Networks turn to Web in election-night fight

Associated Press

NEW YORK

After losing viewers to cable news networks on recent election nights, television’s biggest broadcasters are fighting back hard for the midterm contest.

ABC, CBS and PBS will each stream part of their election-night coverage on the Web tonight, and NBC and ABC plan six hours of results lasting into early Wednesday. The networks will involve some of the biggest and most popular websites — Google, Facebook, YouTube and Yahoo! — in delivering their versions of the news.

Their moves are in marked contrast to recent big political nights, when network producers had to fight for limited time while looking jealously at CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC, and their abilities to stay on stories 24 hours a day.

ABC will air election coverage from 9:30 to 11 p.m. in prime time, anchored by Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos.

From 8 to 9:30 p.m., the two anchors will stream a live program on ABC’s website, on Facebook and the ABC News iPad application.

A separate ABC Web- only newscast, anchored by John Berman and Claire Shipman, will be streamed on Hulu, mobile platforms and Yahoo! beginning at 7 p.m. ABC and CBS, in particular, have moved aggressively toward the Web because, unlike NBC, they don’t have a cable outlet.