Thomson Reuters Aiming For a Linear TV Channel?
This story was written by Rafat Ali.
This has been brought up many times before, and Reuters has even said it that it wants to expand its TV/video activities, though it has denied any attempt to launch a linear TV channel over the years. Now, The Telegraph is reporting that it is preparing to launch a business TV news channel to rival that of Bloomberg, CNBC and Fox Business, and could be launched as soon as January, though could get delayed. The plans call for the channel to be online, and on some form of cable or digital platform, though not clear if in U.S. or UK, or both.
Since the merger, the company has cut some staff, but has also previously said it expects to create 50 new newsroom jobs on a variety of strategic projects over the next few months, including up to 20 web video staff.
Somehow I doubt Reuters would go for a linear play, especially in this market as its core business is under pressure with the financial markets in doldrums. And media, however the company wants to play it, has always been a smallthough high profilepart of Reuters business, and with the merger, and become an even smaller part. Reuters apparently opened a new New York newsroom yesterday, which will act as the main studio for the channel, though again, this could be for its online and newswire video.
By Rafat Ali