OTT News Network Newsy Buying Cable, DBS Carriage Contracts

E.W. Scripps' Newsy over-the-top news network will become a cable network through a purchase of carriage contracts from the Retirement Living TV (RLTV) cable network, Scripps said Wednesday. It said after the takeover of RLTV's carriage agreements covering about 26 million subscribers RLTV will be reprogrammed with Newsy's lineup of programming already available to virtual MVPDs. It said the transition will begin in coming months, with Newsy ultimately reaching about 40 million cable and direct broadcast satellite subscribers by the end of 2018. It said the purchase price of the carriage contracts will be up to $23 million, depending on the number of subscribers that come under contract with the cable companies and convert to Newsy.