LOS ANGELES—CBS Los Angeles (KCBS-KCAL) launched a new AR/VR technology studio on June 11 during the 9 a.m. newscast with meteorologist Paul Deanno.

As previously reported, CBS Stations initially developed AR/VR technology at KPIX San Francisco, and has been rolling out the system to other stations in the group, where they have been used for weather, sports, news, March Madness and election coverage. The L.A. launch is the seventh and the most advanced of its kind within the CBS Stations Group.

Located in a newly built state-of-the-art KCAL News studio, the new studio is the largest technology-driven facility in the CBS Stations Group, spanning 68 feet by 50 feet, totaling 3,400 square feet. It is the first and only fully AR/VR-enabled news studio in Southern California. The nearest comparable facility is at CBS Bay Area/KPIX.

“CBS Los Angeles is proud to be the first in Southern California to bring this level of immersive storytelling to our viewers,” said Tim Wieland, regional president and general manager of CBS Los Angeles. “This new AR/VR studio redefines how we deliver weather and sports – making complex information more accessible, engaging and visually compelling. It’s a game-changer for our market and a testament to our commitment to innovation.”

Stations in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Miami and Denver are similarly leveraging AR/VR to enhance weather coverage, providing audiences with a more engaging and informative understanding of the conditions impacting their communities, the station group said.

Jennifer Mitchell, president of CBS Stations, who has overseen the rollout of AR/VR studios across the network, said: “We began this journey two years ago with KPIX in the Bay Area, driven by a vision to invest in local journalism and deliver the news in ways that resonate with today’s audiences. Bringing this technology to the nation’s second-largest media market was a natural next step. This is about standing apart through innovation, and continuing to lead with purpose, creativity and cutting-edge storytelling.”

Fundraising efforts are underway for three Los Angeles-based broadcast engineers who have lost their homes to the ongoing California wildfires.

Michael Kealing, manager of engineering at Trinity Broadcasting Network, Charlina “Liz” Johnson, senior studio/transmitter engineer at Univision Communications and Maurice Mischook, a broadcast engineer at iHeartMedia, were impacted by the Eaton Fire. The three engineers and their families have active GoFundMe pages.

As of Thursday afternoon, the two largest fires — the Palisades Fire in Pacific Palisades and the Eaton Fire near Pasadena — remain active. The Eaton Fire alone has destroyed or damaged more than 10,000 structures, in addition to endangering several broadcast facilities. It has burned more than 14,000 acres, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Chapter 47 of the Society of Broadcast Engineers — the society’s L.A. chapter — sent out the following call to action in an email to its members:

“It [has] been an intense few weeks with all the fires raging in our beloved Los Angeles area,” read the email. “Our hearts go out to each and every person affected by these awful events. We are very grateful to all of the firefighters and first responders who have been valiantly battling the fires.

“We’ve heard of three L.A. engineers who unfortunately lost their homes. We will be making a contribution to their GoFundMe pages and encourage our members and friends to do the same. If you are able to help in any way, please consider donating. We thank you for your continued support of Los Angeles radio and television and hope everyone stays safe.”

Matt Anderson, a regional engineer for iHeartMedia Los Angeles and the immediate past chair of SBE Chapter 47, sent an email to Mount Wilson engineers sharing the GoFundMe pages and asking his colleagues to consider donating. Mount Wilson is home to nearly every Class B FM signal serving L.A.; 21 FM signals in all broadcast from there. The transmission site escaped the wrath of the wildfires on Jan. 9.

“SBE47 has donated $300 to each of these individuals in an effort to try and provide a little help in this very difficult time,” wrote Anderson. “These are individuals that work hard day in and out to make broadcast magic happen and need a little help from our community right now.”

This article intially appeared on the website of TV Tech sister brand Radio World.

LOS ANGELES—Comcast NBCUniversal said it will donate $10 million in cash to support Los Angeles-area wildfire disaster relief and recovery efforts.

As part of the effort, Comcast said it will provide $2.5 million in funding as an inaugural corporate partner to the Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles’ ReBUILD L.A. initiative.

In addition, contributions will be made to organizations working on the ground to provide short and long-term assistance including the American Red Cross, Entertainment Industry Foundation SoCal Fire Fund, Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation, Los Angeles Regional Food Bank and the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles, among others.

“Our hearts go out to all who have been impacted by these devastating fires, including many in our Comcast NBCUniversal family,” Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts said. “We extend our deep appreciation to the first responders for their tireless and courageous efforts and to our news teams, including NBC4 and KVEA, who are providing vital coverage during this time. We stand ready to support our employees and the broader Los Angeles community as we recover and rebuild from these tragic events.”

The company also said it is providing emergency financial funds, in addition to health and welfare benefits. Those include access to temporary housing and hotels at discounted rates to employees who have been affected by the destruction of the wildfires.

Through the Comcast NBCUniversal Employee Disaster Assistance Fund, the company is providing grants to team members in need as well as making a special company double match for employee donations made to the fund through the Comcast NBCUniversal Matching Gift Program.

Officials with Mount Wilson Observatory reported last night that the Eaton Fire, which reached the top of Mount Wilson, the broadcast hub for Los Angeles, on Thursday now “seems to be under control.”

Prior to the announcement last night, TV Tech sister brand Radio World spoke with Doug Irwin, iHeart’s Los Angeles engineering lead, who monitored the situation all day Thursday as the fire suddenly jumped from Altadena. Irwin said late Thursday afternoon local time that the fire has not impacted any of the stations that transmit from the summit. From observing cameras, he believes the fire made it to the edge of the service road but did not cross it as of that time.

The summit has been without power since Tuesday as part of an area-wide temporary shutoff, Irwin said. His main concern was ensuring generator fuel refills can be conducted, as the service road had been closed. However, he expected it to reopen Thursday evening.

Thursday night at 7:55 p.m., a tweet on Mt. Wilson’s X feed announced that the Eaton Fire is now “under control”:

KTLA’s live webcam captured the frightening scene Thursday afternoon as the Eaton fire spread toward one of the summit’s towers. Both KTLA on its TV feed and KNX on its radio feeds mentioned that their over-the-air signals could be affected.

Mount Wilson is home to nearly every Class B FM signal serving L.A.; 21 FM signals in all broadcast from there. The 5,700-foot peak is also home to the Mount Wilson Observatory and Park. In addition, TV stations KCBS, KNBC, KTLA, KABC, KCAL, KTTV, KCOP, KMEX, KVEA and KDOC use the site.

The summit is no stranger to fires, including the Bobcat fire in 2020.

The Eaton fire that started on Tuesday has claimed five lives and consumed 10,600 acres so far, according to Cal Fire. As of Thursday Evening it remained 0% contained but winds had lightened earlier in the day. Forecasters are worried weather conditions may support another strong Santa Ana wind event Monday night into Tuesday.

On the radio, Audacy’s KNX (AM/FM) and iHeart’s KFI (AM) have been anchoring continuous coverage since the fires started with the Palisades Fire on Monday morning.

FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel commented on the fires yesterday afternoon.

“Our hearts remain with everyone impacted by the wildfires ravaging Los Angeles County and the first responders answering the call during this time of emergency,” she said. “While communications impacts are minimal so far, the FCC will continue to monitor how these sets of wildfires are affecting residents’ ability to receive the information they need to stay safe. Should conditions change, the agency stands ready to support in any way it can, including any requests to deploy FCC staff to help with any communications network recovery.”

In addition, the Broadcasters Foundation of America said on Thursday that it is offering financial assistance to those in the industry impacted by the fires.

This article initially appeared in TV Tech sister brand Radio World.

LOS ANGELES—New research from FilmLA shows that film and TV production in Q2 2022 fell by 5.8% from a year earlier in the Los Angeles region to 9,220 shooting days, but local production still surpassed pre-pandemic levels; finishing 6.8 percent ahead of Q2 2019 (with 8,632 shooting days) and 2.7 percent ahead of Q2 2018 (with 8,978 shooting days).

The slight decline came after three record breaking quarters as producers rushed to complete pandemic delayed projects. Local filmmakers achieved an all-time quarterly high of 10,780 shoot days in Q4 2021, moving on to set a new Q1 record of 9,832 shooting days earlier this year.

“We expected we would see production return to pre-pandemic levels sometime within the year, and now here we are,” observed FilmLA president Paul Audley. “Resilient in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, and with industry leaders taking steps to protect both worker and community safety, we have confidence in the film industry’s ability to sustain local production at or above its historic levels.”

The feature film category posted a strong performance for Q2, generating 898 shooting days. That is a 9% increase over the same period last year, but 16.4% below the category’s five-year average, FilmmLA reported. 

A total of 9 percent of feature production activity was directly tied to the California Film & Television Tax Credit Program, overseen by the California Film Commission. 

Television continues to be a driving force in local production. Though down by 15.8% in Q2 from the prior year, the category generated 4,136 shooting days for a return that was 12.7% above its five year average. 

More than one in five shooting days (20.7 percent) in the television category came from projects that qualified for the California Film and Television Tax Credit.

The reality TV category also continued to generate impressive gains. It was up 6.7% in Q2 over the same period last year and 96.4% above the category’s five-year average. 

TV comedy shooting days were also up significantly by 61.8 percent (309 shoot days vs. 191 a year earlier), though down 20.7% compared to the five-year Q2 average. 

Commercials generated 1,110 shooting days in the second quarter, a considerable sum but 28.1% less that recorded in the prior year (1,544 shooting days), as well as 21.4% less than the five-year category average for Q2. Car manufacturers such as Acura, Ford, Kia, Lincoln, Nissan and Toyota shot commercials in the region last quarter, as did major retailers including Lowe’s and Home Depot.

LOS ANGELES—TV and film production personnel in Los Angeles have been told by public health authorities to wear masks while indoors due to rising Covid cases. 

The announcement was made by Barbara Ferrer, the public health officer of Los Angeles County and reported by Variety.

“With new hospital admissions reaching more than 8 per week per 100,000 population, they will resume indoor masking requirements, along with several other safety measures,” Ferrer said during a media briefing on Thursday.

As infection rates have ebbed and peaked, production companies have had to adapt to the changing rules imposed by local health officials. In May, the industry and the county approved a return to work agreement that included an “escalation trigger” that would require the crews to mask up if the metro area or county reached 8 or more Covid hospitalization admissions per 100,000 people over a seven-day period. 

That rate currently stands at 8.1, according to Ferrer. Although the current work agreement expires July 15, the county has imposed the new mask mandates effective immediately.

LOS ANGELES, Calif.—The Fox Television Stations and Nexstar Media Group have announced that they’ve launched NextGen TV broadcasting on KTTV-TV (the Fox Television Stations-owned Fox 11 affiliate), KCOP-TV (the Fox Television Stations-owned My13), and KTLA-TV (Nexstar-owned KTLA 5) in Los Angeles, the second largest television market in the United States and the largest market to date to offer ATSC 3.0 signals. 

Fox 11, My13 and KTLA 5 are the first television stations in Los Angeles to begin broadcasting using the new technology that is now available in all or parts of 36 markets and is expected to be available in 45% of U.S. television households by the end of the year. 

“L.A. is the largest market in America to broadcast NextGen TV,” said Bill Lamb, senior vice president and general manager of KTTV-TV and KCOP-TV. “Fox is proud to lead that effort and bring the absolute best immersive experience with this cutting-edge broadcast technology to our viewers and our advertising clients.”

“This year alone, Nexstar has deployed ATSC 3.0 in 15 markets and more than two dozen stations across the country,” said Brett Jenkins, executive VP and CTO of the Nexstar Media Group, Inc. “Launching NextGen TV in the nation’s second largest market will provide a variety of immediate benefits for our Los Angeles area viewers and for KTLA 5. The brilliant video and vibrant audio delivered by NextGen TV will be immediate and noticeable to our viewers. But along with these enhancements, KTLA 5 will be able to provide new experiences and services to advertisers and marketers, enabling the station to explore new business opportunities as it meets the challenges of today’s evolving digital world.” 

NextGen TV is a feature offered in an increasing number of new TV models, with a rapidly growing number of television sets in homes across the country. In addition to significant improvements to broadcast television, NextGen TV will also allow broadcasters to launch datacasting services to support new businesses and a variety of new uses.

A recent BIA study suggested that these services could generate up to $15 billion in additional broadcast revenue by 2030. Potential new uses include data for agriculture, automotive, digital signage, education, location services and public safety.

Fox 11, My13, and KTLA 5 have worked together to ensure that their current programming remains available to all viewers, regardless of whether their television service is provided over-the-air or by a cable or satellite company, the broadcasters said. 

TV Tech has been tracking all the NextGen TV rollouts here. 

LOS ANGELES—Reports have shared that Hollywood’s major production companies and unions have agreed to extend the COVID-19 safety protocols for TV and film production through June 30. Variety was among the first to provide details.

The safety protocols were agreed to last September by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), SAG-AFTRA, the DGA, IATSE and others. The protocols include things like testing regimens, use of a zone-based system for crews and the wearing of PPE. Variety says that the agreement does not require people working on set to be fully vaccinated.

The announcement comes as Los Angeles County is expected to move into its yellow tier of social distancing mandates soon. This will allow for indoor gatherings at 75% capacity.

For more information, read the full story on Variety. 

LOS ANGELES—Los Angeles is seeing TV productions return to the city in large numbers as the COVID-19 pandemic starts to ebb. A new report from FilmLA details that March was one of the busiest months of productions in the Los Angeles region since on-location work restarted last June.

Since June 2020, 6,585 permit applications have been submitted to FilmLA, covering 4,421 projects. March alone had 1,125 applications, an increase of 45% from the 777 that were submitted in February.

In total, from January to March of 2021, there have been 7,011 shooting days in the region, down just 3.3% from the same period last year. Television, though, is a driving force for this resurgence, as TV productions accounted for a total of 3,766 shooting days, a 50.1% increase year-over-year for the first quarter.

Reality TV saw the biggest growth, with productions increasing 96.4% for a total of 1,514 shooting days so far in 2021. TV dramas also came back strong, with 1,459 shooting days, a 64.1% increase year-over-year. A quarter (24.7%) of these TV dramas qualified for the California Film & Television Tax Credit Program. TV comedies were the only television genre to see a decrease in shooting days year-over-year, down about 5% from 2020 for 239 shooting days throughout Q1 2021.

Among some of the shows that returned to production across Los Angeles were “9-1-1: Lone Star,” “Mayans MC,” NCIS: LA” and “Shameless.”

Feature films and commercials both saw less shooting days in Q1 2021 than in 2020, with films down 13.5% and commercials down 18.2%

For more details on the report, visit FilmLA’s website. 

LOS ANGELES—Los Angeles is making progress in its battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, and as such has eased some of the restrictions that it had put in place for TV and film productions, specifically related to indoor audiences and craft services. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health says the new guidelines are now in effect.

In indoor settings, live audiences must now not exceed 50 people and need to be made up of people hired by or on behalf of the production company or a third party vendor. Live audience members must not be from the general public. The hired audience are required to adhere to all employee safety requirements and should be the same group of people throughout as much of the production as possible.

In addition, hired audience members need to be seated at least 6 feet apart and always wear a face mask. If hired audience members are from the same household they may sit together.

The Department of Health still recommends hired audiences be seated outside rather than inside.

Dining options for crews have also been updated. As Los Angeles moves to its Orange Tier, indoor dining can now take place at 50% maximum capacity or 200 individuals, whichever is fewer. Again, outdoor dining remains the recommended practice.

The complete guidelines from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is available online. 

LOS ANGELES—Hollywood is starting to ramp up production again as Los Angeles continues to deal with a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases, according to a report from The Hollywood Reporter.

A majority of productions froze over the holidays, and then in early January Los Angeles health officials and industry unions recommended that production continue to be halted as a result of the record-setting spread of COVID-19 in the area.

The Hollywood Reporter cites sources that a number of projects are returning to production this week, including “All Rise,” “Bob Hearts Abishola,” “Shameless,” “You,” “The Goldbergs,” Atypical,” “NCIS,” “NCIS: Los Angeles,” “Why Women Kill,” “SEAL Team” and “Diary of a Future President.” Other productions are expected to resume production in the next week.

As of Jan. 12, Los Angeles County reported nearly 12,000 new COVID-19 cases, almost 300 deaths and about 8,000 hospitalizations.

Read the full story on The Hollywood Reporter.  

LOS ANGELES—Television production in Los Angeles has almost entirely been put on pause because of a recent surge in COVID-19 cases throughout California, a move that is supported by unions representing actors, producers and commercials

In a joint statement from SAG-AFTRA, the Joint Policy Committee and the Producers Guild of America, the groups recommend the temporary hold on in-person production of TV, film and commercials in Southern California as Los Angeles, and California in total, have seen record number of COVID-19 cases in recent days.

“Southern California hospitals are facing a crisis the likes of which we have never seen before,” said SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris. “Patients are dying in ambulances waiting for treatment because hospital emergency rooms are overwhelmed. This is not a safe environment for in-person production right now.”

In a separate message to its members, the PGA offered the following statement:

“We take the health and safety of our members, cast, crew and community very seriously. As a result of the COVID surge and lack of hospital capacity, we encourage everyone currently shooting in Southern CA to delay production until the county health officials indicate it's safe to resume. While we realize these are tough times and this is a tough decision, producers must and do serve as leaders both on our productions and in the community at large. Hopefully, we will be back to work soon.”

According to SAG-AFTRA, and reports from Variety, major studios and streamers were already on production hiatus in Southern California until at least mid-January. In addition, TV talk shows based in Los Angeles, including “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and CBS’ “The Late Late Show” have reverted to at-home production after previously being back in their studio spaces, according to Deadline.

CNBC reports that on Sunday, Jan. 3, more than 45,000 new cases were reported in California, with about 12,400 of them coming from Los Angeles County.

At the moment, the hope is that productions will only be shut down for one or two weeks, but no definitive return date has been set.

UPDATED 11/25, 5:38 p.m.: After initially saying that on-location productions taking place after 10 p.m. would be banned for the next month, Los Angeles officials have decided to instead simply urge producers to pause any such shoots for the next month.

LOS ANGELES—Amid rising COVID-19 cases and a state issued stay-at-home order, the city of Los Angeles has put a freeze on overnight location productions within the city for the next month, according to a report from Variety.

California’s state-wide stay-at-home order went into effect on Nov. 21 and is designed to pause all non-essential work and gatherings from 10 p.m.-5 a.m. each night. It is scheduled to run until Dec. 21. 

California has dubbed workers supporting the television, film and commercial industry essential to its state’s infrastructure, but these new restrictions are in response to rising COVID-19 cases.

Los Angeles government officials say that filming will be permitted only from 7 a.m.-10 p.m. in residential areas and from 5 a.m.-10 p.m. in commercial areas. No work can be done before or after these times, including setup and breakdowns. Any previous permits for after-hours filming during this order have been rescinded.

Production halted across the industry when the pandemic first began in March. Los Angeles first allowed production to resume in June.

More information is available on Variety. 

IZMIR, Turkey—Zero Density, a provider of virtual studio production tools, is setting up a new office in Los Angeles. The Hollywood office, which is set to open in September, will be led by Zero Density's former business development manager for Europe and APAC, Umut Özdemir, who has been appointed West Coast territory manager.

“I’ve been with Zero Density from the beginning and had the pleasure to recruit new regions to ZD’s vast network,” said Özdemir. “Today, I am excited to be assigned at such an important region to work with talented creative professionals to tell their stories in the most immersive way possible. Furthermore, I’ll dedicate myself to solidify partner and user relationships as well as introducing our ground-breaking product arsenal firsthand.”

The Hollywood office will expand its team and offer all Zero Density product suites alongside on-site supervision, technical consultancy and other services.

For more information, visit www.zerodensity.tv.  

LOS ANGELES—FilmLA, the partner film office for the City and County of Los Angeles and other local jurisdictions, reported this week that overall on-location production declined 97.8% during the April-June quarter, compared to a year ago. The county’s lockdown in response to the coronavirus pandemic resulted in just 194 “Shoot Days” during the quarter, marking the lowest filming levels on record. By State and County order, production remained shut down from March 20 to June 15.

Although State and County officials gave film production the green light to resume in late June, the return to work to-date has been gradual and cautious, FilmLA said. The COVID-19 pandemic affected all industry sectors in the second quarter, including the region’s primary production sector, television (down 98.2% to 52 SD) and secondary production sector, commercials (down 95.5% to 58 SD). Feature film production, the third-largest industry segment also took a hit (down 99.7% to 3 SD).

“The first shutdowns we saw in March were voluntary, and it was hoped they could be temporary,” FilmLA said. “Looking back, it was hard to imagine the impact the pandemic would have on entertainment projects in progress, and the economic security of local cast, crew, and production vendors.

“The good news is that production is starting to responsibly return, with advertising shoots, commercials and limited television production now coming online. All permitted filming must comply with Health Orders as issued by County authorities. The measure of compliance we’re seeing is a real help in keeping the industry on the road to recovery.”

LOS ANGELES—TV and film production will get the greenlight to return on Friday, June 12, in Los Angeles, according to a report by Variety.

Los Angeles County is expected to release its guidelines for production on June 11, following an announcement last week from the California Department of Public Health that productions could return as of June 12, subject to approval from local authorities.

However, despite the go-ahead, production is not expected to begin ramping up again until July and August. This is because entertainment production unions must agree to job-by-job protocols. 

An industry white paper was released last week that introduced general guidelines for resuming production, including social distancing, regular COVID-19 testing, temperature screenings, symptom monitoring and the use of masks and other protective equipment.

Most TV productions have been either shut down or limited to remote production since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

More information is available on Variety. 

LOS ANGELES—NEP Group’s NEP Broadcast Services, which serves as a production partner for live sports and entertainment producers, is heading to Los Angeles and a larger facility to support its West Coast operations.

The 108,000-square-foot facility will serve as the base for remote production technology provider NEP U.S. Mobile Units, including the NEP Denail team, and broadcast solutions and equipment rentals company Bexel. The site will support sales efforts, rental operations, client demos, engineering and technical management and mobile units. It will also have access to NEP’s worldwide pool of resources.

“The co-location of NEP U.S. Mobile Units and Bexel will cultivate our full potential as a combined team under NEP Broadcast Services,” said Howard Rosenthal, president, U.S. Broadcast Services for NEP. “This new facility optimizes NEP’s unified ‘One Team’ approach to supporting clients with unmatched, dedicated talent, innovative technology and access to our global resources.”

The new facility is located at 7850 Ruffner Ave. in Van Nuys, Calif.

NEW YORK—The free, non-profit online TV station streaming service Locast has added a pair of major markets to its offerings, announcing that its services are launching in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Using a legal carveout for non-profit retransmissions, Locast will be able to provide streams of more than 80 local stations between the two markets to users phones, tablets, computers and other smart devices. Locast says that it is now available in 13 cities and 35 million homes, representing 31% of the U.S. market.

For the full story, read TVT's sister publication B&C's website.

LOS ANGELES—Residents of Los Angeles will now be able to access its local CBS-owned stations via a live stream on CBSN Los Angeles, courtesy of CBS Television Stations and CBS Interactive. This is the second such streaming service that CBS has launched, previously doing so in with CBSN New York in December 2018.

CBSN Los Angeles will feature 24/7 streams of KCBS and KCAL, including the stations’ regularly scheduled newscasts, coverage of live breaking news, a library of local news content and additional weekday one-hour newscasts produced exclusively for the platform. The news teams will include KCBS and KCAL’s anchors and reporters, as well as a team of journalists working exclusively for CBSN Los Angeles.

The streaming news service will be available for viewers through CBSN, on CBSNews.com and on the CBS News app on mobile and connected TV devices. It can also be viewed through CBSLosAngeles.com and the CBS Local mobile app.

“As we have proven with the success of CBSN New York, the need to deliver, local, relevant and useful information regardless of device or platform continues to grow,” said Adam Wiener, EVP/GM of CBS Local Digital Media.

CBS Television Stations and CBS Interactive are continuing to develop CBSN streaming services for additional markets, with plans to roll out in Boston and San Francisco later in 2019.

CADILLAC, Mich.—NewsNet, a 24/7 news channel that launched on Jan. 1 of this year, is continuing to expand its reach to viewers across the country, announcing that it has recently debuted on stations in Los Angeles and New York. Now the channel is available in the top three markets in the country, and six of the top 10, according to a press release.

NewsNet went on-air in Los Angeles on KFLA channel 8.1 in April. In May, NewsNet debuted on WJLP channel 33.6 in New York.

When NewsNet launched in January, it was on 18 TV stations, including in Chicago, Houston, San Francisco and Detroit. It is now being carried by 36 affiliates across the nation, with five additional stations reportedly set to air it in the coming weeks.

Eric Wotila, president of NewsNet, says that the channel now reaches more than 25% of households nationwide via an antenna. It is also available via streaming through mobile apps and OTT apps.