Channel 1, a US-based start-up founded by Tosh.0 producer Scott Zabielski and tech entrepreneur Adam Mosam, plans to launch a service by the end of 2023 that uses Generative AI to create “personalised” news networks customised to individual viewers’ tastes.
The company said its algorithm will streamline a person’s viewing “in a single experience replacing the hassle of endless searching and scrolling through news aggregators and social media feeds just to stay informed,” and says that it can create far more content than traditional networks because it is drawing from a wider variety of sources and perspectives than traditional network news.
Initial plans are to launch a 30-minute weekly programme via a FAST by the end of 2023 with plans to eventually produce 500-1000 segments daily via a fully personalised app that will launch on mobile and connected TV devices next year.
Channel 1’s programming will be created in “blended reality,” featuring a mix of real and generated imagery, videos and anchors. Each of Channel 1’s virtual news anchors is a fine-tuned LLM (large language model) with their own backstory, opinions, memories and appearance to provide maximum appeal across key demographics, the company said. News stories will be sourced and generated in a multitude of languages allowing the network to serve a truly global audience, said the company.
“We believe our AI-native approach to creating content is the biggest shift in the media landscape since the transition from broadcast to VoD,” said Adam Mosam, founder of Channel 1. “Our global reach and higher production volume allow us to create a hyper-personalised news experience that will help our users more effectively discover what’s happening in their world.”
Even though it can create news feeds skewing specific political views, either right, left or centrist, it will never veer from fact-based reporting, the company told The Hollywood Reporter.
“Although we can give it to you in your perspective, from your set of opinions, we will never, ever break that wall of factual reporting,” Mosam said.
