 | |
| Formerly | Haystack TV |
|---|---|
| Industry |
|
| Genre | News |
| Founded | 2013 |
| Founder |
|
| Headquarters | United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Website | http://haystack.tv/ |
Haystack News (formerlyHaystack TV) is a free ad-supportedstreaming service for local, national and international news video available onsmart TVs,over-the-top platforms and mobile apps.[1] Haystack uses data from each user—such as location, topics of interest and favorite publishers—to create a personalizedplaylist of short news clips.[2] The platform also hosts live channels from local, national and international news outlets.[3]
The company was founded in 2013 as Haystack TV by Daniel Barreto and Ish Harshawat.[4] The two software engineers said they both found it difficult to watch news content on TV without a cable subscription and decided to create an app to fill that void.[5]
Barreto and Harshawat first launched the app in 2014 oniOS andAndroid mobile platforms with funding from Zorlu Ventures, theNational Association of Broadcasters andStanford's StartX Fund.[6]
When Haystack News first launched, it was initially focusing on national news content but by May 2019, the company announced it was utilizing clips from more than 200 local TV stations.[7]
In May 2020, the company rebranded from Haystack TV to Haystack News and launched an interactivenews ticker on its app.[8]
In November 2020, Haystack addedlive streaming news channels to its platform, competing with similar OTT news apps likeNewsON andLocal Now.[3]
Haystack News is available onsmart TVs manufactured byHisense,LG,Samsung,Sony,TCL,Toshiba andVizio; as well as OTT streaming platforms includingAmazon Fire TV,Android TV,Apple TV,Chromecast andRoku.[9] The app is also available onAndroid andiOS mobile devices.[10]
By January 2022, Haystack News was the third-most downloaded news app on Roku.[11]
While Haystack initially used content from YouTube to populate its news playlists, news organizations slowly began sharing content directly with the company under revenue-sharing agreements.[10]
As of February 2021, more than 350 news organizations were sharing their content with Haystack News.[12]
