A new streaming service provides insight into the news of the swing states in the 2024 elections
NEW YORK (AP) — Politics fans now have a new way to stay informed about what’s happening in the country’s most competitive states: through a new service that aggregates and streams local news broadcasts.
Swing State Election News, which began operations Monday, offers its streamers a choice of 37 local television stations in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, primarily local affiliates of CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox.
These are the states where pollsters are most likely to decide the presidential race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. The service will allow people to test the maxim “all politics is local” by closely following how the election campaigns are being run there.
“Nobody knows local politics better than the journalists in local communities,” says Jack Perry, CEO of Zeam Media.
Swing State Election News is an offshoot of Zeam, a free streaming service affiliated with Gray Television that launched last winter. Zeam targets people who have given up their cable or satellite TV by offering hundreds of shows from local markets. The majority of its users follow their local markets, but a significant number also watch other areas they have had connections to in the past, the service said.
Zeam does not reveal how many people use the service.
Swing State Election News offers its users the option to choose between live programming and archived newscasts. A quick click on a tab on Monday, for example, brings up the morning newscast on WMGT-TV in Macon, Georgia.
As the campaign progresses, Perry said the newscasts will provide insights into rallies and other events in those states and details of the races for seats in the House of Representatives and the Senate that could affect the majority in those chambers.
It’s unlike national news broadcasts, Perry said, because “at the local level, you get a different feeling. It’s about the people who actually live in these communities.”
One key indicator of how the campaign will play out, however, will be missing. Local newscasts in swing states are expected to feature many ads for the presidential candidates this fall that can illustrate some of the campaign strategies and issues they believe will resonate.
However, Swing State Election News sells its own advertising and will not show what is shown during local commercial breaks, Perry said.
In another attempt to bolster election coverage in swing states, the Associated Press announced last month that the organization was offering its campaign coverage to a number of small, independent news outlets that otherwise could not afford it.
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David Bauder writes about media for AP. Follow him at http://twitter.com/dbauder
