ABC News partners with Facebook to offer live-streaming coverage of DNC and RNC

By Kris Wouk July 18, 2016

researcher using game theory to identify election tampering abc electioncoverage header — Coverage of the 2016 Republican National Convention from the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, which airs on all ABC News programs and platforms. GOOD MORNING AMERICA broadcasts from the convention floor. (ABC/ Ida Mae Astute) ROBIN ROBERTS, GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS ABC/ Ida Mae Astute

If you’re planning on following the Republican and Democratic national conventions online, plenty of services like YouTube, the official streaming partner of both conventions, already have you covered — but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for more.

Facebook and ABC News have partnered to offer live-streaming coverage of both conventions, Variety reports. The coverage will stream 24 hours a day during the conventions via Facebook Live, and will cover speeches as well as interviews, protest coverage, and any other breaking news that may occur during the conventions.

While still primarily a television network, ABC News is quick to point out that the coverage provided via its Facebook Live streams won’t simply be rehashes of its TV programming. Instead, similar to some of the other organizations covering the conventions, it aims to have its correspondents offer a much more ground-level view of what is taking place.

“Our live-stream strategy is all about bringing users a wide variety of unique moments they may not otherwise see on television,” ABC News Vice President of Digital Colby Smith told Variety. “For the conventions in particular, Facebook Live is the perfect platform to reach and engage with our audience, delivering a 360-degree perspective of what’s happening on the ground.”

ABC News is far from the only news organization to be covering the conventions online. Twitter announced last week that it will be offering live-streaming coverage of both conventions in partnership with CBS News, and CBS News launched its own subscription-free Apple TV app in anticipation of the conventions. Meanwhile, BitTorrent Inc. announced that its BitTorrent News online live TV news channel would launch on the same day that the Republican National Convention starts.

The Republican National Convention takes place in Cleveland, Ohio, from July 18 to 21, while the Democratic National Convention is being held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and will run from July 25 to 28.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Kris Wouk is a tech writer, gadget reviewer, blogger, and whatever it's called when someone makes videos for the web. In his…

Social Media

Bluesky barrels toward 1 million new sign-ups in a day

Social media app Bluesky has picked nearly a million new users just a day after exiting its invitation-only beta and opening to everyone.

In a post on its main rival -- X (formerly Twitter) -- Bluesky shared a chart showing a sudden boost in usage on the app, which can now be downloaded for free for iPhone and Android devices.

Computing

How to make a GIF from a YouTube video

woman sitting and using laptop

Sometimes, whether you're chatting with friends or posting on social media, words just aren't enough -- you need a GIF to fully convey your feelings. If there's a moment from a YouTube video that you want to snip into a GIF, the good news is that you don't need complex software to so it. There are now a bunch of ways to make a GIF from a YouTube video right in your browser.

If you want to use desktop software like Photoshop to make a GIF, then you'll need to download the YouTube video first before you can start making a GIF. However, if you don't want to go through that bother then there are several ways you can make a GIF right in your browser, without the need to download anything. That's ideal if you're working with a low-specced laptop or on a phone, as all the processing to make the GIF is done in the cloud rather than on your machine. With these options you can make quick and fun GIFs from YouTube videos in just a few minutes.
Use GIFs.com for great customization
Step 1: Find the YouTube video that you want to turn into a GIF (perhaps a NASA archive?) and copy its URL.

Social Media

I paid Meta to ‘verify’ me — here’s what actually happened

In the fall of 2023 I decided to do a little experiment in the height of the “blue check” hysteria. Twitter had shifted from verifying accounts based (more or less) on merit or importance and instead would let users pay for a blue checkmark. That obviously went (and still goes) badly. Meanwhile, Meta opened its own verification service earlier in the year, called Meta Verified.

Mostly aimed at “creators,” Meta Verified costs $15 a month and helps you “establish your account authenticity and help[s] your community know it’s the real us with a verified badge." It also gives you “proactive account protection” to help fight impersonation by (in part) requiring you to use two-factor authentication. You’ll also get direct account support “from a real person,” and exclusive features like stickers and stars.