Reuters brings TV news into the 21st century with new iPhone app

Available for the iPhone, the new app lets users view curated, personalized news coverage from anywhere, on demand. No more sports news for those who couldn’t care less, or political reports for folks who like to keep out of the D.C. drama.

There are two options for the new service: Reuters Now, a curated service which lets you view up-to-date news programs from five-to-30 minutes in length based on your interests and location; and live feeds, which include real-time coverage of global events, either live or on demand. Reuters Now content can also be downloaded for offline viewing.

All content is produced exclusively for Reuters TV, and created in multiple versions to suit viewers – do you want the full report, or just have time for the Cliffs Notes, so to speak? There are teams in London, Hong Kong, New York, and Washington providing 24/7 coverage. Reuters claims the Content will be “more authentic and immediate” than traditional TV news.

Not surprisingly, Reuters says the mobile TV offering is aimed at informed consumers in their 30s and 40s who are “too busy” to watch traditional TV news – i.e. sit through a full one-hour broadcast, including sections in which they are not interested.

That said, the demographic to whom this service appeals may end up skewing even younger, appealing to earlier generations who are actually interested in the news, but have become accustomed to our on-demand, highly customized world of content consumption and simply don’t have the attention span, or the desire to sit through a full news broadcast. This is the generation, after all, of content consumption in little bits and bites – no one has time for a full meal.

Fittingly, Isaac Showman, Managing Director of Reuters TV, calls the app “news for the Netflix age. “The way we consume TV and hear about news has changed,” he says. “It’s individually relevant, on-demand, and up-to date. It’s ideal for viewing during your daily commute.”

Dan Colarusso, Executive Editor of Reuters TV, calls it a “radically new way of presenting news straight to consumers. Reuters TV will be fast when it needs to be fast, deep when viewers want depth, but most importantly, it will be news that’s authentic, coming straight from the source and journalists on the ground.” That’s something that’s harder to dig up from aggregation sites like reddit, or random posts on social media sites.

Currently, Reuters TV for iPhone is available in the U.S. and UK. There’s a free 30-day preview, but ongoing access will run for a subscription charge of $1.99/mo. There will be some “premium” advertising, though Reuters says it will be “limited.”