It is an important time in the US for news networks both digital and traditional as the height of the presidential election year has arrived with the Republican and Democratic National Conventions wrapping up. But it seems the national TV news networks aren’t playing nice this year and are going to make digital news networks and publishers pay extra for access to live coverage of political events, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.
As the policy stands, five national TV networks, ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News and NBC News pool together their resources to provide live video coverage of key political events such as the national conventions, debates, daily White House coverage and presidential news conferences. The TV pool system was created for efficiency and for events where only one camera crew is allowed. Online news publishers and media companies rely on the signal from the TV network covering the event for their own streaming platforms.
Changes to the existing TV pool policy will require any news outlets that are not one of the five national TV networks in the pool to pay new, increased fees for access to live coverage of the political events. For an election year, the flat rate fee for all pool coverage for the year will cost media outlets $400,000; for non-election years the rate will be $350,000 per year, according to a rate card viewed by the Wall Street Journal. Media outlets will also have the option to buy coverage of events on an a la carte basis.
Of the changes being made to the policy, the pool (consisting of representatives from the five member networks) said, “its new way of operating with some subscribers reflects the increasing costs involved in the news gathering and pool feed production. The pool does not make a profit; it can only defray costs.”
Although it is difficult to neglect the fact that online video has become an accepted and viable way to watch live programming and the rise of digital news coverage is nevertheless a threat to the audience numbers of TV news networks.
Of course a slew of media organizations including the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed and Vox do not support the rising cost of access to live coverage and have written a letter to the White House Correspondents’ Association protesting the fees and pushing for a digital pool to be put in place so digital media outlets will have a rotating slot at events to produce digital news from the source.
“Video coverage of events surrounding government and the political process is an essential part of our democracy and free press,” said Reuters News Agency spokeswoman in the letter. “While we recognize varying commercial and budgetary pressures, we very much hope that the proposed changes don’t reduce the public’s access or media choices.”
To be one of the national TV news networks in this situation has its perks, since they have the option of covering these political events over pay TV channels as well as digitally by partnering with a web video and news platforms.
ABC News, one of the networks within the pool, delivered live coverage of both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions on Facebook via the ABC News official Facebook page and across a variety of ABC-branded Facebook pages. ABC News delivered 24-hour live coverage of the conventions as well as live on-the-scene interviews, protests and other breaking news.
ABC News’ approach to covering the conventions on traditional and digital media is a sign that the company needs social media and particularly social live streaming in order to reach a wider audience and other traditional players have a similar game plan.
C-Span and Univision also used Facebook Live to live stream coverage of the conventions. Facebook enabled media outlets to broadcast live video directly from the conventions by offering a lounge area in the convention halls where media outlets could broadcast from.
YouTube was named the official live streaming partner for both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions so audiences without a cable subscription or Facebook page could also view live coverage. Meanwhile, CBS News made a deal with Twitter and the news network streamed coverage of both conventions to the platform.
With nearly 140 media outlets, traditional and digital partnering with Facebook to create live video for the platform while adding audience reach for their own content, it is a wonder why more publishers aren’t flocking to the platform as a means of content distribution. But publishers are hesitant to make a deal with Facebook for fear of growing too dependent on the platform for subscriber reach and distribution, according to Bloomberg News.
News Corp’s Wall Street Journal does not have a deal to create live videos for Facebook; finding a business model that fits the internet future of the company is crucial. The Wall Street Journal relies on online subscriptions for growth, so it is imperative that it not give away too much content for free. However, by providing content via Facebook, Wall Street Journal could see growth in digital revenue as the print business sees declines. As the largest social networking platform on Earth, Facebook is able to deliver content to more people than most single media outlets ever could and Facebook is offering ad-revenue opportunities, another area that has fallen in revenue gains this year, plus the Wall Street Journal is looking to grow by expanding its digital presence and online subscribers, areas that Facebook is equipped to bolster.
What is apparent is that despite the elevated cost of coverage for media outlets outside of the pool of the five traditional TV news networks there is no shortage of political news coverage online on social video networks that will benefit American audiences, the social video platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, as well as the media partners that are partnering with social video platforms to deliver live coverage as delivering coverage online will give further reach to the live content and therefore to the network.
This first ran in Rider Research’s Online Reporter.