18 Additional U.S. TV Stations Tap Into Blackbird by TownNews

Blackbird is being used by 18 more US TV Stations for digital news production following TownNews’ latest deployment. This is the fifth expansion of Blackbird by TownNews since the partnership began in 2018.

69 US TV stations now use Blackbird remotely and safely to rapidly access, edit and publish news content fast to social and web platforms. When paired with TownNews’ Field59 VMS, news stories can be delivered to viewers with unbeatable speed and control using Blackbird’s browser-based, carbon efficient cloud native video editing platform. US TV stations using Blackbird now span 35 states.

“Blackbird’s high-quality, frame-accurate cloud editing software gives our broadcast customers a huge competitive advantage,” says Derek Gebler, Vice President of Broadcast and Video for TownNews. “The growth of the Blackbird TownNews partnership over the past three years has been extremely exciting, and we look forward to continuing our mutual collaboration for a long time to come.”

Over 350 local TV stations in the US produce approximately six hours of news content per day with the industry generating nearly $31 billion in revenues annually. With an estimated 43% of US adults sourcing their news from websites and social media, millions of viewers in the US now consume content through the Blackbird and TownNews’ Field59 VMS platform.

“Congratulations to TownNews on their new station wins,” says Blackbird CEO, Ian McDonough. “We are thrilled to expand our services with them to 69 news stations across 35 states from the 2 we started with back in 2018. This is an excellent example of the ‘Blackbird inside’ OEM strategy working and a superb endorsement of our technology in the fast-paced environment of news production.”