At a time when competition between streaming and broadcasting often drives a wedge between networks and their affiliates, the year-old NBC News Daily appears to be an unusual example of cooperation.
The newscast, designed to replace the long-running soap opera Days of Our Lives when it moved from NBC to Peacock in 2022, appears on both the NBC News Now streaming channel and all of NBC’s affiliates.
NBC News Daily streams live from noon to 4 p.m. ET and NBC affiliates air one of the hours of the show live, mostly leading in or out of a local newscast.
The newscast was created because NBC affiliates wanted news to replace Days of Our Lives, and NBC News worked with the stations to develop the show, which includes sections where stations can cut away to local news headlines or updates.
“We were grateful we were consulted and happy to be a part of the show,” Tanya Vea, president and chief operating officer for station group Bonneville International and Salt Lake City market manager for Bonneville, told Broadcasting+Cable. “It’s an example of how you would want a network and affiliate relationship to be working, frankly.”
Vea said that when her station, KSL Salt Lake City, spoke with the network, a key was for the show to be live. “I think that was a big commitment by the network not to put up repeats over several hours,” she said.
Bonneville’s KSL started running NBC News Daily in September. The station hadn’t been running Days of Our Lives in pattern and had to wait until its commitments to the syndicated Rachael Ray and Dr. Phil expired.
Vea said KSL considered running NBC News Daily as either the lead-out of its noon news or as a lead-in to its new 4 p.m. newscast before deciding to air it at 1 p.m. local time.
NBC News Daily has held on to 80% of its local news lead-in compared to the 60% the syndicated programming had been retaining.
Going from syndication to news has also benefited the station’s sales staff.
“Sales always wants more live local news and sports,” Vea said. “With syndication we had a little more inventory. Now we have higher-value inventory.”
Extra news inventory will be particularly valuable going into an election year.
Since NBC News Daily launched last year, a number of stations have moved it into better time slots as news lead-ins and lead-outs, at 1 p.m. or 3 p.m., NBCUniversal president, NBC affiliate relations Phil Martzolf said.
“When you're starting to get the valuable time periods leading into the four o'clock local newscast, you know you’re doing something right,” Martzolf said.
Some stations have had conversations with the network about airing two hours of NBC News Daily, Martzolf said.
The numbers are good. Season-to-date on broadcast, NBC News Daily is averaging 1.15 million total viewers and 254,000 viewers among 25-to-54-year-olds, the demographic important to news advertisers.
NBC News Daily has also beaten its main competitor, ABC’s GMA3, in five of the past eight weeks.
Compared to a year ago, NBC News Daily viewing is up 3%.
“It’s been extraordinarily rewarding to see the audiences come in such large numbers and really support the work we’re doing,” Janelle Rodriguez, executive VP, programming for NBC News, said.
“It was an incredible challenge to replace an iconic program like Days of Our Lives with news, but all credit to our affiliate team, who really encouraged us to think about a hard news program,” Rodriguez said.
While there is plenty of breaking news during daytime, the show also focuses on things that are important to viewers, like consumer news and stories about health and parenting.
“I think it gives people the ‘what do I need to know about what’s going on in the world around me, but also what’s news that’s relevant to me in my day-to-day life?‘ ” she said.
The show also gets a boost by using NBC talent that viewers already recognize, Rodriguez added.
NBC News Daily is anchored by Morgan Radford and Vicky Nguyen from 12-2 p.m. Kate Snow and Zinhle Essamuah anchor from 2-4 p.m.
Bonneville’s Vea said she thought the anchors’ stature was one of the show’s strengths.
“Kate is a very well-respected anchor at the network and brings some power to the show,” Vea said. “And Vicky has definitely carved out an area for herself with what she’s done in consumer reporting. And the tie-in between this and the Today show just feels seamless across the network.”
KSL is taking advantage of the opportunity the cut-ins built into the show with the anchors from its noon newscast, and will do more if there’s a local breaking story.
Vea said she is talking to the network about being able to continue to carry NBC News Daily live for more than an hour if the show is reporting a developing news story.
There’s a big difference between interrupting a soap opera or talk show with news and breaking into a network newscast.
“The audience is already there anticipating news,” Vea said.
Adding NBC News Daily has improved KSL’s programming flow, which now blends network and local programming in the mornings and the afternoon.
“We’re a very strong news brand normally, so we've always taken a strong news positioning,” Vea said. “But does this give us more to talk about? For sure. It's definitely given us more to talk about.”
