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News Streaming Services: Exploring Audie...

Palomba, Anthony, ...

Case

News Streaming Services: Exploring Audience Retention and Growth in a Diminishing Broadcast News Landscape

Palomba, Anthony; Golden, Amanda

BC-0318 | Published July 24, 2025 | 15 Pages Case

Collection: Darden School of Business

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Emma Walker is the new senior vice president of strategy for NBC News Now, NBCUniversal Media LLC’s ad-supported streaming platform. NBC News Now has experienced double-digit growth, and its audience has skewed younger than traditional television news, but the platform faces pressures from a rapidly evolving media landscape marked by cord-cutting, news fatigue, trust erosion, rising misinformation, and fierce competition from independent news influencers and traditional rivals. Walker needs to find a business model that allows NBC News Now to flourish within the news marketplace, focusing on the dual pressures of driving innovation while maintaining cost-effectiveness. This case invites MBA students to explore how modern consumers engage with news, how streaming platforms can retain and grow audiences, and how strategic differentiation can help a free ad-supported model thrive. Ultimately, students will evaluate NBC News Now’s value proposition, assess how the platform can strategically differentiate itself in a saturated and skeptical market, and explore how product design, personalization, trust-building, and cross-platform distribution can be leveraged for sustainable audience growth. This case challenges students to think like media strategists, product designers, and cultural stewards, balancing engagement metrics with deeper questions of democratic participation, consumer psychology, and ethical innovation.

- Understand shifting consumer preferences for news consumption and trust - Explore differences between ad-supported and subscription-based streaming news models - Analyze strategic reasons for success or failure (e.g., NBC News Now vs. CNN+) - Examine the role of personalization, UI/UX, tech infrastructure, and content strategy - Debate tensions between journalistic integrity, innovation, and commercial pressures