Newsy expanding programming with eye toward 24-hour coverage

Newsy, which is currently a primarily online and streaming service, announced it would be expanding its programing to 17 hours of news each day in a bid to attract audiences seeking an alternative to politically charged programming elsewhere. 

In a statement released Monday, Newsy added that its service was now available via over-the-air services to more than 90 percent of U.S. homes, and that it would operate 14 nationwide bureaus. 

“Newsy is positioned to accurately inform the public at scale with unmatched accessibility,” Eric Ludgood, head of Newsy, said in the statement. “We will give the American people facts and in-depth information so they can better understand the events that shape their lives. We’re not going to tell them what to think. They can make up their own minds.”

The service, which has the motto is “Be informed, not influenced,” intends to report news without political leanings or biases.

“It’s a little bit of going back to the future, what television news used to be,” Kate O’Brian, who leads the Scripps Networks’ news group, told the Associated Press. 

This expansion marks the first time Newsy will be available over-the-air and is also in an apparent move toward around-the-clock coverage, the AP noted. 

Once the service is fully operational, Newsy will be the only 24-hour news service that is free and available both on TV and via streaming.

Newsy began in 2008 as a syndicated news service and was bought by the E.W. Scripps Co. in 2014.