OTT All Over Again: Newsy Added to Haystack News

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NEW YORK — Ad-supported streaming local television news service Haystack News has helped bring The E.W. Scripps Co.-owned Newsy expanded reach on the platform the digital multicast network originally used to connect with consumers — an “OTT” app.


Live streaming of Newsy on Haystack News commenced Wednesday (10/27). It further widens Newsy’s reach, which grew substantially with its addition to over-the-air broadcast signals on October 4.

Branded as an “opinion-free national news network,” Scripps has 14 news bureaus across the U.S. dedicated to Newsy, which provides 17 hours of daily news in a manner not to dissimilar to the PBS News Hour and without talk shows offering news stories and roundtable observation with a political slant — a feature emblematic of the U.S.’s three heritage cable news networks.

Newsy dates to 2008, when it sold news and content as a third-party provider. In January 2014, Scripps bought the operation for $35 million, and launched a OTT-only news channel around the brand. In September 2017, to grow Newsy’s audience, Scripps replaced Retirement Living Television (RLTV) with the formerly digital-exclusive network. This cleared Newsy on cable television systems. That ended on June 30 as a direct result of Scripps’ merger with ION Networks, and the decision to transition Newsy to a digital multicast channel.

— Editing by Adam R Jacobson