A subscription-free, ad-supported national streaming video service backed by Gray Television has signed what it calls “major agreements” with eight station groups and independent TV station owners.
The deal brings local programming and content from 71 over-the-air stations to the VUit platform.
New partners include Hearst Television, Cox Media Group, Bahakel Communications, “Suncoast News Network,” Morris Network and News Press & Gazette.
“VUit has enabled our local stations to reach viewers with not only live news and programming relevant to them, but locally-produced on-demand content that viewers from across the country tune into,” said Pat LaPlatney, Co-CEO & President at Gray Television, a major investor in Syncbak, VUit’s parent company. “We want every local station to be streaming on VUit. Viewers download the app to watch their local channel, and stick around to watch programming from local stations all across the country.”
Morris Network owns stations in Lexington, Ky., and in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Suncoast News Network is housed at LPTV facility WSNN, licensed to Sarasota, Fla.
News Press & Gazette operates in 10 markets, including Santa Barbara-San Luis Obispo, Calif., and its home market of St. Joseph, Mo.
Family-owned Bahakel Communications owns six stations from five markets. Its flagship property is WCCB-TV, an affiliate of The CW Network, in Charlotte. Other markets include Columbia and Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Reading between the lines, this is Gray’s attempt to match STIRR from Sinclair or Pluto from CBS. And with the station lineup consisting of smaller stations or stations without a resident OTT platform. Watching a newscast in Colorado Springs I was treated to an ad for a local Seattle area car dealer, so apparently the inventory is already in a programmatic platform. The space is getting pretty noisy!
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