Blog Post #7 - JRN 340

It is no secret that local TV news is struggling heavily, specifically with maintaining steady viewership. WRAL, the flagship station of Capital Broadcasting, is utilizing virtual reality, a technique that is aimed to intrigue viewers and help them become interactive.

Bringing “virtual reality” into newsrooms that are potentially “dying” is something, in my opinion, very smart and useful. The virtuality reality will allow broadcast studios to create a “virtual world that presenters can interact with,” according to the article. It is aimed to help viewers have the experience of being in the location where the reporter is.

WRAL has also taken advantage of developing an OTT app, which offers streaming access to tens of thousands of clips from the station’s archive. Viewers are allowed to access everything from live and archived newscasts to live streams. I think personally this is also a very smart move on the studio’s part being that viewers have much more to experience and take advantage of. This will only further engage them and hopefully bring up viewership. And according to the article, the OTT app is creating a new revenue stream, gathering funds from the branded and paid content and ads for their content.

It is also said that local TV news is still wha the majority of Americans turn to to keep themselves informed. According to a Pew’s most recent State of the News Media report, published back in 2017, more individuals are getting their news from their local TV station and their websites. Yet, there is a shift happening, and it is drastic.

Veteran news executive Mark Efforts ays the decline of the local TV news over the past two decades could have “terminal results” if the industry fails to act now. Profit margins for local TV are also shrinking, and has the steepest drop-off in viewership. People of all ages are also turning away from television, and according to another Pew report back in 2016, 57 percent of adults said they often get their news from TV, while 38 percent said they get it from online.

With the massive growth of the internet and social media, it is not shocking to see that percentage be exponentially larger if another Pew report were to be done now in the upcoming year of 2019. Every news source is more engaged online and on social media websites, highly catering to the younger generations.

Some stations are also wary of this innovation of local TV news because they are afraid of alienating older viewers. Although it is good to do something like this in order to attract the younger audiences, I understand why stations might be hesitant to do so because they do not want to take the chance in losing the interest of their current audience.

It is definitely a difficult topic for stations to handle, while wanting to engage more viewers and keep a steady watch count without losing count in the act of doing so.