Brian Williams Goes Long on Talk, Short on Flashy Graphics in Amazon Election-Night Streaming Debut

variety.com:

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Brian Williams didn’t come to Election Night to break news, but rather to put it all together.

The longtime NBC News veteran kicked off an interesting American experiment Tuesday evening by taking to Amazon’s Prime Video to host an hours-long Election Night special that showed him using his gift of gab while his corporate benefactor got to experiment with fishing for audiences for broadcasts of live events that didn’t come in the form of an NFL match-up or other sports event. “Election Night with Brian Williams,” made available to anyone who wanted to watch it — whether or not they held an Amazon Prime subscription — launched at 5 p.m., well before official coverage kicked off at MSNBC, Fox News Channel, CBS News or ABC News, and just as CNN began to look at its first exit poll of the evening and NBC News took over its broadcast network for a 24-hour-long coverage session.

The show is just one of a number of new-tech gambits aimed at reaching a younger generation of news viewers. CNN offered live vertical video in its app, offering special coverage for the mobile audience.

NBC News launched a special “Kornacki-cam” on its Peacock streaming service, giving subscribers the chance to focus closely on Steve Kornacki, best known for his interactive political maps and statistics.