Jack Perry, founder and CEO of Syncbak, a media company enabling live local OTT for broadcast stations in 209 markets across the nation, has been solving technology challenges faced by the local broadcast industry for three decades.  Perry believes that local broadcasters are, and always will be, an extremely important part of the news ecosystem – here’s why:

News is breaking everywhere, and usually it’s the local reporter who makes it to the scene first.  Who can forget the image of O.J. Simpson in his white Ford Bronco flying down the Los Angeles freeway? Sure, the networks eventually broke in with coverage, but it was a local broadcaster who was first on the scene covering that seminal moment.

National news outlets just don’t have the bandwidth to tell all of the important local stories.  Networks like CNN are doing an amazing job covering many of  the major national and international stories.  However, they just don’t have the bandwidth, nor hours on-air, to cover every story that is important to every town across the U.S.  And because of that, viewers getting news only from national sources may miss out on the important stories unfolding right in their backyards.  That’s where local news comes in.  These reporters are working hard, deep in the trenches, to make sure viewers are informed on the issues, legislations, and events in their local areas that will have a big impact on their lives—good or bad.

We are all going somewhere.  The COVID-19 pandemic will eventually end and give way to people traveling again.  Wherever you are going, or thinking of going, there is a local broadcaster in that market ready to arm you with all the necessary information you will need about what is happening in that community.  The SBTV app delivers local newscasts that report details about what is happening at your destination in real time, that you won’t be able to find in a travel guide book or website, or via national news.

We are all from somewhere.  No matter where our journey takes us across the US or even the world, we always keep our hometown close.  Staying connected with the local news where we’re from helps to keep us informed about how certain situations are evolving as well as some of the great things we should check out when we return for a visit.  Again, the opportunity to stream local news from anywhere you are  makes it easy to watch the local news in our hometowns from any place and at any time.

There are all these interesting things we otherwise would not get to see.  Just last month the iconic Iditarod sled dog  race took place in Alaska.  A local Anchorage-based television station, KTUU, decided to capture the race for viewers.  However, they didn’t just broadcast the race locally over the air, they decided to stream it to out-of-market OTT viewers via SBTV as well.  The station experienced a 744% increase in viewers on the SBTV app the week of the race, with many of the viewers tuning in from states and countries hundreds of thousands of miles away from Alaska. Because a local station was on the ground, viewers across the world were able to experience this very unique sporting event.