Streaming Video News App Data

Local TV news survives and thrives amid disruption from Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and other social media sites because video content frequently is engaging to audiences. On-demand streaming video apps and owned media websites help local news managers reach audiences and connect with the community.

KSDK Director of Content Carol Fowler helped UNO Maverick Social Media students understand why local TV news has an edge in the battle for eyeballs.

"We don't really over-think our content," Fowler says. "We don't make our content decisions, necessarily, on who we believe to be watching or consuming."

What are people going to react to and what are they going to watch? We know certain types of content tends to do better than others. And so we really spend our time focused on that.

A Pew Research Center analysis confirms that local TV news economics remains healthy:

Local TV station revenue typically follows a cyclical pattern: It increases in election years and decreases in non-election years. In 2022, an election year, local TV over-the-air advertising revenue totaled $20.5 billion, a 27% increase over 2021, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of MEDIA Access Pro & BIA Advisory Services data.

As we enter an age of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and the potential for spread of disinformation, I think that local journalism is a vital source for credible information. U.S. newspapers once were dismissive of local TV news, but the industry was transformed by digital content and data. It took awhile to understand that media companies cannot rely upon social media platforms. Instead their owned websites and apps hold the key to remaining important community voices.

Jeremy Harris Lipschultz is author of Social Media Communication: Concepts, Practices, Data, Law and Ethics, fourth edition (2024). He leads the UNO Social Media Lab for Research and Engagement, Maverick Social Media, and global conversation about measurement and management.