SANTA MONICA, Calif.—Sinclair Broadcast Group’s OTT TV service STIRR is launching a channel dedicated to live 2020 election coverage, marking its one-year anniversary, the ad-supported streaming service said.

The channel, 2020 Live, will deliver continuous live election coverage of daily campaign event feeds from around the country. Coverage, which will include town hall meetings and stump speeches, will be presented without commentary to give viewers a bias-free perspective on the campaigns.

“STIRR’s offering of live, local news content reflects that its purpose isn’t to solely entertain, but to serve members of local communities and provide information that impacts their lives,” said Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley.

In its first year, STIRR has achieved 1.6 million app downloads, providing users with access to local news, entertainment and digital-first channels. Since the 2019 launch, the OTT service has begun delivering 100 linear channels and provided more than 5,000 hours of video-on-demand content. More than 130,000 hours of live, local news have been streamed via STIRR City channels, curated 24/7 linear TV stations with lineups based on viewers’ cities.

STIRR also plans to begin offering post-broadcast on-demand viewing of popular syndicated TV shows, including “Judge Judy,” “Dr. Phil,” “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” “Wheel of Fortune,” “Jeopardy” and other syndicated shows originally aired by a Sinclair broadcast station, before the end of March. Availability will be determined based on the city where the STIRR viewer is located.

“We’re incredibly proud of the growth and success the platform has seen throughout the year, and look forward to providing users with more value. With the addition of local broadcast TV syndication programming coming to the platform, we’re excited for what the next year has in store for STIRR,” said Ripley.

More information is available on the STIRR website.

BALTIMORE—Sinclair Broadcast Group’s STIRR OTT linear channel has reached a milestone, achieving one million app downloads in the first six months of its operation, the group announced last week.

"We launched STIRR with the base premise that all of the national OTT services were ignoring the value of local programming, and in particular live local news," said Sinclair President and CEO Christopher Ripley.

STIRR, a free, ad-supported over-the-top streaming service delivers live, local news, TV shows and digital-first content to viewers.

“Hitting the one million download milestone, combined with the immediate success of the STIRR City channel, has confirmed our strategy, creating the foundation for continued growth.”

Sinclair attributes the popularity of STIRR to its focus on giving viewers access to live, local news and free linear TV channels.

While the STIRR OTT lineup offers more than 30 channels, including Buzzr, Comet, Charge, Stadium, Dove Channel, Dust, Con TV and Shout Factory, it is STIRR City that has garnered the service’s highest viewership.

The 24/7 STIRR City program lineup is based on a viewer’s city. It includes local news, syndicated TV shows, movies, sports and city-focused lifestyle shows.

Along with Sinclair’s announcement that STIRR has reached the one million app download milestone, the station group released other related metrics, including:

• 76% of app downloads were done via connected TV devices, such as Roku, Fire TV and tvOS;
• 85% of viewership is on connected TV devices;
• On average, viewers watch STIRR twice a week, a 50% jump since its launch;
• Viewers watch for an average of one hour at a time, a 200% increase since launch;
• STIRR City is the service’s top watched channel; and
• Live, local newscasts are the most watched programming.

According to the group, STIRR is on track to add 10 more national channels and new STIRR City channels not covered by Sinclair’s footprint over the next six months.

More information is available on the STIRR website.