LAS VEGAS—News channel NEWSnet has announced plans to invest $50 million in new studios, technology and programming to advance its presence in the broadcast and streaming news markets. NEWSnet is exhibiting for the first time at the 2022 NAB Show in Las Vegas, April 24-27.

Launched in 2019, NEWSnet is the first 24/7 news channel available both over-the-air and via OTT streaming. NEWSnet can be found OTA in nearly 60 markets nationwide and online via fuboTV, Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV and mobile apps.

NEWSnet was recently purchased by Manoj Bhargava, founder of 5-hour ENERGY and the largest shareholder of Gray Television. For NEWSnet, Bhargava has set aside an additional $50 million investment for content creation and production. Founder Eric Wotila remains as president and part owner. 

In addition to showcasing its 24/7 news product, NEWSnet will unveil "The Weather Report," which provides OTA stations with turnkey localized forecasts presented by the network’s weather team, delivered ready-to-air within stations’ newscasts, lowering an OTA station’s weather costs, the company said. 

NEWSnet also will provide details on a new barter system that will offer more economic options for local over-the-air broadcasters and MVPDs, as well as custom newsroom solutions that provide a cost-effective and quality local newscast for any size market. 

“Having NEWSnet in your OTA or over-the-top (OTT) channel lineup helps attract and keep viewers, and can lower your costs and improve your bottom line,” said Wotila.

NEWSnet recently began construction of additional studios in Farmington Hills, Mich., with plans to significantly expand its news team.

CADILLAC, Mich.—NewsNet has launched a free content-sharing service that allows local TV stations to access stories of regional and national interest while sharing their own video with other stations.

The service, NewsNet Wire, aims to help local stations save money during today’s challenging economic environment while giving them access to news video they otherwise might not be able to get, NewsNet said.

“In this day and age, we’ve found that stations are looking for more content while dealing with tight budgets,” said Eric Wotila, president of NewsNet, “That’s why we’re initially launching NewsNet Wire as a service that’s absolutely free to stations affiliating with the service.”

Independent stations with limited access to video from outside their markets, station groups and network affiliates looking to supplement their existing video sources, radio stations, newspapers and online publications all have access to the new service, NewsNet said.

“We recognize that many newspapers and radio stations are eager to add more video content to their web sites and social media, and these same outlets have been producing extraordinary local video content already,” said Wotila. “NewsNet Wire aims to fill a gap for not just TV stations, but other outlets in need of video content—and we are doing so in the most affordable way possible.”

Separate from NewsNet Wire, NewsNet continues to increase its base of affiliates taking its 24/7 new channel, which is now available in more than 50 markets around the country, including New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago.

To learn more, email NewsNet.

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.”

CADILLAC, Mich.—The NewsNet 24/7 news channel looks to help keep communities informed about the latest information regarding the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic by offering short-term affiliations to local TV stations.

“We understand that some stations who are interested in keeping the public up-to-date about the COVID-19 pandemic don’t have the bandwidth to commit to carrying a 24/7 news subchannel long term,” said Eric Wolita, president of NewsNet. “So, during this national emergency, we’re offering NewsNet to any station that would like to carry it on a subchannel with no long-term commitment.”

NewsNet says that stations can carry the network for a few weeks or even months, depending on their need. It can also provide loaner receivers if needed.

Stations interested in getting a short-term affiliation with NewsNet can email affiliates@yournewsnet.com.  

MIAMI—NewsNet is heading down to South Beach, as the 24/7 news channel has announced that it will now be available in Miami through WDFL.

Launched in 2019, NewsNet is a 24-hour news channel that uses the “news wheel” format, providing the major headlines every half hour and avoiding talk and opinion-based programming.

WDFL, which is available as an over-the-air channel, will broadcast NewsNet on its flagship channel, 18.1.

With this new addition, NewsNet says that is available in 45 markets across the country, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

CADILLAC, Mich.—The 24-hour news Diginet NewsNet debuted its new on-air look from its new studios, the headline news channel announced this week.

Broadcasting from a new facility under construction since May, NewsNet has deployed a variety of new technology, including LED lighting that changes colors for different dayparts, multiple video monitors and a state-of-the-art weather center, which will allow for more in-depth forecasting, the broadcaster said.

As part of its makeover, the broadcaster has revamped its “NewsNet Mornings” morning show, which is hosted by Samana Sheikh.

“The new ‘NewsNet Mornings’ provides an even fresher, more energetic look at the morning’s headlines than our previous ‘Morning Edition,’ but we’re just getting started,” said NewsNet President Eric Wotila, “In the coming weeks and months, we plan to show off even more of the features of our new facility, all of which will allow us to bring viewers even more news, more often than ever before.”

The broadcaster also has changed its afternoon lineup. Previously, “NewsNet Midday Edition” aired from noon till 7 p.m., but now airs from noon till 4 p.m. EDT. “NewsNet Continuing Coverage” now airs from 4 p.m. till 8 p.m. EDT, the broadcaster said.

“Charlie Tinker will continue to cover the latest national headlines throughout the afternoon hours, but both ‘Midday Edition’ and ‘Continuing Coverage’ have a whole new look thanks to our new set, and a new graphics package which debuted today,” explained Wotila.

Besides its national broadcasters, the new NewsNet facilities will make it possible for the network to produce local news cut-ins for affiliates—many of which have limited of no news production capabilities.

“With the launch of our new facility, we’ll soon be expanding on the local content production services available to our affiliates—making it extremely economical for small stations to add not only 24/7 national news to their subchannel lineups, but create their very own, localized 24/7 news channels as well,” said Wotila.

Stations interested in learning more about NewsNet affiliations or subscriptions can request information by emailing: email affiliates@yournewsnet.com.

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.

CADILLAC, Mich.—The new 24-hour news network NewsNet is expanding its Michigan facilities, a 2,200-square-foot space it shares with local stations.

Construction is underway on a new 3,500-square-foot addition that will feature three studios, each with their own control room, as well as a state-of-the-art master control room that will oversee the operations of NewsNet and Freelance Television Broadcasting’s local stations, WMNN and WXII-LP.

“When we launched NewsNet, we wanted to operate ‘lean and mean’ from the existing facilities of our local TV stations with the idea that we would add additional space once the network was on-air,” said Eric Wotila, president of NewsNet. “Now that we’re up and running, we’re thrilled to be moving forward with this new addition, which will benefit NewsNet as well as our local stations.”

The new studio space for NewsNet is expected to be completed by the fall of 2019.

The new year rang in a brand new news service with the goal of removing the shouting pundits and endless panel discussions that make up most of today’s news networks in favor of getting back to a just-the-facts style of broadcasts. NewsNet, which launched its 24/7 network on Jan. 1, has seen a strong response to that format, according to Eric Wotila, NewsNet’s president.

Wotila spoke with TV Technology about the first two-plus months of NewsNet, its expansion and how networks have been able to utilize it thus far.

(The following is an edited version of the conversation.)

TV TECHNOLOGY:How has the rollout been going?

ERIC WOTILA: It has been absolutely phenomenal. We have had nothing but positive feedback both from viewers and affiliates. We’ve been continuing to expand the affiliate list on a weekly basis. I’d say we’ve been signing on roughly one or two affiliates a week, either getting actually on air or finalizing new deals. A lot of interesting stations and networks.

TVT:How many stations do you currently have? Any in prominent markets?

WOTILA: I believe we’re on 30 stations right now. Our biggest market right now is Chicago. We’re on in the Los Angeles DMA, kind of on the edge of the DMA, but we’re not in the Los Angeles Metro yet; that’s something we’re working on. Houston, Texas; San Francisco, Calif.; Detroit, Michigan; Orlando, Fla., is a recent addition, which is a larger market. And the list goes on from there.

TVT:How many affiliates are diginets?

WOTILA: Almost all of our affiliations are diginets. We do have Denver, Colo. So in Denver, we are on KCDO Channel 3 part time on their .1. So they carry us a few hours a day in blocks. And other than that, for the most part, most of our stations we’re on a .2, .3, etc., there are a couple that are carrying us on their primary subchannel.

TVT:What have been some of the biggest challenges so far?

WOTILA: The biggest challenges that we have faced have really been just rapid expansion. We’re very, very pleased the feedback we’ve gotten again from the affiliates and from the viewers. We’re trying to roll out into more markets, we’re also trying to beef up our staffing to produce more updates per day.

Right now, by design, a few times a day we kind of completely refresh our news wheel, and if big things break between then we do updates in between. But we’ve been trying to add more staff so we can really not only turn out more updates per day as they’re needed and a little more easily where we’re not straining resources, but also we would like to continue to expand the amount of content we’re producing originally as opposed to utilizing video from wire services, for instance.

TVT:Are affiliates producing local original content to share nationally?

WOTILA: I’m not entirely sure of the number of affiliates that are producing original content. We definitely do have numerous affiliates that are. Within our affiliation agreements, all of our affiliates are allowed to produce local news breaks and insert that in; in fact we provide tools for them to do so. We provide a graphics package and their music and everything, so they don’t have to go through all the steps of putting it together. A lot of stuff is provided to them to help make that process simpler.

I know our Baton Rouge, [La.], affiliate, WLST, has been very, very into the local news production. I know they’ve been doing local news breaks from day one, very committed to that local presence. I know we have several other affiliates that either are or have talked about producing local news breaks. Some of them are in the process of taking off and running it; they wanted to get NewsNet on air and then worry about inserts later.

So far, when affiliates are producing local content they are just airing it on their own station. Though we are in the process of working with our affiliates that are producing local content to contribute back to the network levels, so if something big happens and they can get footage of it, again, we will have more of our affiliates providing content to us that will air nationally.

TVT:What has changed in technology in recent years to help NewsNet get off the ground?

WOTILA: Technology has absolutely been instrumental in what we’ve been doing, especially on the local level. NewsNet grew out of our local 24-hour news operation here in northern Michigan and the 24-hour news operations we’ve helped build in Nebraska and other markets. The technology behind this, the channel-in-a-box type solutions, the digital jukebox equipment, video servers being able to be set up in kind of a jukebox format where we’re not having to sit down and record stuff in a loop. Of course, this technology has been around since the 90s, but I think it’s become more affordable, the solutions have become more advanced and we’re really able to do an incredible amount with the hardware that’s now available on a budget that was unheard of a few years ago.

On the same note, for newsgathering, IP delivery of content to us. Being able to film something and uplink it over a cellphone now, which is the way it’s done, even five years ago that was unheard of or barely heard of. We have a satellite truck, we don’t use it. We find the best way to do things is IP, internet. And that IP infrastructure is really making it affordable to do what we’re doing.

TVT:How did NATPE go?

WOTILA: I was there primarily for affiliate relations with NewsNet. Within a couple of weeks I should be able to talk about a couple of the deals we’ve been working to close from NATPE. I can say, we’re very excited to be working with and partnering with some stations in some larger markets that are going to be adding NewsNet.

And aside from bringing some deals together at NATPE, we had a lot of buzz, a lot of interest in the network from everyone we talked to. That was of course two or three weeks after we launched. I’ve just heard the buzz about us continue and continue to increase. I’m approached on a daily basis by people, stations and viewers that have just recently heard of us and love what we’re doing and that’s what we saw at NATPE. I think at NATPE it was a little bit of ok this is new, what’s this? OK, we’ve seen the demo, we like it. And now, a month and a half later, we’re getting to the point where people are like ok this is really cool, I’ve heard of this, I want to be a part of this.

CADILLAC, MICH.—NewsNet, a new 24-hour news network, has launched with affiliates in 18 markets, including Chicago, Houston, San Francisco and Detroit, the company announced today.

“Over the past few years, we heard constant complaints about the state of existing 24-hour news channels—particularly their focus on opinion-based programming,” explained Eric Wotila, president of NewsNet, “We’re thrilled to have brought back a news channel with a straight-to-the-facts, headline-driven format, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.”

The new news network relies on a traditional news wheel format. Headlines are presented at the top of each hour, followed by weather, sports and feature stories from around the country. In some markets, the feature stories are pre-empted by local news updates.

NewsNet affiliates broadcast over the air on auxiliary channels (also known as "diginets"). It is also available on iPhone and Android devices, and will be launching later in January as an OTT app on Roku, Amazon, Fire TV and Apple TV.

[Read: Broadcast Entrepreneur Turns To Crowdfunding For New Effort]

The network was created by the same team responsible for other 24/7 local news channels, including northern Michigan’s MI News 26 and News Channel Nebraska. “After building MI News 26 and directing many technical aspects of the launch of News Channel Nebraska, we saw strong interest in our no-nonsense approach to 24-hour news,” said Wotila, “We wanted to bring that success to other markets….”

With its launch, NewsNet is reaching about 30 million potential over-the-air TV viewers, but the network plans to add other affiliates throughout the year. “We’re actively talking to potential affiliates on a daily basis,” said Wotila. "Ultimately, we’d love to see NewsNet available over-the-air to the entire country.”

SARASOTA, FL.—xG Technology—the provider of IMT Vislink live video communications products for the broadcast, law enforcement and defense—has announced a partnership with mobile broadcast vehicle provider Frontline Communications to deploy a customized newsnet electronic news gathering (ENG) vehicle for conducting on-site demos at broadcast client sites.

“It’s an excellent way for us to show how newsnet empowers broadcasters to maximize their coverage while fully leveraging their studio assets,” said John Payne IV, President of IMT USA. “Having multiple ENG points of view operate at the same time, and on the same BAS channel, while enabling a high-bandwidth IP connection with studio newsroom computer systems, is a game changer for the broadcast industry.”

[Read: Driving Station Workflows In The Field]

Vislink’s newsnet establishes a high-speed, bidirectional IP-based network that can optimize ENG field workflows and transmission by leveraging secure BAS spectrum that can be used without fear of contention, congestion or blocking, according to the company. Lower OPEX costs can result from greater workflow efficiencies and the reduced need for bonded cellular transmission.

The newsnet mobile demo site will be comprised of the mobile assets, a base station site (mobile COW), and the newsnet studio control system to provide the interface and control between the remote demo vehicle and the studio/field workflows.

CADILLAC, MICH.—NewsNet, a new 24/7 pundit- and panel-free news channel, is targeting a late-2018 launch to bring local news from around the country to a national audience without the shouting and commentary viewers are rejecting.

“In recent years, we’ve heard more and more complaints about existing 24/7 national news channels,” said Eric Wotila, president of NewsNet. “At the same time, we’ve received constant compliments about the straight-to-the-facts, no-nonsense and commentary-free local news coverage we provide on MI News 26, our 24/7 local news channel in northern Michigan.”

Encouraged by the favorable response in Michigan, Wotila is optimistic that news viewers around the country will also appreciate this approach.

Wotila launched a Kickstarter campaign to underwrite the launch. Based on the feedback from that campaign, Wotila’s confidence in the demand for a 24/7 news channel devoid of opinion and talk grew.

At the moment, Wotila’s team is expanding studio facilities and recruiting affiliates as the NewsNet launch approaches.

[Broadcast Entrepreneur Turns to Crowdfunding for New Effort]

“The key to NewsNet’s success will be our affiliates and we’re currently reaching out to stations across the country who are interested in bringing quality news programming to their markets by carrying NewsNet on one of their subchannels,” he said.

NewsNet’s new channel offers affiliates breaks for local ads and slots for local news insertions. For stations without their own local news, the network is offering its affiliates the option to sign up for a turnkey local news production service for a fraction of the cost of building out their own news operations.

NewsNet will be at the 2018 NAB Show to meet with potential affiliates. Interested stations also can email affiliates@yournewsnet.com.