iHeartMedia’s 24/7 News Network will partner with NBC News to provide the company’s 850 stations and 1000+ affiliates with access to NBC News broadcast coverage and hourly branded newscasts.
As part of the deal, the company’s 24/7 News streaming channel on iHeartRadio will be rebranded as “NBC News Radio“.
NBC News Radio had been distributed by Westwood One until the end of 2014.
iHeartMedia today announced that its 24/7 News Network, the world’s largest radio-only news source, will provide its 1,000 affiliated radio stations and iHeartMedia’s more than 850 radio stations with access to NBC News broadcast coverage, along with an hourly newscast provided to its network around the clock. In addition, iHeartRadio, iHeartMedia’s all-in-one digital music and streaming radio service, will also feature “NBC News Radio” as a source for national and international news content.
Through this collaboration, NBC News will now span all media platforms including the most widely consumed medium, Radio, which reaches 93 percent of Americans each week. Global content from NBC News’ leading and award-winning television news broadcasts including primetime specials, political events and breaking news reports will be available to all of iHeartMedia’s 24/7 News Network affiliates, owned stations and will stream online via a new “NBC News Radio” station on iHeartRadio.
“We couldn’t be more excited to partner with NBC News in providing our affiliates and listeners with award-winning news coverage along with the global reach of this powerful news organization,” said Chris Berry, Senior Vice President and General Manager of 24/7 News Network. “Plus, the addition of NBC News Radio on iHeartRadio showcases both our companies’ commitment to providing our consumers with the most credible news wherever they are, whenever they want it.”
“We are delighted to team up with industry leader iHeartMedia to bring the influential reporting of NBC News to radio listeners across the country,” said Elisabeth Sami, SVP, NBC News Group. “More Americans watch NBC News than any news organization in the world, and now millions more will be able to listen to it on iHeartRadio stations.”
With bureaus and staff correspondents throughout the United States, 24/7 News Network produces content solely for radio with anchored news, sports and weather reports serving more than 1,000 broadcast radio stations as well as digital radio affiliates via the iHeartRadio platform.
Users can listen to “NBC News Radio” by visiting iHeartRadio.com/NBCNewsRadio.
What becomes of the current affiliation deal with Fox News Radio for the vast majority of iHeart’s talk stations? The article seems to imply that said deal is simply ending.
**press release, not article. Sheesh…
My initial impression is that this is essentially just a new add-on to 24/7, and would have no bearing on the Fox News affiliations. It would help, though, to know just how long the new NBC newscasts are. (I was thinking that they’d be one or, at most, two minutes.)
They could still do a five minute (three minutes content, two minutes spot load) newscast for both the 24/7 network and for non-iHeart stations that don’t want the Westwood One News service. Fox News has multiple feeds for five-minute affiliates and for one-minute affiliates.
I guess we’ll find out when the show clocks page on Premiere’s engineering site gets updated…
Someone else noticed this elsewhere, but “Premiere” doesn’t appear anywhere in the press release. Today’s “Tom Taylor Now” (at http://us6.campaign-archive1.com/?u=78b390ff9f5b002e3f050238c&id=f662069c93) leads with this story, and also focuses on how the new NBC seems to be part of 24/7 itself. (More details may be coming out of a scheduled call with affiliates.)