Online news provider The Huffington Post is planning launch a live streaming video channel, offring an online rival to traditional 24 hour TV news networks.
The new service is set to launch this summer, offering 12 hours of original programming 5 days a week.
Roy Sekoff, co-founder of the Huffington Post, described the ambitious video network as CNN meets YouTube and said it would be staffed by about 100 employees.
Arianna Huffington, the site’s founder, explianed how the service would work: “The network will be built around segments spotlighting the biggest, hottest, most engaging stories HuffPost is covering at any given moment and using them as the jumping-off points for conversations, commentary, and comedy.”
“These segments will be as long – or as short – as they need to be. We won’t be limited by the usual time constraints of TV. Instead, the HuffPost Streaming Network will emulate the online experience.”
Huffington said the HuffPo Streaming Network would be “more relaxed, more free-flowing, and much more spontaneous and interactive” than traditional TV.
Described as a “never-ending talkshow” the platform will “live on every platform — computer, smartphone, tablet, Over-the-Top TV — with the goal of creating the most social video experience anywhere,” Huffington wrote.
The Huffington Post now belongs to AOL, which purchased the domain last year for $315 million.
The US Huffington Post network reported 36.2m unique views a month, a 47% rise year on year, according to Huffington.
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