partyline, allowing viewers to see all voting locations across the UK simultaneously and access custom mosaics for their local regions.

The BBC managed 21 regional workflows through TVU Partyline, providing tailored coverage for different areas of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

“We delivered the most personalized election coverage ever in live video. Across the UK, wherever you looked you could see democracy in action, live” said Jonny McGuigan, BBC News’ streaming editor. “The ability to choose from any one of 369 counts on the night meant we could always be where the story was. When augmented with our traditional broadcast live SNG and bonded connectivity, we could guarantee we’d be where audiences needed us, on digital platforms, TV and radio all night long”.

Viewers could tune into live feeds via BBC News’ website constituency pages, creating a personal connection to the electoral process. The BBC’s London studio featured a massive virtual LED wall connected to all feeds, while the national programmes in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland also all had access to the live content. The live streams were also used as political commentators provided real-time updates and expert analysis in a split screen, making the coverage as interactive and visually engaging for the audience. The TVU platform was able to output IP for OTT, as well as SDI for the TV and Radio programmes seamlessly integrating into the existing broadcast infrastructure.

"When we started planning this project, many believed the election would be held later in the year” added Geraint. "In a matter of weeks, we managed to achieve what we thought would take months to develop, and integrated the TVU cloud platform with our on-premise workflows in a cost-effective manner."

“It’s about innovating together and redefining the boundaries of broadcast technology,” says Paul Shen, CEO of TVU Networks, praising the BBC for leading the way in blending linear and digital broadcasting across their media supply chain to offer a wider variety of content. “This collaboration is a testament to what’s possible when we combine our strengths. The future of broadcast is now, offering an accessible, sustainable model that opens up endless possibilities for storytelling to audiences everywhere.”

Key CNBC Redesign Tech To Pay Dividends Across Entire News Group

Phil Kurz — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 18:17:44 +0000

NEW YORK—As the 2024 election season began in earnest on Jan. 15 with the Iowa Caucus, NBC News is deploying a new web-based controller of its own making designed to enable its editorial team to respond faster and more easily to changing vote totals, generate on-air graphics and keep viewers better informed as the primary and general election votes unfold.

Sync, under development since December 2022, is an agnostic controller that producers, playback operators and technical directors are using to control the network’s Vizrt render engine.

“Sync really unifies the way that we look at not only the control room workflow, but also the content creation workflow,” says Marc Greenstein, senior vice president of Design & Production for NBCUniversal News Group.

Sync user interface (Image credit: CNBC)

The initial goal for Sync was to replace the network’s aging election control system. Another priority was to optimize video and graphic playback, he says. However, even before the 2024 election season began, the network realized its December 2023 launch of a CNBC redesign, would be the perfect fit for the new controller.

While perhaps not immediately apparent, the financial network and election coverage share some production commonalities. Both frequently depend on a mix of playlists for any given show. Although the MOS rundown is almost always the priority, there are additional “shared playlists,” in the words of Greenstein, that address important fast developments on an ad hoc basis.

“I call them ‘shared playlists,’ meaning somebody from the desk is saying, ‘Here are the top 10 movers today. Let's make a playlist and have everyone easily be able to access that,” he says. “For elections, there’s something similar.”

For next-day election coverage, a MOS-based playlist will drive most of the presentation. “But then there'll be either the user-based playlist or the auto-generated playlist on the night itself, meaning the user may say, ‘Hey, let me make a playlist of battleground counties in Iowa. Here are the five counties that we’re watching closely,” explains Greenstein.

(Image credit: NBC News)

“It [the user-based playlist] allows them quick access as the director and the control room teams decide what content they want on air at what moment. Obviously, it’s the same thing for CNBC.”

Sync and Workflow
More broadly, Sync will unify control across the entire NBC news group, opening up several workflow options and beyond, says Greenstein.

From a workflow perspective it enables the network’s editorial teams to select various templates, organize data in a way that speeds time to air and save presets so that as a story pivots throughout the day coverage can evolve more easily, he says.

“The problem with traditional automation is that it is totally dictated by a rundown and by MOS abstracts. You definitely have reduced flexibility,” says Greenstein. “The core of Sync was to break from that and say, ‘We can very closely follow the rundown, or we can break [that and allow user-generated playlists on the fly].’”

From an organizational point of view, Sync brings other benefits. Not relying on a single computer in a single physical location thanks to its web-based design offers a degree of disaster recovery as well as the flexibility to work remotely if some unforeseen circumstance makes it impossible to work from the studio, as was the case during COVID, he says.

(Image credit: CNBC)

While currently used to command the render engine, Sync also can control Singular.live graphics and other HTML platforms, as well as additional graphics devices and tape machines. Even future production switcher control isn’t off the table, he says.

“What we tried to create with Sync was an accordion,” says Greenstein. “If you're doing a really complicated show that requires multiple operators to do things on the fly that aren't part of a planned rundown—meaning there needs to be instantaneous decision making, Sync can scale to have two operators, five operators, 10 operators, all controlling the different parts and pieces hooked into it.”

Conversely for smaller, more formatted shows, Sync could one day be used to execute a more automated control approach. “That is absolutely on the roadmap of things that we’re going to dig in and consider,” he says.

CNBC Redesign
Robert Poulton, vice president and global creative director at CNBC, headed up the redesign of the financial network’s on-air look. Work began in June 2020 on the new design. The network selected Troika Media Group, an outside design and advertising firm that it had worked with in the past, to assist with the design. (Troika filed for bankruptcy in December 2023.)

Deciding what to keep and what to eliminate took about a year, says Poulton. “There are so many elements that are on our screens all the time. So many of them are just fed with data. We were not just building graphics. We were building graphics that are fed with something that adjusts and moves.”

(Image credit: CNBC)

Among the key design goals was developing a clean, minimal aesthetic that delivers actionable information and language seamlessly to viewers so that they can be comfortably engaged 24/7. Poulton and Troika developed a new grid foundation with a square shape acting as the root of the financial network’s design language. The network chose a design placing show branding and time zone clocks above the CNBC logo. Selected colors were bold and reflected the brand’s legacy.

The design also incorporated an updated CNBC logo aligned with the new peacock colors as well as a logo font treatment using Tinker, a font named after former NBC chairman and CEO Grant Tinker.

Augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR) use is also part of the redesign, especially to enhance storytelling during earnings season, says Poulton.

“I will say, we've just launched the look. The child's born. Now we've got to raise it, and I think that we'll add on as we as we go along. But really the idea of AR and VR in general is not [that it’s] just a pretty thing to look at, but how can it help us tell the story in a better way?” Poulton asks, rhetorically.

For election coverage, Sync made its debut controlling some of the network’s AR and virtual graphics used to cover the Iowa Caucus, says Greenstein.

Greenstein recalls seeing the new design for the first time. “It was so simple and clean, but it’s also so complicated,” he says. “We really just came to the conclusion; we need to take Sync and pivot to launch this on CNBC to give it [the design] the capability Robert was looking for but not make the workflow a tremendous burden either on the operators or producers.”

Steve Fastook, senior vice president of Technical Operations at CNBC, echoes Greenstein’s observation. “It [the simplicity of CNBC’s redesign] created a lot of complexity under the hood,” says Fastook. “[With] a typical graphics device, an operator would play out graphics, and the TD [technical director] would key them.

“Well, every single graphic in our system goes back and forth with the production switcher. So, sometimes the production switcher fires Viz and tells it to do an effect. Sometimes Viz tells the switcher. ‘Hey, make this move, change this priority and then play out.’ It’s a very close, intermixed operation. It's quite complicated. But with Sync on top of it all, it's really simple for the operators.”

Deploying Sync first for the rollout of CNBC’s new design should pay dividends for the network’s coverage of the 2024 elections, Greenstein predicts.

“The great part is what we learned from doing CNBC. We're now back into elections with a lot of that knowledge,” he says. “I think you're going to see our election coverage over time get a little more dynamic from the things that we picked up in approaching the CNBC project.”

(Image credit: CNBC)

Fox News Media Promotes Scott Wilder To EVP of Production and Operations

George Winslow — Thu, 04 Jan 2024 17:09:11 +0000

NEW YORK—Fox News Media has promoted Scott Wilder to executive vice president of production and operations. In the new role, Wilder will oversee all technical, field and production operations of Fox News Media’s special events and breaking news coverage, including the 2024 presidential election.

“For the past 27 years, Scott has been an integral part of the Fox News Media family,” said CEO Suzanne Scott. “His extraordinary work has helped transform our field operations and events coverage, ensuring our platforms continue to deliver best in class coverage from around the world.”

A Fox News Channel (FNC) original, Wilder joined the network at its inception in 1996 as a field photographer.

Since then, he has helped innovate and enhance all aspects of FNC’s breaking news and events programming, including all the network’s election coverage over nearly three decades.

In his previous role as senior vice president of field production and operations, Wilder oversaw the first two Republican presidential primary debates of the 2024 cycle. The first, co-moderated by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum in Milwaukee last August, delivered 13 million viewers and was the highest-rated non-sports telecast in cable for the year.

In September, he oversaw the production surrounding Fox Business Network’s debate moderated by Dana Perino and Stuart Varney in Simi Valley, California, which drew nearly 10 million viewers.

Additionally, in November 2023, he spearheaded Sean Hannity’s The Great Red vs. Blue State Debate: Newsom vs. DeSantis in Alpharetta, Georgia which pulled in more than 5 million viewers.

In 2022, Wilder led the network’s midterm election coverage, including several town halls and election night special programming, which was the most watched in all of television.

Throughout his tenure with the network, he has overseen the production and operations for all major political events, including international presidential diplomacy trips and numerous G8 summits. He has also helped create the signature look for Fox Nation’s annual Patriot Awards, which just held its fifth celebration at The Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville. Notably he oversaw the production of Queen Elizabeth’s funeral in 2022 as well as President Biden’s inauguration in 2021 along with special live coverage of his first joint address to congress.

Wilder also helped engineer more than 40 remote studios across the country as the pandemic mandated a global shutdown in 2020, ensuring Fox News Media platforms continued to deliver news and information to millions of viewers nationwide.

Throughout the pandemic, Wilder led all special events coverage, from the presidential campaign trail and the conventions to numerous COVID-19 related town halls, including with former President Donald Trump and his task force, to the social justice protests following the death of George Floyd and the memorial services honoring civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, all while maintaining social distancing and health safety protocols. As a result, Fox News Channel’s breaking news coverage helped deliver the highest-rated year in television history, outpacing broadcast networks for the first time in history during the third quarter of that year.

In addition to overseeing all of Fox News Media events coverage, Wilder has also helped innovate and advance the network’s technical and field operations units. In 2019, he was elevated to vice president of field operations where he transformed the production team, implementing a collaborative field production unit that created news-specific environments to broadcast around the world. From 2017-2019, he served as director of field and aerial operations where he helped integrate new technologies into network coverage, including innovative drone footage that was used across breaking news and live events coverage. Previously, he served as ENG field operations supervisor from 2007-2017 and prior to that was the field photographer and coordinator of ENG operations.

Fox News Media operates the Fox News Channel (FNC), Fox Business Network (FBN), Fox News Digital, Fox News Audio, Fox News Books, the direct-to-consumer streaming services Fox Nation and Fox News International and the free ad-supported television service Fox Weather.

News Outlets Strategize on Election 2022 Coverage

sashworth@sbcglobal.net (Susan Ashworth) — Tue, 20 Sep 2022 12:57:31 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO—With dozens of information platforms to choose from (and a proliferation of often-less-than-objective sources out there) how do modern TV news outlets plan to tackle the 2022 election this November?

For every station group and news broadcaster prepping for this year’s midterm elections, one fact stands immutable: Objectivity reigns supreme. Only second to that are the technology choices and newsgathering trademarks that a network will employ to better connect with viewers and strengthen that loyalty.

What sets some election coverages apart from others depends on the network’s core priorities.

From the Ground Up
For news network Newsy, the priority is about reporting and producing from the ground up. Rather than seeing itself as a bells and whistles organization, the head of the Scripps news group said her election coverage team is focused on contextual stories, solid reporting, deep dives into political profiles and live election news coverage.

“The hallmark of Newsy is that it’s a nonpartisan, news-driven channel focused on communicating with our audience through the visual medium, which means beautifully produced packages that appeal to viewers all over the country,” said Kate O’Brian, head of national network news group at E.W. Scripps Co., which produces the Newsy channel.

Newsy is unique, she said, because it provides a linear stream available in every possible distribution method (except cable) and is free everywhere. “For the consumer, no matter what story we’re doing, we bring something that others are not able to bring free: 24/7, live content,” she said.

That will dovetail directly into the network’s 2022 election coverage. The journalists within the network’s 14 bureaus are reporters and producers who are local to those bureaus, O’Brian said. In addition to a national producer and political reporter, the network has reporters across the country in places other people don’t—Phoenix, Nashville, Seattle, Denver and more.

“That creates a kind of coverage for us that is deeper and broader, which gives us and gives our audience an advantage,” O’Brian said. Newsy also has a partnership with 61 local Scripps television stations as well as an additional group of reporters providing additional political coverage.

(Image credit: Newsy)

When it comes to the visual look of the network’s November election coverage, Newsy will shortly roll out the “Inform Your Vote 22” moniker. The network also plans to differentiate itself by covering stories that may be passed over by other networks, O’Brian said. “It’s why we chose to put our bureaus in these random places—it’s not a random choice. [Those bureaus] represent the country.”

Intersection of Data and Graphics
Heading into the November elections, Telemundo finds itself faced with a delightful challenge: how to best cover a significant number of election races involving Latina politicians.

“One of the things that NBCUniversal has done is to make diversity one of its strongholds,” said Jeffrey Liebman, director of news operations for Telemundo. “This [election] year it’s important to be covering Latina races.”

Telemundo will work with the other networks under the NBCUniversal banner —including the NBC News Group, MSNBC, CNBC and others—by pooling resources when it comes to election data graphics. The network uses several Vizrt Engine graphics platforms for graphics creation; datamining for onscreen graphics and charts is handled through the NBC technology department. “We want the entities to work together so that our election environment is streamlined,” Liebman said.

As a news organization, Telemundo knows that much of its viewership is situated on the coasts, so the network is prepping for the ability to program news late into the night for West Coast viewers.

“What was very successful in the last election was the tremendous amount of data we were able to use to really tell stories and convey to viewers what the status of the election numbers were,” he said. Oftentimes, the minute-by-minute returns that were coming in were driven by augmented reality storytelling, he said.

Telemundo’s cavernous, two-story, glass foyer, which hosts the network’s news space in Miami, could also serve as the backdrop for AR graphics to illustrate election returns. (Image credit: Telemundo)

This year, the Telemundo team has expanded that AR graphics team which plans to take advantage of the cavernous, two-story, glass foyer that hosts the Telemundo news space in Miami, which also serves as a production hub for other NBC properties. “That area gives us a lot of creative freedom that has proven ideal for things like AR,” Liebman said. “If a news program requires a camera frameup of a wide expanse, that open space offers a breathtaking background for any number of creative possibilities,” he said.

AR options may include an augmented reality version of Capitol Hill—appearing in the Miami building’s circular rotunda with its wide, winding staircase—in which the roof of the virtual Congressional dome flips open to reveal animated election numbers and statistics inside.

The network also plans to make prodigious use of LED flatscreens in its election staging. “They are wonderful for storytelling and can be used easily as touchscreens,” Liebman said. “The significant use of AR graphics and LED technology ends up being much less expensive than constructing a huge stage,” he said.

But even if you can put a lot of magic on the screen, the bottom line will always be about the content. “It’s about numbers and how NBC parcels out those graphic numbers in both English and in Spanish,” he said. “And it works.”

Providing Context
For Sinclair Broadcast Group, its 2022 election coverage will showcase its commitment to providing context that goes beyond a typical 15-second news sound bite. Its “Beyond the Podium” segments that will air as election coverage kicks off will showcase meaningful content that separates Sinclair from its competitors, said Scott Livingston, senior vice president of news for the station group.

Scott Livingston (Image credit: SBG)

“As it has done with previous news coverage, Sinclair stations will take advantage of social media platforms to gather our viewers’ questions for candidates, allowing for a more direct conversation from the local communities that Sinclair serves,” Livingston said. “We will also stream as many candidate press conferences and forums in real time on our digital platforms,” Livingston said, in an effort to provide unmatched coverage on every platform in every market.

Sinclair’s Capitol Hill bureau will provide daily stories on key topics and issues impacting the country while local resources will be leveraged to provide comprehensive coverage in important swing states. “We will also provide live coverage from Capitol Hill with our national interactive mapping to track the results across the country and the impact on the balance of power in Congress,” Livingston said

Sinclair will also continue its “Connect to Congress” series, a multimedia initiative that kicked off in February that enables members of Congress in Sinclair’s news markets to speak directly to their constituents on a regular basis through their local TV news stations. The program relies on broadcast, digital and social media technologies to get viewers answers to local issues.

Telemundo, Newsy and Sinclair share challenges facing nearly every news outlet come election night: breaking through the noise of so many virtual platforms. The way forward, each said, is to unearth fresh content for viewers and knowledgeably expand that news across platforms with the penultimate goal of helping the electorate make informed decisions.

Nexstar’s NewsNation Taps Decision Desk HQ for 2022 Midterm Coverage

George Winslow — Fri, 06 May 2022 17:09:45 +0000

CHICAGO, Ill.—Nexstar’s NewsNation has announced that it is using Decision Desk HQ to provide election data and analysis and exclusive polling results for the upcoming 2022 midterm primaries and general election.

As a result of the new partnership, NewsNation reported that it was the first network to declare J.D. Vance and Tim Ryan the respective winners of the Republican and Democratic primaries for U.S. Senator from Ohio. NewsNation and Decision Desk HQ called the winners several minutes ahead of NBC, The Washington Post, The New York Times and CNN.

“With the start of the midterm elections, our mission at NewsNation is to provide our viewers with up to the minute election results along with political coverage that’s different from other networks,” commented NewsNation president Michael Corn. “We want to approach politics and the election season from the people’s perspective, finding out about the issues that matter to them, the questions they want to ask candidates and what is being driven from the grassroots level,” Corn added.

A major provider of U.S. and international election results and related data, Decision Desk HQ provides state by state polling data. As a result of the deal with NewsNation, it serves as the NewsNation Decision Desk for all senate, house and statewide primary and general election races.

In 2020, Decision Desk HQ, whose direct competitors include the Associated Press and network news desks, was the first to call the election for Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States, the companies said.

Matrox, Vizrt Partner on 2020 U.S. Election Coverage

Michael Balderston — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 14:56:30 +0000

MONTREAL—Matrox and Vizrt formed a ticket that hundreds of news stations opted for to cover the 2020 U.S. general election. Combining Matrox’s broadcaster developer products with Vizrt’s software tools and graphics, Matrox estimates that it supplied interactive newsroom graphics that were viewed by 4 billion viewers.

Using Matrox’s SMPTE ST 2110 network interface controller cards and SDI input/output video cards, Vizrt’s software tools and graphics were able to provide 4K and HD workflows for real-time election updates. This collaboration powered networks’ touchscreen walls, maps and augmented reality features.

The ST 2110 NIC cards enable a ST 2110 system to build COTS-based 10GbE and 25GbE IP solutions. The Matrox SDI I/O cards provide up to 12 configurable inputs and outputs with support for SD, HD, 3G and 12G SDI for SD through 4K/UHD resolutions.

“Matrox Video is proud to be working with an industry leader like Vizrt to provide dynamic newsroom graphic solutions that make these important moments in history so exciting to watch,” said Francesco Scartozzi, vice president of sales and business development, Broadcast Media Group, at Matrox. “Matrox ST 2110 NIC and SDI I/O cards are built for optimal performance, flexibility and scalability, and what we saw on election night is just the tip of the iceberg of what these technologies can accomplish.”

For more information, visit www.matrox.com.

Broadcasters Rely on Vizrt Solutions for Election Night Coverage

Phil Kurz — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 16:35:29 +0000

BERGEN, Norway—More than 100 news stations representing some 90% of the world’s major broadcasters relied on Vizrt software in their newsrooms for election graphics, the company said this week.

“The goal of election night is to draw in viewers by taking vast amounts of data and making it both quickly understandable and engaging in real time,” said Petter Ole Jakobsen, co-founder of Vizrt. “It is how our brilliant customers engage their audiences and present on the fly that matters most. In essence, it is how they use Vizrt tools to tell the story as it unfolds that sets them apart from the rest.”

Nearly every national U.S. broadcaster and more than 100 worldwide, including CNN, NBC, Fox, BBC, Al Jazeera, TV 2 Norway, NHK, Al Arabiya and Mediacorp, used Vizrt solutions on election night. Vizrt and Sky Creative Agency worked together on Sky News coverage of the U.S. elections, the company said.

Vizrt technologies deployed for election coverage included:

Viz Engine—a render engine for live media, providing real-time performance, low-latency media flows, effects for photorealism and new compositing features.
Viz Trio—character generator (CG) for live televised events.
Viz Multiplay—providing control over graphics, clips, live feeds and still images with transitions on every studio display through a single interface.
Viz Mosart—control room automation that simplifies operation and advanced device control.
Viz Pilot—a cross-platform, template-based system for journalists to create, manage and deliver high volumes of top-quality graphics, video, stills and map content on-air and online.
Viz World—branded 3D maps used by journalists to build maps from their newsroom system.
Viz One—a centralized and scalable platform to ingest, manage, edit and deliver content.
Viz Virtual Studio—live virtual sets and augmented reality.
Viz Arc—an augmented reality control system, which allows users to drive AR graphics and virtual sets from a single interface.

More information is available on the company’s website.

Dejero, Rajant Wireless Network Gave Support to U.S. Election Coverage

Michael Balderston — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 15:33:00 +0000

WATERLOO, Ontario—In Washington, D.C., Dejero and private wireless network specialist Rajant collaborated on a wireless network blended with cellular connectivity to provide support for broadcast coverage of the U.S. presidential election in the nation’s capital. With the network, Dejero said that news organizations were able to transmit live video without the worry of signal drops, communication gaps or cellular network congestion.

The network, based on Rajant’s Kinetic Mesh networks, combined the capabilities of the Dejero EnGo mobile transmitters, which featured Smart Blending Technology to combine multiple network connections in real-time for enhanced reliability, expanded coverage and greater bandwidth capacity.

The Kinetic Mesh network created in D.C. for the election was designed to move and evolve with connectivity demands, as it was able to work off of both 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi with mini microwave radios, according to Jeremy Miller, global director of technical account management at Dejero.

Dejero reported nearly 6,000 hours of coverage from local, national and international customers on election day. This represented a nearly 60% increase of units in the field and more than 19 terabytes of data transmitted compared to the 2016 election.

Dejero says that it will also be on site in D.C. for Inauguration Day in January.

Akamai: Election Night Streaming Up by Double Compared to 2016

Jenny Priestley — Thu, 05 Nov 2020 15:46:12 +0000

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—Akamai has revealed live news streaming traffic on the day of the U.S. election was more than five-times greater than on an average day, and up by more than double the 7.5 Tbps peak the company observed during the 2016 Election night, which set a record at the time for the largest single news event that Akamai delivered.

Preliminary data shows live news streaming traffic peaked at approximately 18 Tbps on Akamai’s Intelligent Edge platform this year.

According to Harish Menon,—who is senior director, Global Broadcast Operations and Customer Events at Akamai—the spike in traffic between 2016 and 2020 was due to a number of factors, not least the interest around the world in the election.

“Also, more consumers than ever are streaming video, a trend that’s gained even greater momentum this year because of pandemic-related safety measures that are keeping people at home,” said Menon. “Finally, not only are more people streaming video; they’re enjoying higher levels of picture quality compared to four years ago, which is delivered at higher bitrates—meaning more data.”

Inversely, Nielsen reported that traditional TV ratings for election night coverage were down from 2016 numbers.

Nielsen: 56.9M Tune In to Watch Election 2020 Results

Michael Balderston — Thu, 05 Nov 2020 15:01:37 +0000

NEW YORK—Nearly 57 million people watched as ballots closed and the votes for who would be the next president of the United States—Joe Biden or Donald Trump—were counted.

Nielsen has reported that primetime coverage (8 p.m.-11 p.m. ET) of 2020 election results on Nov. 3 drew an estimated 56.9 million people across 21 networks. Those numbers are down from the 71.4 million who watched the battle between Hillary Clinton and Trump in 2016.

Among all households, primetime election coverage drew an average rating of 31.2, which equates to about 37.8 million viewers. In terms of age, the largest group of viewers were 55 and older, with more than 27.7 million viewers (rating of 29.4); 35-54 year olds followed with an average of nearly 17.5 million viewers (rating of 22), then 18-34 year olds came in at an average of almost 7.7 million viewers (rating of 10.9).

PLUS: Fox News Nets Largest Audience for Election Night Coverage

From 2016, the number is down by about a million among those 55 and older (28.9 million in 2016), but there were bigger drops in the 35-54 age group (22.5 million total viewers in 2016) and 18-34 (13.3 million in 2016).

The 2020 Nielsen numbers do include out-of-home viewing and connected TV viewing. Contribution from CTVs, per Nielsen, can be as much as 11% for televised political events.

See Nielsen’s report online.

LiveU Sets Usage Records for Election Day Coverage

Michael Balderston — Thu, 05 Nov 2020 14:34:25 +0000

HACKENSACK, N.J.—Record turnout at the polls for the 2020 presidential election was covered by a record number of LiveU-equipped broadcasts, according to LiveU. The company said that more of its products were used and more live feeds provided than in any past election.

LiveU says that about 700 broadcasters from around the world used LiveU portable transmission technology, including the company’s HEVC units, LU-Smart app and LiveU Matrix. Compared to the 2016 election, LiveU has reported a 35% increase in portable transmission units’ usage to 2,764 units, as well as an increase of 30% in simultaneous live streams for a total of 1,760.

Nearly 500 customers relied on the LiveU Matrix for distributing 3,700 live feeds to local, national and global news broadcasts, LiveU reports. This totaled more than 12,000 hours of video over the course of election day, the company says.

In total, LiveU Vice President of Sales, Americas, Mike Savello, said that LiveU experienced 16,540 live streams on election night.

“This year has challenged our broadcast customers to approach live newsgathering in unique ways,” said Savello. “The pandemic has changed studio environments, crew allocation, budgets and workflows. What has remained consistent is LiveU’s ability to provide high-quality, flexible solutions that news organizations can rely on, especially to cover high-profile news and events.”

Fox News Nets Largest Audience for Election Night Coverage

Michael Balderston — Wed, 04 Nov 2020 16:11:06 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO—While votes are still being counted in the presidential election, Samba TV has determined that Fox News was the winner among viewers for its election night coverage.

Measuring primetime numbers (7 p.m.-2 a.m. ET), Fox News had 11.6 million households tuning into its coverage of election results, according to Samba. CNN came in second with 10.7 million households, followed by NBC (8.2 million), ABC (7.9 million), CBS (6.3 million) and MSNBC (5.1 million).

Samba’s data also revealed that viewers tendency to watch either a cable or broadcast network differed depending on their household income. The highest income households tended to over-index on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and PBS, while the lower-income households and younger households were more likely to watch broadcast networks.

Individual state patterns were also tracked by Samba. Liberal states in the Northeast and D.C. over-indexed on MSNBC, while Alabama saw the biggest gain for Fox News. Battleground states including Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin all over-indexed on broadcast networks—ABC +20% in Pennsylvania; Fox’s partial prime-time coverage +59% in Michigan; and WGN +65% in Wisconsin.

For more information, visit www.samba.tv.

The Longest Night

George Winslow — Mon, 02 Nov 2020 16:00:10 +0000

Much like everything else that has transpired in 2020, election-night coverage promises to test news organizations as they have never been tested before.

“I’ve been part of election teams since the 1980s,” said David Bohrman, executive producer of CBS News’s 2020 election-night coverage. “I’ve run election coverage at CNN and NBC, and now here at CBS, and this is the most complicated election I’ve ever been part of.”

Marc Burstein, senior executive producer of ABC News Special Events, agreed, citing the difficulties of producing a major election-night special in the middle of a major pandemic: “We are having to prepare for anything and everything. It could be the longest night or it may not be. No one knows and we have to prepare for every possible contingency.” (NBC News, the other Big Three broadcast network news arm, did not provide executives to be interviewed.)

Or, as "PBS NewsHour" executive producer Sara Just observed: “It’s like trying to tie your shoes while riding a bicycle. We are confident we have a good plan for keeping everyone safe, but it is challenging. This is going to be a night like none other.”

Judy Woodruff of PBS NewsHour (Image credit: PBS)

Much of this reflects a 2020 news cycle that has produced a slew of once-in-a-lifetime stories and tragedies. “I’ve been at CNN for almost 30 years and this is the most intense news environment I’ve ever seen,” Sam Feist, senior VP and Washington bureau chief at CNN, said during B+C’s News Technology Summit. “We are covering an election, maybe the most anticipated election in our lifetime, along with a pandemic and a national reckoning over race.”

“When we look back on 2020 we will think, ‘Wow, that was the most extraordinary news year ever,’ and we did it with an arm and a half tied behind our back,” Feist added.

These national calamities and controversies have also spiked viewer interest in the results and significantly raised the competitive stakes for news organizations.

“There are more eyes on this election than we’ve had in our lifetimes,” Cherie Grzech, VP of politics and the Washington bureau at Fox News, said.

THE MOST UNUSUAL ELECTION NIGHT

The heightened scrutiny comes as news organizations are grappling with what might on Nov. 3 be the most unusual election night in television history.

Unlike other presidential elections, where networks covered voters casting ballots and reported the results the same day, early voting this year is hitting record levels. Mail-in voting is also expected to hit record levels, and many votes might not be counted until after Nov. 3. That, in turn, could delay results and make the process of reporting and calling races a much more complex and uncertain process.

NBC’s political team (from l.) includes Chuck Todd, Savannah Guthrie, Lester Holt and Andrea Mitchell. (Image credit: NBC News)

Technology and production plans have also been upended by a pandemic that has killed more than 220,000 people. In addition to having many people work from home, networks are using more studios and control rooms to spread out employees and are revising coverage plans by recruiting additional legal experts to explain potential voting irregularities and rethinking how to deploy journalists. Many typical election-night gatherings are likely to be canceled and travel restrictions will make it more difficult to get boots on the ground.

One thing that hasn’t changed is election night’s importance. All the major commercial TV news organizations are investing millions of dollars in new sets and technology to stand out from the competition and attract new viewers.

Fox News Channel will cover election night from a new set. (Image credit: Fox News Channel)

“Election night, for us and for all the news networks, is our Super Bowl,” Fox News senior VP of news and politics Alan Komissaroff said. “It is our biggest night and we are determined to put our best foot forward. There isn’t a nook and cranny of the building that we are not using. We’ll be using every piece of technology we have been using in the past and a few new ones as well.”

As in earlier years, many networks will broadcast their coverage from new sets, studios or facilities that feature the glitziest graphics and massive, high-resolution, floor-to-ceiling walls and screens for data and results.

Coverage will include big touch screens where correspondents and anchors take deep dives into results and augmented reality systems. Some networks, such as Fox News, will even be debuting virtual reality systems.

The challenges facing news organizations this year may also improve the quality of coverage. For example, COVID-19 restrictions limiting in-studio guests will result in using a much wider array of sources and voices from remote locations, network executives said. “This has been kind of a breakthrough moment this year in terms of adding more people to the conversation,” Fox News’s Grzech said.

Another positive development is the rapid expansion of streaming services. Their growing availability means viewers will be able to easily access a much wider array of stories and coverage, both on digital media and on broadcast networks, where TV anchors can draw on the expertise of digital teams.

The difficulties of election coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic have also forced news organizations to integrate their operations more tightly with local stations, digital outlets and even radio organizations rather than fly reporters into key battleground states. This reporting from seasoned local journalists could provide national audiences with a better understanding of the results in those locales.

CBS, for one, will add extensive coverage to CBSN by streaming 10 local feeds, while Newsy will draw on coverage from parent company Scripps’s 60 TV stations.

“We have a team of four or five people who will be monitoring the local stations and we’ll be able to carry their feeds at key times,” said Matt Simon, supervising producer for PM content at Newsy, who is also overseeing election-night initiatives.

"PBS NewsHour" will also be drawing on the expertise of local reporters. “One of the great advantages of public broadcasting is that there are over 350 stations across the country that we work with,” Just said. “They know their communities best, and throughout our programming we will be turning to a lot of those reporters for their expertise.”

BUILT FOR PRIMETIME

The complexity of predicting races and explaining voting trends is likely to make networks even more cautious and thoughtful when providing context or caveats in their reporting.

“Transparency is the watchword for us,” ABC’s Burstein said. He said coverage will explain what is known as well as what isn’t known, so viewers understand why certain information or vote totals aren’t available. “The decision desk [which calls races] is always careful and conservative, but this year we will be more conservative than ever.”

For its election-night coverage, ABC News will use a renovated studio that has been expanded to 5,500 square feet. It features 28 new video screens with about 35 million pixels, including a high-resolution video floor.

ABC's on-air crew includes Linsey Davis (l.), David Muir and George Stephanopoulos. (Image credit: Lorenzo Bevilaqua/ABC)

A variety of features that enables moving video walls and screens will provide more flexibility to tell the story from different angles. Enhanced capabilities for augmented reality and other graphics are also part of the mix.

“We will have tools to tell the story in ways we’ve never had before,” Zach Toback, VP of news and nonfiction production and studio operations at ABC News, said. “There is video everywhere, there is video on the ceilings, all across the walls, that creates a very immersive space. It is the largest renovation that we’ve done in any facility since the early 1980s.”

"PBS NewsHour" will be upping its production values with new LED walls that allow anchors and reporters to better display graphics and analyze results, VP of operations Matt Speiser said.

Univision will show off a new set that improves its graphics capabilities and helps it follow COVID-19 restrictions. “We are trying to simulate as much as possible the expansiveness of the coverage we’ve had in the past and do an even better job this year,” said Lourdes Torres, senior VP of political coverage and special projects for the Spanish-language broadcaster. “We have a huge newsroom and the idea is to expand the set into the newsroom and basically have all the elements—video walls, touch screens—embedded in the newsroom.”

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, many Univision staffers have been working from home, with only about 25% of the typical newsroom staff on-site. For election night, though, Univision will be bringing more people into the building to supplement the remote workers.

To keep staff safe, Univision will place staff in additional control rooms and spaces to maintain social distancing, a strategy many other networks and news organizations are adopting. “We will have training, special cleaning teams, security to remind people about masks to keep people safe,” Torres said. “It is really a pretty elaborate plan.”

Sam Feist, CNN’s Washington, D.C., bureau chief and senior VP, in the control room. (Image credit: John Nowak: CNN)

SAFETY MUST COME FIRST

Since the start of the pandemic, the Associated Press has decentralized video production operations and set up systems for people to work at home, AP deputy managing editor for visual and digital journalism Derl McCrudden said. But for the final days of election coverage, AP will be bringing a small video production crew back into the New York and London hubs.

That will allow AP to provide live election coverage for customers with the curated AP Direct channel and four other live channels that provide outlets with HD-quality video. “Many broadcasters air these feeds live around the world,” McCrudden said.

ABC will be spreading out staff over four control rooms and three studios. “We are being very careful with our COVID protocols,” Katie den Daas, executive producer at the streaming service ABC News Live, said. “We will have more control rooms than we’ve ever had, so we can be socially distant. We have added HEPA filters to our control rooms. Everyone wears a mask and some people in the control rooms will be getting the N95 masks of the sort used by medical professionals,” she said.

Said CBS’s Bohrman: “Everyone involved is being tested every day, everyone in the studio, everyone in the control room.” Network coverage will originate in a new high tech set at the ViacomCBS headquarters in Times Square, a first for the news division on election night. “The studio is zoned off to separate people and to make sure there is not any movement between the zones,” Bohrman said. “This is the biggest team effort in broadcast news, but we are finding ways to do it in a COVID-safe way.”

CBS will originate election-night coverage from a studio overlooking Times Square. (Image credit: Michele Crowe/CBS)

All of these efforts, executives said, will help to keep staff members safe as they report on the most unusual election of our lifetimes. Bohrman stressed the importance of overcoming obstacles and getting the story right—both for the networks and for the country.

“We and all the broadcast networks know that we need to help restore the faith in the electoral system,” he said. “It has been put under a lot of doubt by a lot of people and we need to be open and above board and clear as to the numbers to provide viewers with information they can trust.”

“This is our night,” den Daas at ABC News Live said. “That night might drag on for a while, but that’s OK, because this is what we do. This is why we got into journalism: To make sure we are here when Americans need someone to bring them the big story.”

NewsNet Brings Election Coverage to LPTVs

Michael Balderston — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 13:15:19 +0000

CADILLAC, Mich.—Viewers looking for the latest election night info next Tuesday, Nov. 3, will have another option to tune into, as NewsNet has announced that it is providing its own election coverage to its affiliates, including, for the first time, low-power TV stations.

NewsNet’s live election coverage will begin at the start of the network’s Evening Edition, which airs from 8 p.m.-midnight ET. Coverage will continue on the network’s Nightside Edition, running from midnight-4 a.m. ET.

NewsNet’s coverage will include live updates on election data at the top of every half hour, as well as additional updates as news breaks on election results.

“NewsNet was built with over-the-air broadcasters in mind,” explained Eric Wotila, president of NewsNet. “And a subset of those over-the-air broadcasters—the low-power TV stations found in almost every market across the country—have never had the opportunity to carry live election coverage before. Thanks to NewsNet, they’ll be a viable option for election coverage this coming Tuesday.”

Fox News Media Previews 3D, Virtual Tech for Election Coverage

Michael Balderston — Wed, 21 Oct 2020 18:15:22 +0000

NEW YORK—Fox News Media plans to go big with its election day coverage on Nov. 3, previewing immersive 3D graphics and enhanced studio technology that are designed to provide linear and digital viewers comprehensive coverage into the election process.

Fox News Channel’s flagship broadcast space, Studio F, is the home of Brett Baier’s “Special Report” and Martha MacCallum’s “The Story,” both of which will use real-time 3D graphics and visual effects to create a digitally-constructed White House as the set’s backdrop for presenting information on various races and other developments from FNC’s live coverage.

Graphics have also been created to visually breakdown the races in the House and Senate, including the “Balance of Power” and “Net Gain” indicators that will illustrate turnovers of Democrat and Republican held seats. The network’s Presidential Race Scoreboard, National Popular Vote and Electoral Vote count will be visually represented on the virtual set and special effects technology in Studio F. The studios’ video chandelier, which features 528-square-feet of high-resolution graphics around its 14-foot diameter, will work in tandem with the space’s video floor to display digital effects showcasing election information and graphics.

Returning for Fox News’ election coverage is Bill Hemmer’s “Bill-Board,” which provides viewers an interactive presentation platform. New capabilities provided for the 2020 election will provide a dynamic view into all election data, census data and historical data to follow different races.

Fox News Digital’s coverage will serve as a complement to the network’s linear coverage. There will be user tools that offer state-by-state visual representation of the vote, giving users the ability to zoom in on maps or look up specific data on current or past races. A “dial” page will be available to track the predictability and probability of the presidential, Senate and House races. The website will also provide a pop-out video player option for users to continue watching the channel while browsing the site. Personalization features to follow specific races and a real-time ticker at the bottom of the screen will also be available.

On the Fox News Mobile App, real-time data and developments will be provided for up-to-the minute election news, results and information. Users can also follow live update pages throughout the day as races are called and reactions come in.

TVU Networks Develops 2020 Election Production Package

Michael Balderston — Thu, 08 Oct 2020 17:20:04 +0000

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—TVU Networks has put together a turnkey production package to help broadcasters cover the 2020 U.S. presidential election remotely in the middle of the restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The TVU package makes it so that no organization needs to send their own crew or reporter to a location, with the services provided until a winner is declared, TVU says.

As part of TVU’s election package, users will get:

Access to on-site camera crews at various locations, including Washington, D.C., using TVU equipment like the TVU One mobile transmitter;
Delivery of live pool feeds from major U.S. cities;
TVU Partyline video conferencing platform;
TVU Anywhere mobile app for streaming full-HD live video;
TVU Grid for point to multipoint live video distribution over IP;
Live transmission from location to recipients’ studio; and
TVU Search for locating archived and live content

This is another offering from TVU Networks to help broadcasters provide high-quality content during the pandemic, following the TVU Project Pool Feed that was launched in its early days.

For more information, visit www.tvunetworks.com.

Election Coverage Plans Shift as Broadcasters Grapple With Pandemic

Phil Kurz — Tue, 15 Sep 2020 19:02:42 +0000

LEAWOOD, Kan.—As the 2020 Presidential and Congressional campaigns enter the homestretch, the impact of COVID-19 on TV news organizations continues to be felt with news managers ripping up plans on how best to deploy news crews, technology and workflows, and starting over as the virus injects a wildcard into their coverage equation, even as the possibility of not knowing the winner of the Trump-Biden race Nov. 3 looms.

Those were among the major takeaways during an “Election Tech in the COVID-19 Era” panel during the News Technology Summit sponsored by TVTechnology and B+C magazines. (Full disclosure. I moderated the panel.)

PLAN, PLAN, PLAN

“We've planned about five times at this point, and I think that we're pros at planning for the upcoming election, and in saying that, I can say that we’ll probably plan it end-to-end once more before it actually happens,” said Tony Brown, chief of staff at Newsy, during the panel discussions.

Brown was joined on the panel by Susie Banikarim, executive vice president and global head of newsgathering at Vice News; Patrick McCreery, president, local media group, at Meredith Corp.; and Jorge Dighero, senior solutions architect at Vizrt.

“[Y]ou know, everything from remote production to remote sources and contribution on the night of [the election] to what we're looking at as a multinight and multiday event, where it used to be just one night, it is ultimately affecting the plans,” he said.

COVID-19 is making it difficult for Meredith stations to firm up election night planning because the major political parties aren’t sure what they are going to do, said McCreery.

“In years past, you’d have a planning meeting three months out and know where you’re going to be and where your crews are going to be,” he said. However, McCreery predicted that there will be a lot of last-minute decisions made about whether or not to hold election night rallies and parties.

“I think in a lot of situations, we're looking at the use of pool [cameras] within our various cities, put a pool camera at certain places and share the video and minimize [COVID-19] exposure that way,” he said, adding that “this view here [referencing the Zoom meeting used for the panel] will be used heavily on election night.”

COVID-19 is affecting coverage from the campaign trail, too, said Banikarim. Likening the situation to “an incredible jigsaw puzzle,” she explains that the virus has made it far more difficult to assign news crews because an entirely new set of factors beyond the newsworthiness of a campaign story have come into play.

“[If a crew goes into the field,] how long do they have to quarantine? How will you quarantine them? Do they have people at home? Do they need to be put some place else?” she asked, illustrating the new challenges.

MAINTAINING WORKFLOWS

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted many broadcasters to reduce to a bare minimum the number of staff working in newsrooms, production control rooms and even on the news set in an effort to keep employees safe and healthy. Doing so, however, has created serious workflow challenges, said Dighero.

Jorge Dighero (Image credit: Future)

“What this proves is that software is the absolute key, the absolute answer here because software can be deployed on-prem and remotely accessed,” he said. However, problems with computers on premise in newsrooms locked down during the outbreak underscore the importance of cloud computing to maintaining news workflows.

“All of our customers [have] been focused solely on how we can do a complete transition to the cloud,” said Dighero.

While they won’t scrap their newsroom technology and workflows anytime soon, broadcasters are looking to a cloud-based future achieved incrementally to protect them from future circumstances that might limit newsroom access, he added, noting that cloud pricing and connectivity will only continue to improve with time.

PLUS: 2020 Campaign: A News Cycle Unlike Any Other

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, all three broadcasters on the panel said their news organizations have taken steps to reduce staff working at their facilities to promote safety. However, election night—or an extended number of days while results are tallied—will see a return to a more normal workflow.

“To be live, the way we would need to be for that full week, we are going to start to put some people back in the building,” said Banikarim. “We’re going to fire up a live control room. ... [T]he risk of being live in a fully remote way feels too great, right?”

Newsy, too, went fully remote when the pandemic hit. “We have not done a show out of the studio or… physically out of a control room since March,” said Brown. But because of the logistics involved in election night, Newsy news personnel will return.

Office space vacated by non-news personnel during the pandemic will help. “What we’ve ended up doing is actually just spreading pieces of the control room around our larger floor,” he said. Directors and producers will have their own socially distanced “pods” and connect to one another via intercom rather than sitting at the same desk and risk exposing one another to the virus.

Control room automation also has helped to reduce the number of people who need to be involved in producing election coverage, Brown added.

At the height of the pandemic, Meredith got down to about 20% of its employees working from its facilities, said McCreery. That figure has grown steadily, and today about half of the station group’s workforce on any given shift is working from their stations.

“We do have producers and directors in the control rooms, you know,” said McCreery. However, Meredith has erected Plexiglas dividers and taken other safety measures to reduce the likelihood of transmission.

“I think the reality of this pandemic now is not about what happens if you get a positive; it’s what you do. When you get a positive, how do you react, and how do you continue to keep people safe on a go-forward basis and limit the amount of exposure you have?” he said.

“I feel confident that we'll be able to pull off big election coverage. I mean, we've been able to cover tornadoes and floods and wildfires and you know, 100 nights of rioting in Portland. So, I feel like we're well-positioned to be able to handle it,” he said.

All News Technology Summit virtual sessions and keynotes are available on-demand at the summit’s registration page.

Election 2020: The 100-Year Storm

George Winslow — Mon, 31 Aug 2020 19:48:39 +0000

For an in-depth look at the future of TV news technology and how current events are impacting the state of the industry today, join us at the 2020 News Tech Summit: Building the Newsroom of the Future, Sept. 8-11. (Image credit: Future)

Over the last six months, a perfect storm has swept across the news business, radically changing or even obliterating the traditional playbook for election coverage.

The pandemic has killed off campaign rallies, reduced the conventions to a somber virtual shell of the usual festivities and is threatening to rewrite the script for election-night coverage, as news organizations prepare to handle mail-in ballots and voter suppression problems that may prolong their coverage into what one news executive referred to as “election results month.”

Not surprisingly, the 20 news executives interviewed for this report are calling the 2020 election “unprecedented,” “like no other,” “unimaginable” and “completely bizarre.”

“Usually in the latter part of the election year, the election is the story, sometimes the only major story,” said Sam Feist, CNN’s Washington, D.C., bureau chief. “But this year that is not the case. The election is competing with COVID and our national reckoning on race and policing.”

The magnitude of these problems—the largest racial-justice protests in half a century, an economic collapse that sent gross domestic product into a 33% tailspin in the second quarter and a pandemic that has killed nearly 160,000 people—is also prompting news executives to make radical changes in their election and political coverage.

Most notably, that has put issues front and center in the election cycle, as opposed to the usual horse race coverage of stump speeches, rallies and campaign strategies.

“The issues we are dealing with in many ways are bigger than the election,” said Martha MacCallum, who is co-anchoring Fox News Channel’s election coverage and anchors "The Story." “People have a strong sense of the gravity of this moment and they are looking to President Trump and former Vice President Biden to provide leadership and answers on those issues.”

Similar sentiments can be found at most other news organizations. “In 2016, there was a big focus on the horse race between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton and the back-and-forth of that popularity and unpopularity contest,” Justin Dial, senior executive producer at the ABC News Live streaming service, said. “But in 2020, viewers are more interested in the issues. You have to get beyond the horse race and really dig into the issues.”

Significant as it may be, news organizations are not solely focused on the election. “We are devoting the vast majority of our journalism resources to the pandemic, the fragile economy and the racial-justice movement that are top of mind with voters,” Newsy VP of news and programming Christina Hartman said. “In that sense, this will be the first election where the majority of our election coverage is not explicitly about the election.”

Sam Feist, CNN’s Washington, D.C., bureau chief, says the election isn’t the sole story this year. (Image credit: John Nowak: CNN)

HOME ALONE

Covering these once-in-a-lifetime issues has created enormous challenges. About 95% of the staff at NBC News and MSNBC is working from home, the network said. “It’s changed the way we produce and broadcast our news programs and report from the campaign trail,” Rashida Jones, senior VP of NBC News and MSNBC, said.

But many news executives also stress that the work-from-home environment has provided them with a welcome opportunity to rethink the way they tell stories. “If you look back four years ago, I think the mistake our industry made was to focus too much on the personalities and the tweets,” E.W. Scripps VP of news Sean McLaughlin said. “What people missed was that there were a lot of unhappy people.

“This time around, we are doing a better job of listening,” he said. “We are tackling it differently and packaging it differently. And I like that, because it is not about responding to a convention or a press conference or following the candidate on campaign trails where we listen to the same canned speeches. It is better journalism and better for the American election cycle.”

One major example of how news organizations are taking a different tack on election coverage can be found in the coverage of the racial justice issues and in the role that Hispanics are likely to play in the election. “The projection is that about 32 million Latinos will be eligible to vote this time,” Univision VP of politics Lourdes Torres said.

That is making their experiences a centerpiece not only for Spanish-language networks, but all news outlets. “We saw a huge increase in turnout among Latinos in 2018 in key states,” Torres said. “In 2020, how they engage with the candidates will be very interesting and important to the election.”

Younger viewers want those vital social issues covered in-depth. “In some sense, this is the election we’ve been working towards at Vice for a long time,” Susie Banikarim, executive VP and global head of newsgathering at Vice News, said. “Vice has been deeply embedded in issues like racial justice for a long time. We have a young audience that doesn’t come to us for the traditional horse-race coverage or pundits shouting at each other. So we really feel like we’re leaning into things that we’ve been covering for a long time.”

The reporters who helmed ABC News' Juneteenth coverage. (Image credit: ABC News)

LOCAL FIRST

With the pandemic imposing travel restrictions on coverage, having local reporters or ties to TV stations is another key trend. “We now have 10 local versions of CBSN and those have been augmenting what we are already doing in terms of going deeper into local politics,” Christy Tanner, executive VP and general manager of CBS News Digital, said.

Having that extra coverage in swing states “has been a real differentiator” for the streaming service, she said.

“When we built our political team two years ago, we set it up to have reporters all around the country,” Associated Press Washington bureau chief Julie Pace said. “We wanted to make certain that we had people who were living in a lot of these states that were going to decide the election and that our coverage wasn’t just reflecting the inside-the-Beltway chatter. That has been a huge advantage now that you can’t have people flying around.”

Similarly, ABC News and NBC News have launched initiatives focusing on issues and politics in swing states. “Once the campaigning stopped because of the virus, we directed the teams embedded with the candidates to cover issues, starting with the economic issues from the shutdown and then racial disparity,” said Wendy Fisher, VP, newsgathering, ABC News. “Now, the same group of people are focusing on the big issues in certain battleground states.”

Chuck Todd, moderator of "Meet the Press" and NBC News political director, explained in an email that in November 2019, “we launched a year-long project focusing on five bellwether counties [in Wisconsin,
Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Florida] across the country to better understand what’s happening on a hyper-local level … to better understand what we think will define what happens in November.”

Covering Super Tuesday for CBS (l. to r.): political correspondent Ed O’Keefe, political contributor Jamal Simmons, Face the Nation’s Margaret Brennan, political analyst John Dickerson and CBS Evening News anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell. (Image credit: Mary Kouw/CBS)

UNCONVENTIONAL CONVENTIONS

Viewers also saw major changes in this year’s convention coverage. Unlike 2016, when the razzle dazzle of the conventions was over by July, the Republican and Democratic National Conventions were mostly virtual when they finally happened in Augsut. All of the major news organizations dramatically cut back their presence in the RNC and DNC host cities, respectively.

ABC News anchored the conventions from New York, using two control rooms so social-distancing rules were followed, senior executive producer for special events Marc Burstein said. A reduced presence in the convention cities doesn’t make the event less important, he stressed.

“You hear the argument that no news is made at the conventions so why bother with them,” he said. “I don’t subscribe to that at all. With the issues the country is facing right now with the coronavirus and the economic decline and the racial unrest, the conventions will provide voters with plans for how each party plans to tackle these problems and what the country is going to look like under a Democratic president or a Republican president.”

Others stress a similar point. CBS News political director Caitlin Conant noted that in recent months, “major issues regarding the pandemic, the economy and widespread protests have overshadowed some political issues.” As a result, CBS political reporters have been spending more time on those issues, producing such content as the “COVID Chronicles” series of reports.

“The conventions are going to be a big moment for the campaigns,” she said. “It will let the candidates basically reintroduce themselves to America and bring the focus back to politics.”

Conant and others also stressed that the revamped conventions offered news organizations an opportunity to rethink how they cover the issues that matter to voters. “It opens up a different thought process of how you approach the convention,” explained Fox News VP of politics and the Washington, D.C., bureau Cherie Grzech. “It means you can bring in players from every state virtually, rather than having everyone in one location, so it gives us a lot more options to get more experts and guests involved in the coverage.”

A reporter covering election matters on Newsy. (Image credit: Newsy)

DIGITAL ALL-STARS

This year’s election coverage will also highlight the maturity and central importance of streaming and digital media. ABC News, for one, is planned one program for both linear TV and live streaming on the ABC News Live app for the conventions. “It won’t be like it was eight years ago, where only some people are on the network and there is another cast of characters on the digital live stream,” Burstein said. “We haven’t decided what will be streamed and what will be on the TV network, but it will be one show and we’ll have what I call our ‘A’ team on the digital live stream.”

More fundamentally, the renewed emphasis on issues will dovetail with the fact that streaming apps like CBSN, Newsy, Vice, NBC News, and ABC News Live have long focused on fact-based reporting of issues, investigative journalism and long-form documentaries. “This election year is going to be like no other we’ve ever seen, with people desperate for straightforward reporting and unbiased news and information,” noted Dial at ABC News Live. Since January 2020, it has been attracting about 20 million monthly viewers, up 142% according to ABC, with over 4.5 million hours streamed each week.

In addition to their long-standing focus on issues, executives at the major streaming outlets also stressed that their digital origins help in adapting to the pandemic-related restrictions on travel and reporting. “We were already interviewing people over Zoom and we already had very flexible operations that have helped us when we were first faced with the restrictions produced by the pandemic,” said Tanner at CBS News Digital.

An election clerk in Harris County, Texas, watches over voting booths during early voting for the Texas primary runoffs (Image credit: David J. Phillip: AP Photo)

ELECTION MONTH?

Such flexibility will be important on election night, which may not follow any traditional script for analyzing the results. “We are working very hard right now to prepare ourselves so we’re up to speed on all the scenarios, both legal and logistical, that could occur in terms of voting rights, voter suppression and the vote counting,” CBS News’s Conant said.

Pointing to a recent podcast by chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett on some of the potential issues that might arise from voting during the pandemic, she added, “We need to be prepared if this is election week or election month.”

Even the look and feel of this election night coverage may be different, as the major networks and news organizations try to figure out how to stage election-night coverage during a pandemic. CNN’s Feist noted that they will be spreading talent over a wider area in additional studios and that their ongoing move towards new technical infrastructures has allowed them to have many people working from home who would normally be sitting in control rooms.

CNN has also significantly upgraded its data analytics for correspondent John King’s “Magic Wall” presentations and will be greatly expanding the amount of data it makes available online. This is notable because news organizations have been working overtime to figure out how to do a better job of handling data and avoiding some of the inaccurate predictions made during the 2016 election campaign.

“How you are describing the polls and what that means for the election is always a fairly complicated process,” noted Micah Cohen, managing editor, FiveThirtyEight. “In 2016, polls showed Clinton up by three or four points nationally, yet the race was being described by many journalists as a runaway for Clinton. That was a mistake, not on the polls but on the people interpreting the polls.”

This time around, Cohen sees the efforts by organizations like ABC News, which owns FiveThirtyEight, to beef up their data offerings and analytics as a welcome development. “I think people are doing better, but some aren’t and some are drawing the wrong conclusion that we can’t trust the polls at all,” Cohen said.

How well news organizations maintain their focus on these and other pressing issues remains to be seen. But most remain optimistic that the once-in-a-lifetime troubles could produce some of the industry’s best journalism in the 21st century.

“Anyone can follow a candidate spewing a stump speech,” said McLaughlin at Scripps. “Really digging in and following the money, and fact-checking and figuring out what is really going on and holding people accountable, is never easy, and these are not the easiest of circumstances to do that … But it’s never been more important. It’s our time to shine.”

REGISTER HERE for the 2020 News Tech Summit: Building the Newsroom of the Future, Sept. 8-11.

2020 Campaign: A News Cycle Unlike Any Other

sashworth@sbcglobal.net (Susan Ashworth) — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 12:08:24 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO—If the year 2020 is any indication, the election this November will bring broadcast stations a share of challenges they’ve never experienced. Social-distancing restrictions, staff reductions, off-site productions and other constrictions will collide in the midst of an election season unlike any other.

The twin events that have dominated 2020—the spread of the coronavirus and the civil uprising in cities across the nation—have compelled broadcasters to make quick changes, from the technology they use to the way they broadcast.

And that includes the election itself.

NEVER-ENDING DRAMA

What with swirling concerns over mail-in ballots and claims of voter fraud, “I think it may be election week or election month,” rather than the typical election night, said Sean McLaughlin, vice president of news for The E.W. Scripps Co. “So what that looks like impacts how you tell that story.”

As a result, broadcasters around the country are taking unique approaches to news coverage, from centralized newscasting to augmented reality options.

Scripps, for one, has decided to take a centralized newscasting approach to its election coverage. With a central desk in Denver and another in Washington, D.C., handling national campaigns, the broadcaster has found nearly everything about this year’s election cycle has been flipped on its head.

“You have this weird confluence of the political environment, economic fallout and the coronavirus,” McLaughlin said. “Every day now has a kind of day-to-day news feel. It’s certainly one of the odder political cycles.”

But the strange tale of 2020 has been a good one for local news. Broadcasters like Sinclair Broadcast Group are giving even greater focus to the impact the elections will have on their local markets.

“[W]e have a great opportunity to showcase our commitment to providing unmatched coverage of the 2020 campaigns in each of our markets,” said Scott Livingston, vice president of news at Sinclair, which owns and operates 294 TV stations in 89 markets.

The network is highlighting that coverage with a new segment called “Beyond The Podium,” a feature that allows each station to highlight coverage that’s important to that market. The network has stations in Top 10 markets like Washington, D.C. as well as in small markets like that of Kirksville, Mo.

“[‘Beyond the Podium’ is a] sub-brand of the local/station election coverage brand that will help showcase meaningful content that goes beyond the typical sound bite and rhetoric,” Livingston said. “It will also provide additional context and help viewers understand what we are doing and our commitment to provide additional perspective on the issues and candidates on a local, regional and national level.”

Sinclair’s “Beyond the Podium” highlights election coverage tailored to each station’s local races. (Image credit: Sinclair)

The virtual nature of both the Democratic and Republican conventions meant that broadcasters needed fewer resources because there were very little to no “physical” events. But there is still a need to provide additional context to what is happening and like all broadcasters, Sinclair is taking advantage of the latest in video conferencing technologies. According to Livingston, the company’s “Beyond the Podium” and “Connect to Congress” coverage are designed to position Sinclair stations as the political news leader in each market, Livingston said.

“Technical advances like Zoom, Skype and Facetime now a part of our normal everyday coverage, and with our coverage commitment year round, we believe we are positioned to create unique content from all our markets.”

For Scripps, the company’s decision to set up a central news desk several years ago made a big difference when the coronavirus hit. “We built up our national desk and [our use of] content sharing and that helped us do our jobs during COVID,” said Ray Thurber, vice president of engineering for Scripps, which owns 60 stations in 42 markets.

This election cycle, the company will rely on augmented reality in some markets, with journalists out in the field continuing to meet the company’s three goals in this new coronavirus world: employee safety, business continuity and fulfilling the tenets of responsible journalism.

SAFETY AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT

This year—on top of changes to technology and techniques—broadcasters also must focus on safety and rights. The Radio Television Digital News Association, the nation’s leading broadcast news organization, is pressing journalists to know their rights when it comes to covering news events, staying safe in the field and in the newsroom, and reporting responsibly.

“Much of our election coverage guidance has been contained within the context of a lot of educational and professional development training and resources we have been providing,” said Dan Shelley, executive director and chief operating officer for RTDNA. “Specifically, we have provided such opportunities in areas such as journalist safety, covering civil unrest, DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] webinars and curriculum.”

Sinclair’s Livingston agrees; protecting its journalists is of utmost importance. “Safety is our top priority and we will continue to re-evaluate policies as we monitor the spread and impact of the pandemic,” he said.

For RTNDA’s Shelley, it’s equally necessary for broadcasters to take the phrase “truth and accuracy above all” to heart, especially in today’s news cycle. It should be part of this election coverage’s key tenets, he said, as well as the need for independence and transparency and accountability for consequences.

That is necessary this year more than any other, he said.

“This year more than in any election period in the past, I am speaking out to journalists to help them avoid spreading disinformation, the intentional spreading of false information by a bad actor or actors, and misinformation, the unwitting spread of false information by someone who is not a bad actor,” Shelley said.

This is particularly true for broadcasters as they enter the quick news cycle of an election season. “As deep fakes and other forms of altered video become more prevalent—and as political campaigns and others increasingly set up faux ‘news’ websites and social media channels—journalists’ role to provide fact-checking and exposure to such methods is critical, even essential, to covering campaigns and politics responsibly,” he said.

Scripps, which was founded as a news company more than 140 years ago, looks at everything they do from a journalism bent, McLaughlin said. Integrity in news reporting is a key tenet of that. “One of the things we’ve tracked is the trust of the local media branch,” he said. And when asked which outlets are questionable when it comes to integrity, “it’s very rare that they’re ever talking about local news,” he said.” We’ve done a good job to maintain our integrity and to stay above the fray.”

The unusual nature of 2020 means that viewers looking for truth are turning to local news. “People now rely more than they ever have on their local news,” McLaughlin said.

From the Democratic and Republican National Conventions to election night itself, much is set to change—or has changed already.

For Spectrum Networks, coverage during this year’s election cycle is all about cross-platform local coverage. For its coverage of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, local stations focused on how best to highlight national issues that are most relevant to local communities.

“We believe local journalism is essential to building strong communities and a healthy democracy,” said Mike Bair, executive vice president of Spectrum Networks. The Spectrum Networks is a series of 24/7 news and sports networks owned by Charter Communications, which serves more than 30 million customers in 41 states.

To provide the most comprehensive local perspective on the virtual conventions, D.C. bureau reporters and political reporters in each region provided news reports on the impact of the conventions at the state and local levels. Through its Spectrum News App, the networks’ chief national political reporter provided in-depth coverage from a national perspective as well as local curated content from local partner news outlets.

Now knee-deep in the election cycle, broadcasters have revamped their reporting styles and introduced new technology to enhance their coverage.

Sinclair tapped into technologies like Zoom, Skype and Facetime to provide reaction in real time to produce content that is shared among all of its stations. “Our expertise with these technologies will also allow us to access key voices immediately in all of our markets,” Livingston said.

The broadcaster’s digital and broadcast platforms also are working hand in hand to identify important storylines more effectively. “[These conferencing technologies are] a dimension of our digital coverage, which can be shared with broadcast platforms,” he said.

For Sinclair, the technology it has used during its election coverage makes it well-positioned to offer context and focus on key storylines that will have long-term impact. “In today’s news cycle, we’re focusing on unique storylines that separate us from our competitors,” Livingston said.

Bannister Lake Hosting Webinar on Election Coverage Plans

Michael Balderston — Fri, 14 Aug 2020 14:24:23 +0000

CAMBRIDGE, Ontario—Bannister Lake is offering a special resource as broadcasters prepare for a U.S. presidential election unlike any other in recent memory.

Because of the impact of COVID-19 and the potential increase of mail-in ballots, the flow and reporting of results data will be different than in years past. To help provide insight on this for producers, reporters and analysts covering the election, Bannister Lake is hosting a special webinar with Drew McCoy, the president of election results and data collection and reporting service for Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ).

During the webinar, McCoy will discuss what election production teams can expect regarding the dissemination of official results and how this will impact coverage planning, making calls, timelines and other potential challenges.

“We’re pleased to be joining forces with Bannister Lake to inform production teams everywhere about extraordinary changes in store for election data reporting this November,” said McCoy. “It’s crucial for anyone covering the elections to understand the implications and anticipate how their work will be impacted.”

Registration for the webinar, which will take place on Aug. 25 at 2 p.m. ET, is available online.

KTEN Readies for Election Season with Upgrade to Broadcast Pix BPswitch Integrated Production Switcher

Mark J. Pescatore — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 14:34:18 +0000

Chelmsford, Mass. – Oct. 23, 2018 – Broadcast Pix™ today announced KTEN, a dual NBC/ABC affiliate with a CW substation serving the Sherman-Ada market (DMA #160), upgraded its control room in August with a Broadcast Pix BPswitch™ integrated production switcher. Mark Farrell, news director for KTEN Media, said the new BPswitch was part of an effort to ready the station for next month’s election coverage.

Owned by Lockwood Broadcast Group, KTEN’s studio is based in Denison, Texas, and produces more than seven hours of local news each weekday across its three channels. News broadcasts begin with morning news starting at 4:30 a.m. and conclude with a 10 p.m. newscast. The studio includes three robotic cameras and a stationary “grid cam,” which is used for bumps and other transitions.

Steven Martinez, assistant chief engineer, said one of the big benefits of the new switcher is its integrated NewBlueNTX multi-layer 3D graphics. Both he and Farrell are also excited about the new BPfusion software, which integrates seamlessly with NewBlueNTX to streamline the creation of data-intensive CG graphics. BPfusion automatically updates graphics using data from RSS feeds, Twitter, scoreboards, and other sources over IP. With simple drag-and-drop operation, BPfusion uses templates to integrate information into customized graphics like multi-layer election maps without re-keying the data.

BPfusion also allows KTEN to import Adobe After Effects projects directly into NewBlueNTX. Previously, the graphics department had to render some graphics as Targa sequences, which added a cumbersome step to the production process. Now, the graphics are simply dropped into the BPswitch Watch-Folders media management system without re-rendering, then transferred to the switcher’s integrated clip store. Martinez said BPfusion has also “really streamlined our scoreboard gathering” for KTEN’s Friday night high school football show.

The new BPswitch, which replaced KTEN’s older Broadcast Pix Granite™ system, has helped the station enjoy more efficient news production with minimal retraining. For example, the station continues to use the built-in BPview™ multi-view, as well as the same control panel from the previous system. However, the station now produces two-box effects directly through the switcher, which Martinez said is much easier than relying on an aging DekoCast during live productions. Plus, instead of using a separate playout server, KTEN now stores and plays its roll-ins directly from the BPswitch.

About Broadcast Pix With a tightly coupled switcher and 3D motion graphics CG, Broadcast Pix provides the most fully integrated live video production systems with patented control and automation technology. From compact units to large-scale, multi-system solutions, every Broadcast Pix features an extensive toolset that makes it easy to optimize and customize your workflows locally and over IP. Plus, its BPNet ecosystem provides secure cloud services and asset management. Founded in 2002, Broadcast Pix has customers in more than 100 countries and is the leader in fully integrated production switchers for government, broadcast, streaming, live event, and visual radio applications. Learn more at www.broadcastpix.com.

Broadcast Pix, BPview, BPswitch, and Granite are trademarks of Broadcast Pix, Inc. Patented. Switchers are made in USA.

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KTEN Upgrades to Broadcast Pix BPswitch for Enhanced Election Coverage

Posted by Tom Butts — Fri, 19 Oct 2018 19:51:36 +0000

CHELMSFORD, MA–KTEN, a dual NBC/ABC affiliate with a CW substation serving the Sherman-Ada, Texas market recently upgraded its control room with a Broadcast Pix BPswitch integrated production switcher, as part of an effort to prepare the station for next month’s election coverage.

The switcher's BPfusion software is integrated with NewBlueNTX multi-layer 3D graphics which streamlines the creation of data-intensive CG graphics. BPfusion automatically updates graphics using data from RSS feeds, Twitter, scoreboards, and other sources over IP. With simple drag-and-drop operation, BPfusion uses templates to integrate information into customized graphics like multi-layer election maps without re-keying the data.

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