TIME is the latest to join Local Now’s streaming news bonanza
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John Moulding
| 01 December 2023
4 TIME is the latest to join Loca l Nows streaming news bonanza
Local Now, the leading U.S. free streaming service for local news, weather, sports, traffic and entertainment, is adding the TIME FAST channel to the Local Now platform. The company announced the addition of USA TODAY and USA TODAY Sports channels in October.

The latest partnership, with TIME, brings news coverage, profiles, interviews, documentaries and more. Viewers can expect content from TIME's globally recognised franchises and special programming including TIME Reports, Profiles in TIME, TIME for Health & Science, and TIME Documentaries and Film.

Part of Allen Media Group, Local Now started life as a FAST channel in 2016 before evolving into a multi-channel streaming platform populated with third-party media owners and a total of 220+ local news channels. The service includes streaming-first channels including from newspaper and other ‘print’ giants.

In total, there are 450 free streaming channels available on the service, which houses 18,000 movies, TV shows, and documentaries in its catalogue. Despite this, it is ‘local’ that is the real differentiator. Michael Senzon, President, Digital at Allen Media Group, says: “Our mission is to be the most localised news and entertainment platform, and our objective is to localise and customise content better than anyone else.”

In terms of news, Local Now provides a more comprehensive offer than a viewer can expect in any local market from their cable or over-the-air offer. Local Now’s own channel is available in every DMA in the U.S., with Senzon pointing out that this makes them more widely distributed than the largest local station groups. This means Local Now can serve a viewer at home and still serve them wherever they travel in the country.

The whole service is localised in its UX presentation. In any given market, viewers get access to the major local news feeds, which in New York, for example, would include the likes of CBS, NBC, Telemundo and News 12. The company has also agreed a deal with PBS covering 300+ cities in the U.S.

If someone travels to Boston, the streaming platform will show them all the local channels for their current city in the ‘My Cities’ bundle. “I have not seen any other platform do such a good job at localising as our My Cities bundle,” Senzon declares.

Few of the news channels are exclusive, but according to Senzon, the company differentiates itself from over-the-air and cable in any location partly because of its on-demand news content – providing the convenience of catching up with local news.

“Some of our core users are cord-nevers or cord-cutters, but there are viewers who still have traditional cable and they use us, as well. We provide a simple option for access to content on-demand, with more control. Over-the-air does not give you that.”

Coming back to the addition of TIME to the platform, Byron Allen, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Allen Media Group notes that, “TIME is a phenomenal brand and a great addition to Local Now.”

Jeff Li, Digital GM at TIME, adds: “Local Now’s strong focus on news provides TIME’s trusted journalism an excellent platform to reach viewers who want to understand the people, events and issues that impact the world.”

The Local Now app is available on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Xfinity, Vizio, Samsung, Android and iOS devices. and on the web.