Super Tuesday at 30 Rock in New York City was a wild affair. The halls were abuzz with activity as producers, broadcasters and crews across NBC geared up for their comprehensive coverage of an important and predictable event. After all was said and done, a rematch between Donald Trump and Joe Biden was pretty much guaranteed in the next presidential election. And if NBC News NOW's approach to Super Tuesday — as the home of NBC News' live broadcasts — is any indication, they're more than prepared for the huge election ahead.
NBC News NOW — a free streaming service distributed across more than 20 platforms — serves as a seamless extension of NBC's linear programming, and this coexistence of linear with live streaming is believed to be key to the future of NBC News.
“The tradition of providing free, high-quality content is in NBC's DNA, so it's the future and the past, rolled together,” Janelle Rodriguez, executive vice president of programming, told TheWrap.
NBC News is investing heavily in its streaming service — as the linear network's real estate for broadcast news becomes more limited by other programming — and it appears to be working. The network says it is the fastest-growing streaming news network in the United States, and views the 2024 election as a way to strengthen its position in a saturated media environment.
The 24/7 live streaming service is dedicated to covering hard news, and currently produces over 12 hours of live content daily.
TheWrap got a peek behind the curtain of NBC News NOW's Super Tuesday coverage from inside 30 Rock, where the expansive studio, experienced broadcasters and control room worked together to produce a high-quality streaming show in line with what's regularly produced on NBC's linear network. This is because it is exactly the same product, just expanded.
Rodriguez, who oversees specials for the network and NBC News NOW, credited the success of the collaboration to treating it all as one program and being hands-on in the control room during the process.
“We use the same studios, the same control rooms, and we treat it like one big production,” Rodriguez told TheWrap in a recent interview. “It's really important to me that on the streaming side, the quality of NBC News NOW is the same quality as linear NBC News.”
Broadcasters are also on board, as they showed when they put their election coverage skills to work on the streaming service's Super Tuesday.
“It's the talent — the team, the anchors, the anchors, the producers — that our audience knows and trusts,” Haley Jackson, anchor and chief correspondent for NBC News in Washington, told TheWrap. “We have to give them a platform to delve into on Super Tuesday… We have to really put them on a pedestal and showcase them, which is very exciting to me.”
“We're looking at a fully interactive studio. We're going all over the place, bringing the night to life with the best technology,” said broadcaster Tom Lamas. “It's great to have that, the resources and the commitment, because live streaming is the new frontier.”
NBC News NOW's Super Tuesday programming kicks off at 5 PM ET with special coverage anchored by Jackson and Lamas. The duo anchored a marathon of coverage until 10 PM ET, with programming picked up by the linear network with hosts Lester Holt and Savannah Guthrie. The network's linear coverage was also simulcast to NBC News NOW. After an hour of special coverage on NBC News, programming returns back to the streamer at 11 PM ET from the same studio, featuring “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker.
When all was said and done, Super Tuesday ranked as NBC News NOW's best primary performance on record.
Llamas told TheWrap that he's “fully on board” with NBC News' live-streaming endeavor upon seeing the investment the network is making for the future.
“If you watch our Super Tuesday coverage, you won't notice the difference between our live coverage and what will be on the network as well,” Lamas added. “It's the NBC News channel I grew up with and trust.”
Jackson and Lamas also host regular NBC News NOW shows, “Hallie Jackson NOW” and “Top Story,” respectively. They both appreciated a program on the streaming service that allows them to spend more time researching a variety of news stories.
“We're curating two hours of the biggest, most interesting news of the day, with the best team in the business covering it all,” Jackson said of her online show. “It's different from shows in other ecosystems that only look at things through a political lens.”
“Now, my width allows me to widen the opening,” Jackson added. “I love being able to have that breadth of experience and breadth of storytelling ability and editorial ability for something like NBC News NOW and Super Tuesday special coverage.”
Lamas noted that there is more content time in one hour of live broadcast than what is available on cable and radio news, with fewer commercial interruptions.
“The goal of ‘Top Story’ was to show the reach of NBC News,” Lamas continued. “We cover politics, we cover weather, we cover crime… and because of that, I have to hit all those major stories and all those headlines.”
NBC News views the streaming platform as the network's future as linear audiences continue to dwindle industrywide, and NBC News NOW's growth thus far has been “accelerating,” Rodriguez said.
“Part of the reason I think is because of the higher level of quality that we provide to users, and we do it for free,” Rodriguez added. “It's been very important to us that we meet viewers where they are on all the different platforms that viewers come to, but that we provide a high-quality level of journalism for free.”
NBC News NOW isn't the only streaming news game in town, as broadcast news networks offer products like CBS News Live and ABC News Live. In addition, cable networks have ventured into offering viewers a streaming platform such as Fox News' Fox Nation and CNN's CNN Max.
The NBC linear network works alongside NBC News NOW, where “all of our talent, whether they're anchors or reporters, appears on both the network and NBC News NOW because we really treat it as one,” Rodriguez said.
The streaming network is free and widely distributed across more than 20 platforms including Peacock, Amazon Fire News App, Freevee, FuboTV, Google TV, Hulu Live and any platform you can stick to, with additional national linear distribution on NBC and international express distribution. The platform also attracts a younger audience compared to traditional broadcast and cable news.
NBC News NOW has seen four straight years of record growth, with three of its best quarters ever in 2023. The hourly saw year-over-year growth in 2023, making it the strongest year ever for the platform.
NBCNews.com, which houses the streaming product, also had a huge year in 2023, ranking ahead of NYTimes.com in the latter half of the year. NBC News NOW leverages an expanded multi-platform strategy that includes linear programming, live broadcast, digital and social media.
