Ad-supported streaming television service Haystack TV will change its name to Haystack News as it focuses squarely on delivering local, national and international news updates to viewers.
The change was announced in a press release distributed to reporters early Wednesday morning.
“We are now shifting our consumer brand to Haystack News to better reflect our position as the preferred destination for AVOD news,” Haystack News Chief Executive Officer Daniel Barreto said in a statement.
News has large been the principle product offered by Haystack since it launched in 2014. Since then, it has secured partnerships with Disney/ABC Television Group, CBS Television Stations, Hearst Television, Gray Television, Cox Media Group and Meredith Corporation for local news clips and additional partnerships with Bloomberg, Cheddar and Newsy for national and international clips.
Earlier this year, it started offering live broadcasts from some national news partners and launched a dedicated news ticker that offers text-based rolling news updates superimposed over video.
Haystack says it has seen a 145 percent increase in viewership from May 2019 to May 2020, which it says amounts to users watching a cumulative total of millions of hours each month. The company did not disclose the precise number of users it has.
Haystack offers its streaming app on a number of devices, including all of the leading smart TV operating systems (Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Android TV, Vizio Smart TV and similar systems offered by LG, Sony, Samsung and others), smartphones and tablets (Apple iOS, Android). The service is also accessible on Windows and Mac devices through an internet browser at haystack.tv.
The service is free and supported by occasional advertisement spots interspersed with news content.
The new Haystack News branding is expected to roll out to users within the next few weeks.
