Ad sales effort to increase

Online news channels ABC News Live and CBSN are now streaming on Hulu’s live TV service.

In a memo to the news division at ABC, Colby Smith, senior VP, content & partnerships at ABC News, said the deal with Hulu will add millions of viewers to the breaking news and live events channel.

ABC News Live launched in May. It has been available on The Roku Channel, Facebook Watch and the ABC News website and apps. ABC News Lives show for smartphones on Facebook Watch, On Location, average 3.5 million people watching per week, Smith said.

Smith said ABC News live now regulars attracts hundreds of thousands of viewers. He said he expected audiences to be streaming more than 1 million hours of ABC News Live each week.

ABC will be ramping up ad sales efforts for ABC News Live this quarter with “best-in-class ad technology,” Smith said, adding that there are more distribution announcements on the horizon.

The addition of CBSN is part of a earlier deal with CBS that also included putting CBS Sports Network and Pop on Hulu’s live TV services.

CBSN is approaching it four-year anniversary. CBS says it set new viewership record in September.

The channel delivers live news coverage and in-depth reporting from CBS News’ journalists.

“This is an important step in our ongoing strategy of expanding distribution of CBSN, now available on multiple vMVPDs as well as our CBS News digital platforms,” said Christy Tanner, executive VP and general manager for CBS News Digital. “With access to CBSN’s round-the-clock news coverage and trusted journalism, Hulu subscribers will have the ability to stream the latest breaking news and catch up on the day’s top stories, wherever they are.”