On Monday, Global Television will launch an hour-long late night news program that will be boosted by a multimedia platform – including news tweets from Global’s veteran anchor, Leslie Roberts.
News Hour Final will have a strong focus on local GTA news. Currently Global has a late-night program that is 30 minutes long, and the extension in length and multimedia revamp allows them to accommodate more news gathered throughout the day, longer weather forecasts and more consumer and special reports. ‘What we really want to establish is an open dialogue with our viewer,’ says Ward Smith, news director, Global News Ontario.
News Hour Final, which will also include live blogging and live reports, and will invite users to participate online at GlobaltvOntario.com. It’s an effort to ‘stray away from the box-car news approach,’ says Smith. ‘We know that a lot of people are on their computers when they’re watching TV. Our goal really is to reflect what’s out there, already happening.’
Last month, in a cost-cutting measure, Canwest announced it was eliminating Global’s noon-hour newscast. The late-night extension taps into what Global sees as a stronger audience base in the nocturnal viewers who are watching more TV when they come home from work. ‘I think [it] is a better use of our resources,’ Smith tells MiC.
