NEW YORK—The Comcast NBCUniversal Foundation and NBCUniversal Local (NBC/Telemundo owned stations) have announced the return of their “Project Innovation” competitive grant program in 11 markets. 

“Project Innovation continues to celebrate forward-thinking non-profits as they work to make an impact on issues specific to their communities,” said Jessica Clancy, senior vice president, corporate social responsibility, NBCUniversal. “We believe that through these grants we can not only support the efforts of these organizations, but inspire all non-profits to evolve their work at the local level.” 

Since 2018, the Comcast NBCUniversal Foundation and NBC/Telemundo owned stations have given out a total of $10.9 million in Project Innovation grants to 299 nonprofits, including organizations that are led by leaders of color and organizations that are focused on uplifting diverse communities, NBCU reported. 

“We’re proud of the important work that our past Project Innovation grant recipients are doing and look forward to recognizing new organizations that are working on the front lines to address our communities most pressing needs,” added Valari Staab, president, NBCUniversal Local.

For 2022, NBC/Telemundo owned stations in the 11 participating markets will award $3.475 million in grants to eligible nonprofits in the following four grant categories: 

• Community Engagement: Programs that enable individuals to engage and volunteer in their communities.
• Culture of Inclusion: Programs that encourage equitable access, opportunities and resources for traditionally underrepresented communities.
• Next Generation Storytellers: Programs that promote access and develop pathways for emerging talent, diverse voices and underrepresented youth to explore careers in news, entertainment, sports and the arts.
• Youth Education and Empowerment: In-school and out-of-school programs that equip youth with the tools they need to succeed, including STEM/ STEAM education and youth entrepreneurship.

The participating markets include New York (WNBC, WNJU), Southern California (KNBC, KVEA), Chicago (WMAQ, WSNS), Philadelphia (WCAU, WWSI), Dallas-Fort Worth (KXAS, KXTX), Boston (WBTS, WNEU, NECN), Hartford, CT (WVIT, WRDM), Washington, D.C. (WRC-TV, WZDC), Miami-Fort Lauderdale (WTVJ, WSCV), San Francisco Bay Area (KNTV, KSTS), and San Diego (KNSD, KUAN).

Past winners have used grant funding to: support students continuing their education remotely during COVID; provide financial education in Spanish-speaking communities; support digital, multilingual and multiethnic oral history storytelling; fund journalism programs focused on public health; and other areas. 

Applications can be submitted online between February 18 and March 25 at nbcuprojectinnovation.com or in Spanish at nbcuproyectoinnovacion.com. Grant winners will be announced later this year. 

NEW YORK—NBCU’s streaming service Peacock has dramatically expanded its local news coverage with the launch of new 24/7 local news channels from NBC owned television stations in several major markets. 

With the launch on January 20, Peacock users have free access to the coverage from NBC 5 Chicago (WMAQ), NBC 10 Philadelphia (WCAU), NBC10 Boston (WBTS) and New England Cable Network (NECN), and NBC 6 Miami (WTVJ). 

The company said that news channels from NBC 4 New York (WNBC) and NBC 4 Los Angeles (KNBC) will be available to stream for free in the months ahead. 

The new channels titled NBC Chicago News, NBC Philadelphia News, NBC Boston News and NBC South Florida News feature simulcast and encore news programming, along with breaking news and original content produced by its NBC station’s local news operations. The lineups deliver news, weather, sports, investigative reporting, lifestyle content and storytelling, the company said. 

“We’re thrilled to add the incredible reporting of our NBC owned television stations to Peacock’s unique programming slate that both informs and entertains,” said Jen Brown, senior vice president of program planning for Peacock. “We know the importance of local news to our subscribers and this further distinguishes the Peacock experience where you can stream everything from award-winning news content to original scripted shows, premium movies, live sports and more all on our platform.”

The streaming service said that the addition of local news channels builds upon Peacock’s growing news offering, which currently features live and on demand channels including NBC News NOW, Sky News, TODAY All Day, NBC LX, Telemundo Al Día, and Dateline 24/7; exclusive channels like The Choice from MSNBC, featuring original programming from hosts Zerlina Maxwell and Mehdi Hasan; curated playlists from national programming such as TODAY, NBC Nightly News, Meet the Press, Noticias Telemundo, MSNBC, CNBC, NBC Sports, E! News and Access Hollywood as well as 11 local NBC stations including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia, Boston, Dallas, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., San Diego and Connecticut.  

NEW YORK—Taboola and NBC Universal Owned TV Stations have agreed on a five-year deal that will see Taboola’s discovery platform be implemented across the digital sites for NBC and Telemundo owned TV stations.

As part of the agreement, the stations will implement Taboola Feed on desktop, tablet and mobile web in an effort to increase user engagement and revenue.

Taboola Feed provides readers with personalized content in an integrated infinite feed, similar to that of social media sites. This will include content, video and other experiences.

“Our owned stations division has had a lot of success implementing Taboola’s content recommendation platform onto our local NBC/Telemundo sites over the last several years,” said Shawn Makhijani, senior vice president of business development and strategy for NBCU Owned TV Stations. “Taboola’s products and technology, coupled with their ability to drive meaningful user engagement to our sites, has more than proven its value for us.”

Taboola and NBC News also recently extended its strategic relationship for an additional five years.

NEW YORK—TVSquared has reached an agreement with NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations—which includes 42 NBC and Telemundo owned stations and nine NBC Sports Regional Sports Networks—to provide TVSquared’s TV attribution system for use by local advertisers.

The TVSquared offering is an analytics platform that provides advertisers with same-day views into how linear and digital TV campaigns are directly impacting business outcomes, things like website traffic, app engagement, search, SMS/phone activity and actual sales.

Specifically, the NBC-owned stations and RSN local advertisers will be able to evaluate the performance of both linear and OTT advertising; measure how ad campaigns directly impact multiple business-specific KPIs; optimize buys to reach audience segments that both respond and convert to improve ROI; maximize local TV’s reach by scaling across 30 markets; and understand TV performance at granular levels.

The TVSquared service is now available in every market covered by the NBC-owned stations and RSNs.