Each month, the Gray Television OTT desk recognizes a station that goes above and beyond in its streaming news coverage with The Local News Live OTTy Award. This month’s winner is WMC Action News 5, the group’s NBC affiliate in Memphis.
Each month, the Gray Television OTT desk recognizes a station that goes above and beyond in its streaming news coverage with The Local News Live OTTy Award.
This month’s winner is WMC Action News 5, the group’s NBC affiliate in Memphis.
Its digital desk produces three hours of streaming news coverage each day, covering a wide variety of topics from hard news to community culture.
If you catch the digital desk in action, you’ll likely see WMC anchors Andrew Douglas, Joe Birch and Joy Redmond on the desk talking with community leaders and experts.
Meteorologists Erin Thomas and Sagay Galindo also make guest appearances as well as OTT producer Amanda Hanson.
While the three-hour streaming block is a team effort, it would not be possible without the driving force behind the initiative: Amanda Hanson, the OTT producer. It’s her job to fill the several hours’ worth of content, be the liaison between WMC and Local News Live, and play a key part in coordination to make the OTT desk segments possible.
As soon as Hanson learned about the Local News Live OTTy awards, she has made it her goal to win one.
Local News Live Anchor Ryan Piers surprised her with the news that WMC carries the honor of being named an OTTy award winner this week. (Scroll t0 1:30 in the sizzle reel)
While filling three hours of streaming content can seem daunting, Hanson handles it with ease thanks to the WMC team’s help.
“It’s really been a team effort coming up with ideas,” Hanson says. “We have a lot of people in the newsroom that will send us emails on just ideas, the things we can do, things happening in the community, big newsmakers that are going on.”
Having a dedicated OTT desk producer in the newsroom helps the OTT anchors transition seamlessly from linear newscasts to streaming on a daily basis.
“We can kind of work alongside each other,” Hanson says. “I can help do some of the prep work so that when they go back behind the digital desk, they are ready. They can get on quickly and get all the information they need or be able to conduct the interviews that are providing a lot of good narrative information for our viewers.”
Hanson’s No. 1 piece of advice for those new to an OTT desk is to take risks while figuring out what content to air on your streaming platforms.
“If you have ideas, try [them]. If they don’t work, then you don’t do them again,” Hanson says. “But to me, I feel like there’s nothing wrong with trying new things. Try to think outside the box.”
WMC has big plans for expanding the three-hour streaming block even further in the future, so stay tuned.
Congratulations to Amanda and the WMC Action News 5 team for being the April winners of the OTT MVP Otty AWARD.
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