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.
