I don’t watch cable TV. I pay a little more each month to purchase stand-alone Internet from my provider. I watch Netflix, Amazon, stream via my PS4, Apple TV and on my iOS devices. I hate commercial TV with a passion.
In 2013, 6.5 percent of American households quit watching cable or satellite TV, instead opting for a streaming-only experience, a 4.5 percent jump over the number of households that cut the cord in 2010. This is an audience that continues to grow.
Now Reuters TV, a fascinating new service from a reputable news outlet, promises to provide mobile TV news via an iOS app. Will other news empires follow suit?
Once you download the free Reuters TV app, you’ll get a nicely designed tutorial that you can swipe through, though it’s more stunningly visual than pedagogical.
Once in the app, you’ll set the amount of time you want to give to your news stream, from five minutes to 30, in what the team is calling Reuters Now. This on-demand video news roll is customized to your interests and location, and can be downloaded for offline viewing. You’ll watch the news “show” and swipe past the news you’re not interested in; this is how the app learns your preferences.
The live feeds offer real-time coverage of the top stories around the world each day without interruption. You can watch these both live and on-demand when you have time. Simply put your iPhone into landscape mode for full-screen video, and it’s like having your own little news TV right next to you.
Reuters TV is a pretty slick app that looks and sounds like TV news, including a little headline ticker that scrolls across the bottom of the screen. There are ads involved, like the one for Park Hyatt that I saw while I watched this afternoon, which must be how Reuters plans to fund the service in the future.
