• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, July 15, 2025

Still looking for young viewers to watch old -- and especially new -- TV/video platforms? Walt Disney, for one, is making another attempt.

Streaming platforms have long benefited from shared news TV content with their sister linear TV networks -- but little has come via original series with a different news angle.

Currently, existing news shows and content come from “60 Minutes” for Paramount+, MSNBC and CNBC for Peacock, and CNN for WBD’s HBO Max.

While NBC News Now can be found on Peacock, it started as an ad-supported/free streaming news service in May 2019 with general live news, analysis and in-depth reporting.

Disney+ has had on-demand content from ABC News, including "Good Morning America," "ABC World News Tonight with David Muir” and "Nightline."

Now, for the first time, Disney+ will add a new original daily show -- “What You Need To Know,” a short-form news series -- available on demand for 24 hours and hosted by two “GMA” on-air hosts. It will be refreshed every 24 hours, premiering at 6 AM ET.

What is so special here? Disney says the show will hope to bring “new and diverse audiences” with what it calls “smart, bite-size commentary” -- a “re-imagining” of news programming.

New attempts to reach audiences seem to be geared toward pulling in more young audiences -- which, generally speaking, are viewers that streaming platforms already gain benefits from.

Perhaps one might consider this another test of sorts for legacy TV companies in expanding content on the big, increasingly wide-ranging premium platforms.

Years ago efforts like Vice Media’s Vice TV -- starting in 2016 -- tried to stake a claim on linear TV cable networks to cater to young viewers, with documentary-style and deep analysis content.

But that effort has not worked out so well. Its earlier start years came as cable TV networks were taking a downturn -- in terms of cord cutting -- from all types of consumers.

In April 2023, Vice Media said it was restructuring and downsizing its news division. A month later, Vice filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Vice TV now has 43 million U.S. cable/satellite subscribers as of November 2023.

Even before deep cord-cutting of cable networks, young TV subscribers/viewers were already abandoning linear TV and moving onto digital media platforms -- especially social media, as well as connected TV platforms.

Increasingly, Americans have been getting much of their news content from social media platforms. And while still-growing channels like Fox News Channel are currently doing well -- it still comes via mostly from older U.S. demographics, age 55-plus and 65-plus viewers.

What will the future look like, say, 10 years ahead for news? It’s an AI world coming fast and furious.

Young news consumers will now filter that content into the mix. How confusing will that be?