The newest show on Disney+ is likely to have more surprising plot twists than any Marvel movie and more oddball characters than the latest series from “Star Wars.”
What is it? The news.
In its first original daily program designed specifically for the streaming service, ABC News will, starting each weekday at 6 a.m., dispatch James Longman and Rachel Scott to give viewers an 8-to-10-minute recap of the latest headlines. The former may hold forth often from the White House or other powerful seat in Washington, D.C. while the latter offers updates from the many overseas locales he regularly visits. And the Disney news division has plans to expand the show, “What You Need to Know,” to other times for Disney+ subscribers. The series debuts July 21.
“It’s the first thing you will see on Disney+ as you wake up,” says Almin Karamehmedovic, the president of ABC News, during a recent interview. Each episode” will be available on demand on Disney+ for 24 hours before refreshing with a new report.
Other ABC News programs are already available to the company’s streaming subscribers. Two-hour “20/20” true-crime tales regularly draw Hulu viewers, while a and a search on Disney+ reveals the presence of dozens of episodes from staples like “Good Morning America” and “World News Tonight.” Like its rivals, however, ABC News is eager to get more of its journalism in front of digital audiences, who often have different expectations from programming than their counterparts watching traditional TV.
“Americans have a lot going on in their lives. They want to stay up to speed on what’s happening, not only here at home, but also internationally as well. And sometimes they don’t have a lot of time to do it,” says Scott. “And so, this is going to be just the platform for them to get up to speed on the top stories.”
Bringing an ABC News program specifically to Disney+ is the latest move by the units’ corporate parent to widen the streaming service’s thematic aperture. Disney+ was originally built to lure kids and families to Disney’s colorful entertainment programming, but in recent months, there has been new emphasis on getting subscribers to “bundle” the streamer with other services, such as Hulu and ESPN+ — and making the process of jumping from one to the other as simple as clicking on a home-page tile.
Two new developments will let the company do even more to bolster its streaming operations. Disney is set to launch in the fall a new ESPN service that will include its linear TV programming. And by the end of July, Disney will control all of Hulu, after striking a deal with Comcast to buy that company’s 33% stake in the streamer for and with control of Hulu slated to be firmly under Disney with an acquisition of Comcast’s one-third stake schedule for late this month for nearly $439 million.
Don’t look for Longman and Scott to sit alongside each other in a glitzy studio. Each anchor is likely to deliver information from wherever they need to be in the course of their reporting day. Neither is giving up regular duties — Scott is ABC News’ senior political correspondent, while Longman is its London-based chief international correspondent — and both will be able to contribute to the new show, which will be delivered live to tape, from wherever their duties take them.
“I’m going to be able to do this wherever I go in the world,” says Longman. “I could have been doing it from Iraq, when Israel attacked Iran. I could have been doing it for from Ukraine. So, this is a way to take the audience with us into the places we’re going, yes, to tell them what’s going on in the world in the United States, but also give them that a little bit of insight into what we’re doing every single day,”
More TV-news mainstays are asking their reporters, anchors and correspondents to tackle additional duties. Both NBC News and CBS News have evening-news anchors who combine their daily tasks tied to those signature broadcasts with a daily streaming host assignment. CNN has Kaitlan Collins working the White House beat and anchoring its 9 p.m. hour.
Many news outlets have also worked to find out what news aficionados want from the broadband medium. CNN each weekday serves up “5 Things,” a 6-to-7-minute program anchored by Kate Bolduan, for subscribers to its HBO Max outlet. During the show, an energetic Bolduan offers up a review of top stories, then reminds viewers they just saw “the five things you need to know to get your day going. Now – get going.” NBC News, meanwhile, has for years produced “Stay Tuned,” a news program aimed at the young viewers who use the Snap short-form messaging app. Both companies have worked to extend these programs to such venues as podcasting or TikTok.
ABC News’ Scott and Longman expect to veer away from the traditional news trappings.
“It’s definitely a shake up,” of the usual news formats, says Scott. “The two of us are not going to be behind the desk at all. We’re going to be wherever the story is, whether that’s in Washington, D.C., or out on the road.”
The idea behind the program, says Landman, “is to try to reach new audiences, to find people where they are, with short snapshots of daily headlines. You really want to grab people’s attention” by taking news “to people in a really short, digestible way, but making it conversational, having the kind of conversation with people at home that you would have with friends about the news.”
ABC News could learn as much from “What You Need to Know’ as viewers. The news division is, like its counterparts, experimenting with a bevy of concepts to see which ones strike a chord with the younger viewers who use streaming as their primary means of watching video. CBS News has dispatched Major Garrett and John Dickerson to lead streaming programs, while NBC News has spotlighted streaming hours from Hallie Jackson and Tom Llamas.
All these programs are surfacing as scrutiny intensifies on the economics of TV news in the streaming era. A parade of prominent anchors has stepped away or moved to independent operations in recent months, and there are growing questions about how the traditional outlets will attract new talent or marshal resources to cover important stories.
One way is to start working to attract viewers flocking to new media venues. “We really want to grow,” says Karamehmedovic, the ABC News president.
