The entertainment and news audience is continually steering away from linear TV and turning to streaming for their media source, something Bloomberg Media CEO Justin Smith is well aware of. The decline of linear TV, including Bloomberg TV, has lead the media company to relaunch its news video service QuickTake by the end of November.
At launch, QuickTake will be free and ad-supported, though the company is looking for other ways to monetize through licensing deals. Although there are already news streaming services (think Cheddar), Bloomberg is counting on the fact that the market isn’t oversaturated yet and there’s still plenty of room for new sources.
The media company has been planning this relaunch for some time now, but the sweeping coronavirus pandemic made a timely launch date more pressing. CEO Justin Smith is putting a lot of weight on the launch, even going so far as to call it “one of the most consequential, if not the most consequential launch in the news industry this year.”
Millennials and Gen Z are known to get their information from the internet vs. traditional TV. In fact, many don’t even have access to cable channels. That’s why internet-based outlets are crucial for media companies today.
“Great new media brands are often created in the wake of significant social or economic changes,” Smith says. “For this target audience, the world in March of 2020 completely changed.
“We are creating in some ways the first post-COVID business network, a brand that is designed to explain and chronicle this new business world that we are all living in,” Smith said.
The new and improved version of QuickTake will put out around 10.5 hours of original content per day at launch, working up to be a 24 hour news source within the first year. The streaming service will have global reach and be available everywhere Bloomberg app is currently accessible on mobile, social, and even connected TVs like Roku.