Charter Communications Inc. is aiming for what it sees as an open niche with the upcoming launch of Spectrum News 1, a 24-hour TV channel focused on neighborhood news across a broad swath of Southern California.
“We are trying to serve our local communities in a different kind of way,” said Scott Warren, senior director of news and content for the station, which will be available to Charter’s 1.5 million or so pay TV subscribers in the greater Los Angeles area. The news will air on channel 1, exclusive to Charter subscribers.
Spectrum News 1 has hired 125 full-time employees in anticipation of a Nov. 16 start, Warren said in a recent interview at the station’s El Segundo office. The staff will include 30 multimedia journalists assigned to report on neighborhoods in Los Angeles, Ventura, Riverside and Orange counties.
The news operation’s mission, Warren said, “is to give a voice to the people that are underserved” by local coverage that can give short shrift to areas, such as South Los Angeles, or insufficient attention to topics that are important but often unsensational, such as education.
Full disclosure: The new channel plans to air a weekly segment with Los Angeles Business Journal Publisher Anna Magzanyan, who will discuss stories from the newspaper’s current edition on a morning newscast.
“As the definitive business news source of L.A., Los Angeles Business Journal is excited to work together with Spectrum and share our news content to a wide viewing audience,” Magzanyan said.
Spectrum News 1 has not struck partnerships with any other media outlets, a Charter spokeswoman said, but it might pursue some in the future.
Some Los Angeles media observers say the news channel could challenge established local broadcast media with a chance to gain standing similar to what Spectrum News NY1 has achieved in the New York City market.
“NY1 has made a real mark in New York City,” said Bob Papper, a journalism professor at Hofstra University who specializes in studies on local news. “It’s a serious player in local news.”
Los Angeles’ Spectrum News 1 likewise “might be able to create a niche,” Papper said, if the station sticks with its plan “to minimize car chases and celebrities.”
Other experts say the station might be spread thin covering an area of thousands of square miles and millions of people.
“I wholly support Spectrum’s plan to deepen coverage of this under-covered region,” said Gabriel Kahn, a professor at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. “But they are up against some powerful forces, including stiff competition from established players who have a running head start and more resources.”
Charter challenge
Spectrum News 1 itself has not offered a definition of what will count as business success in the volatile media marketplace in Southern California. There are no ratings or advertising revenue goals that will determine if the station continues to get Charter’s financing, according to Warren.
Stamford, Conn.-based Charter is Southern California’s largest pay TV and internet provider, and the second biggest cable operator in the United States by customers served after Comcast Cable Communications.
Charter posted $41.4 billion in 2017 revenue, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. It had $4.5 billion in operating income and reported 94,800 full-time employees.
The 31 news and sports stations Charter operates include Spectrum SportsNet LA, which has garnered controversy for a 25-year agreement it reached with the Dodgers in 2014 to exclusively broadcast many of the team’s regular season games. The arrangement makes Dodger games unavailable to L.A. residents who get a cable package from a provider other than Charter.
The news and sports stations are, in any case, a small slice of Charter, figuring into the “other revenues” on the company’s annual report, which pegs those operations along with “home shopping, late payment fees, wire maintenance fees, and other miscellaneous revenues” for $887 million in annual sales, or 2.1 percent of its total.
Charter created Spectrum News 1 “based on market research that demonstrated a high demand in the L.A. market for an unbiased, hyperlocal news channel that delivers content that is relevant to the unique communities that make up Southern California,” a spokeswoman stated.
Charter would not say how much money it has put into Spectrum News 1.
“All I can say is that we are well-resourced,” Warren said.
Airtime to fill
The station, though, may have to add on to its 30 multimedia journalists, according to Papper, in order to fill 24 hours.
A 2018 Hofstra report led by Papper found the average U.S. local news station has 40.4 full-time reporters and anchors. Local news, meanwhile, is on air for a mean of 5.6 hours a day.
L.A.’s highest-rated local news channel, KABC (Channel 7), lists 43 reporters or anchors on its news team and produces an estimated average of 6.5 hours of news each day.
The 24-hour news mission means there could “be a lot of repeat material” on Spectrum News 1’s initial programming, according to Papper.
There also are doubts about how well Spectrum can fulfill its editorial mission.
“Covering, for example, the school system in Santa Monica on TV is a tall order,” Kahn said. “I don’t know how much video-based news you could generate off that.”
Programming plans so far include a four-hour weekday morning show, a two-hour weekend morning show, and a 5 p.m. nightly news program.
There will be features that appear regularly, Warren explained, but the majority of the stories will run throughout the day, within the context of each newscast.
Charter’s expansion into news media follows the company’s purchase of Time Warner Cable in 2016, which has meant a closer eye on Charter in California and a regulatory conflict in New York.
The New York State Public Service Commission ordered Charter in July to exit the Empire State for allegedly not following the terms of its Time Warner Cable purchase.
Charter has since persuaded the New York state agency to extend Charter’s deadline in providing either a plan for exiting the state or the filing of an appeal on its order to exit.
The Public Service Commission’s review of Charter’s New York operations has no bearing on Charter’s California business, the Charter spokeswoman said.
She added that the New York review has had no impact on Spectrum NY1 nor the resources provided to Los Angeles’ Spectrum News 1.
The California Public Utilities Commission also put terms on Charter’s acquisition of Time Warner Cable, including that it expand broadband service in low-income communities.
Charter has not violated any terms imposed by the Utilities Commission, said agency spokeswoman Terrie Prosper, nor has the agency received complaints about the company not meeting its acquisition approval conditions.
Charter did not need regulatory approval to add Spectrum News 1 to its roster of channels.
“The selection of programming is protected by the First Amendment,” Prosper said.
