ChyronHego today announced that the company has been collaborating with Nexstar, Sinclair, and Quincy Media to source and aggregate current U.S. statistics on the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) down to the county level. Working with ChyronHego, the competing broadcast groups have united to ensure that local broadcasters nationwide can provide their viewers with the information they need to navigate the crisis.
With reporters on the ground at call-letter stations, the broadcasters are uniquely positioned to gather and contribute data that reflects the current impact of the virus across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. ChyronHego is aggregating and organizing this data, along with information from leading health organizations, to support more accurate and timely updates at the national, state, and local levels.
"We undertook this initiative because we saw a clear need for better, more readily available information on the spread of COVID-19,\" said Drew Hahn, senior vice president, customer success at ChyronHego. "We knew that with our technology and the human resources of our broadcast partners, we could help to ensure that local news outlets have the tools and information they need to tell this story for their communities. Our hope is that by presenting more complete data than is available from other sources, with granular detail down to the county level, we can support journalists in originating local news stories that educate and inform their viewers."
Founded by former journalists, NewsTicker is a robust, web-based content management platform for the creation of on-screen ticker displays. Leveraging the powerful data management capabilities of PRIME Graphics, NewsTicker makes it easy for local stations to deliver localized channel branding, with seamless display of weather alerts and other breaking news stories. The HTML 5-based user interface ensures producers can control shows remotely from their laptops or tablets.
Nexstar, Sinclair, and Quincy Media have standardized on NewsTicker at the local level, and combined with NewsTicker's other call-letter stations, their stations cover almost all of the United States. Employees from ChyronHego and the four broadcast groups worked after hours and on weekends to bring the COVID-19 database to life quickly, the sooner to help local communities get through the crisis and get back on their feet.
"Through unprecedented and unselfish cooperation, broadcast industry leaders are demonstrating the vital and powerful role journalism can play in serving local communities,\" added Hahn. "Our team worked day and night to help make this collaboration a success. We're proud that the database we've created ultimately will help people and communities across the U.S. to stay informed and stay safe in this very difficult time."
Information about the full ChyronHego product portfolio, including the NewsTicker ticker and branding solution, is available at www.chyronhego.com.
