Spectrum News launches new national streaming channel

Charter's Spectrum News brand has launched a new national streaming network available to Spectrum's cable and internet customers, the company announced on Monday.

The channel, called Spectrum News+, will aggregate the best local news packages from the brand's 30-plus newsrooms across the country along with national news headlines and original current affairs programming produced by its local newsrooms.

At launch, Spectrum News+ will offer 24 hours of news content from Monday to Friday. The company says it will expand to weekends later this summer.

Spectrum says its local news offerings — which include Spectrum News NY1 and Spectrum News Southern California — consistently outperform cable news channels in the markets where they are offered, based on data collected from Spectrum set-top boxes. Those channels produce local reporting on par with broadcast stations in the communities served by Spectrum, as well as original shows like "On Stage" in New York City and "L.A. Stories with Giselle Fernandez" in Los Angeles.

"By combining the power of our deeply-rooted local newsrooms with objective coverage of the day’s headlines, we are helping our audiences connect with their communities while also providing them with a comprehensive view of the world around them," Alison Hellman, the senior vice president of Spectrum News, said in a statement. "The launch of Spectrum News+ will allow even more of our customers to have access to our news coverage, and furthers our commitment to and investment in providing meaningful news to our audiences wherever they are, and however they want to watch it."

Spectrum News+ will be distributed through the Spectrum News website and apps, and will be available even in markets where a regional Spectrum News channel isn't available, a spokesperson for the company confirmed to Fierce Video on Monday. More than 29.9 million residential cable and internet customers will have access to the streaming news channel upon launch; those subscribers can watch Spectrum News+ by logging into the Spectrum News app for phones, tablets, Apple TV and Roku using their cable or home internet credentials.

The rollout of Spectrum News+ builds on Spectrum's commitment to local news over the last few years. In addition to the streaming news network, Spectrum has launched regional news channels in Southern California, Ohio, Massachusetts, Wisconsin and the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

In 2020, the company relaunched its mobile news app to focus more on local news in the communities where Spectrum News channels are offered. The app has been downloaded more than 2.5 million times, according to a spokesperson.