CBSN to expand to other markets, including Chicago

Local news streaming service to be based out of CBS 2

Chicago is about to get its first local news streaming service.

As announced on Thursday, CBS Television Stations and CBS Interactive announced an expansion of their local news streaming service to Chicago and twelve other cities, with content provided by CBS owned-and-operated stations in those markets. Modeled after CBS’ successful CBSN New York and CBSN Los Angeles local news streaming services in those cities, the network plans to rollout a similar enterprise sometime in early 2020.

In Chicago, CBS 2 (WBBM-TV) plans to provide content to the new CBSN Chicago, which would air news content 24/7. Like their New York and Los Angeles counterparts, powered by WCBS and KCBS/KCAL respectively, the new Chicago news channel plans breaking live news coverage and on-demand library of extensive news content, in addition to live streaming of newscasts from those stations.

“The early success of CBSN New York and CBSN Los Angeles has exceeded our expectations,” said CBS Television Stations President Peter Dunn. “It is clear there is significant demand for high-quality local news coverage on streaming services, and we are moving forward with excitement as we prepare to launch CBSN Local services in all 13 of our local news markets. Our accelerated rollout schedule ensures launches in all of these markets ahead of the 2020 political primaries and elections.”

The streaming channel is welcome for cord-cutters and for those who do not get CLTV, Tribune Media’s longtime 24-hour local news cable channel who does not stream.

The announcement comes as CBS is expanding its live streaming options. In 2014, CBS launched a national CBSN news channel followed by CBS Sports HQ Channel last year, an instant hit with viewers. This was followed by the launch of ET Live, CBSN New York in December 2018 and CBSN Los Angeles in June.

Other markets where a local version of CBSN is scheduled to launch in early 2020 is Philadelphia, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, Denver, Sacramento, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore.

Boston’s WBZ-TV and San Francisco’s KPIX plans to launch a local version of CBSN sometime this fall. There are no plans to launch a local CBSN for Detroit, as CBS-owned WWJ-TV does not have a news operation.

The CBS streaming channels are available on CBS All Access and online at CBSNews.com and the CBS News App, with the New York and Los Angeles’ news channels available to stream on the local stations’ respective websites, in addition to Roku, Chromecast, Apple TV, XBox, and PS3/PS4 devices.

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1 thought on “CBSN to expand to other markets, including Chicago

    • I recently relocated from Chicago to Lexington, KY. I am so delighted (think Charlie Brown’s Snoopy dancing around) that I don’t have to lose live Chicago news, and I look forward to checking out the additional live news stations being made available in the near future — too bad about Detroit… I love CBS All-Access and CBSN!

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