PR & Comms
Spectrum News Relaunches NECN Across Six New England States
Charter's Spectrum News relaunched NECN across six New England states Wednesday, hiring 30+ journalists and expanding distribution ahead of the midterms under its $34.5 billion Cox deal.
Spectrum News NECN went live Wednesday at 6 a.m. across Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont, marking Charter's Spectrum News brand as a truly regional news operation for the first time.
The rebrand follows Charter's February acquisition of NECN from Comcast NBCUniversal. Spectrum News already operated in Worcester, Massachusetts, and Maine, plus a national news network, but adding NECN to its portfolio of 35+ networks gave it a foothold in states where it lacked a dedicated presence.
"The opportunity to expand our footprint… on a larger scale was incredibly appealing," Spectrum News Group VP Sam Singal told CFX. "To take such a reputable brand, whose mission is very similar to ours, which is to become part of the community, integrate ourselves, know the people, know the issues, it's a really perfect fit for who we are."
The scale is new territory for the brand. "We're covering six states, so this is our first truly regional news operation," Singal said.
Spectrum News acquired only the NECN brand, not its staff, who remained with NBC Boston. That means the operation is starting fresh. "We are literally building a new news operation from the ground up," Singal said.
While Spectrum News' Worcester and Maine operations now fall under the NECN umbrella, the company has spent the past few months staffing up. "We're lucky that we can tap into our Massachusetts team, but we're hiring 30+ reporters, producers, anchors, meteorologists, photographers and editors," Singal said. "We are adding to our news personnel, which is great for the people of New England because they are going to get to see a lot more regional and hyper-local news and weather coverage."
The network began introducing new on-air faces on social media this week. Veteran New England journalist Matt Reed joins as primary anchor and will host a new morning show debuting later this year. Senior News Director Teisha Parker joins from NBC Connecticut, where she previously served as news director for Optimum's News12 New Jersey after holding the same role there.
Distribution remains broad. Spectrum News NECN is available to all Spectrum customers via their TV package, the brand's website and the Spectrum News App. Charter kept the channel's existing carriage agreements in place, so Verizon Fios, Hulu + Live TV, Fubo and Astound Broadband subscribers in the region can still tune in. The channel also remains on Comcast Xfinity, which began carrying Spectrum News stations in select markets last year. Charter plans to expand availability to additional viewers in the coming months.
The relaunch comes a week after "Spectrum Day," when Charter officially rolled out its products in former Cox markets following their $34.5 billion merger. That deal expands Spectrum News' reach. "With Charter's acquisition of Cox, we'll start to have many more subscribers in Rhode Island and Connecticut, which are two new areas for us," Singal said, noting the network is currently hiring in those states.
Programming follows a tight local rhythm: viewers will see local headlines every 15 minutes and weather every 10 minutes on the 1s. "On day one, you'll see about seven minutes and 10 seconds per half hour of local news and weather," Singal said, with national news coming from the 24/7 streaming network Spectrum News+. More New England-based programming arrives over the next couple of months.
NECN launched in 1992 as a joint partnership between Continental Cablevision (now part of Comcast) and Hearst. Hearst sold its stake to Comcast in 2009, and the network later shared studios, resources and programming with NBC10 Boston.
A political program could follow once news dayparts are fully staffed. "If you look at our other markets around the country, an evening political program is something that you find in all of our major markets. There's so much political news in New England, it's ripe for something like that," Singal said, though he stressed no decisions have been made. The timing, weeks before the midterm elections, is not lost on him: "Politics is kind of our bread and butter, so it works out perfectly."
Original: cynopsis.com
Amara Osei
Show full bio
News editor covering industry trends and analytics at Marketing Herald.
