Thomson Reuters has launched its new live news app, Reuters TV.
Alerting potential subscribers via an eDM today, the new channel promises “news when you want it, straight from the source, and made to fit your day.”
A free trial is available for a month, then the service costs US$1.99 per month. It is available to download on iTunes.
One of the main features is that the length of a news show can be varied, from five to 30 minutes. Content can also vary depending on interests and location.
At pay-TV conference CASBAA Convention in October last year, Reuters CEO Andrew Rashbass said his company was “changing the economics of TV news” with Reuters TV.
“We [Reuters] are changing the economics of TV news, but still based on hundreds of millions in investment that we make every year,” he said.
“Most broadcasters spend thousands of dollars per minute on news production. Our model will be a fraction of that.”
Detailing the service, he said: “We can deliver a curated bulletin of stories that is completely up to date. Others [rivals] ask the viewer to pick individual things they’re interested in. We have a constant stream of material that we put together immediately. We believe that that ability to create a curated show, on demand, absolutely fits with what the new generation is looking for,”
Reuters TV is to be marketed mainly using PR, with Rashbass, who for many years worked for The Economist, saying that marketing will be critical to build the subscription-based brand.
“The Economist didn’t localise its product, but it worked out how to find audiences. One of the things about a subscription-based product is that it forces you to recognise that you need to build one subscriber at a time, so marketing is very important,” he said.
