NEWSY NEWSY, read all about it

[CAwasinNJ]

The move of NEWSY we talked about here ( talkingutahradio.proboards.com/thread/2113/scripps-continues-make-changes-more ) is happening Oct 4. It's currently in "attract mode" on 16.7. Curiously the program guide is showing programming as if it's already running.

So the big question I have is, how reliable a news source will this be? I've never heard of any of the anchors, though I definitely know of Scripps. Has anyone seen anything around talking about these people or the previous online version of the channel?

[dspete]

It's up and running now.

[CAwasinNJ]

It came up on Friday which makes more sense since that was Oct 1 and that was what was previously communicated. That doesn't explain why the promo that was running for several days was saying Oct 4 and that's a concern for me. If they can't even get their own launch date correct (and that should be drop dead simple information to come by) then what else are they getting wrong?

[amanuensis]

My guess is that they "soft re-launched" on 1 Oct but since that day was a Friday (a low viewership day going into the weekend) they will save the fireworks for Monday the 4th, to the extent a news channel has fireworks.

[CAwasinNJ]

It's possible that's what they meant, but... Oct 1 was the date given back in June ( www.wvxu.org/media/2021-06-29/why-did-spectrum-and-fioptics-drop-scripps-newsy-channel ) and then again on Friday when it OTA launched ( www.fox13now.com/news/local-news/newsy-launches-nations-only-free-over-the-air-news-network ) No mention of Oct 4 in either case. The only mention of the 4th was in the on-air promos that started Wednesday. If nothing else the optics don't look good, especially for a viewer who only saw the promos.

[dspete]

I was hoping more for a CNN/CNBC/FOX news style? Breaking News?
Looks to be more a NEWSY Investigates/Documentaries style of news channel.

[CAwasinNJ]

I've checked in on it a few times now and it does seem like a newsmagazine channel rather than a news channel, to spite their positioning.

When I started thinking about it that actually makes sense. Scripps is a heavy owner in local broadcast stations. Local news is a HUGE money maker for those stations. Look at the times of the day when their local stations broadcast news: Early morning, midday, late afternoon/evening and late. Take into account the four continental time zones and there's local news on in at least one of them except in the dead of the night. It makes sense that they don't want to be competing against themselves, especially for what I would guess are lower ad rates on NEWSY than they'd get locally.

It's too bad. I was really hoping for a real news channel OTA.