Skip to main content

Plex acquires Watchup streaming news service in quest to serve all your media

Plex acquires Watchup streaming news service in quest to serve all your media

Share this story

Plex, the streaming media application, just announced the acquisition of the streaming news service Watchup. The deal includes Watchup's team of engineers, but terms of the cash and stock transaction were not disclosed. 

Watchup plays host to over 150 news sources including CBS, CNN, Vox (disclaimer: Vox is a sister site of The Verge), and Hearst Television. Investors include Turner Broadcasting, Tribune Media, and former executives from The Wall Street Journal. As a service, Watchup lets you choose TV channels and content types to build a custom news feed that can then be fine-tuned by liking and disliking stories. Plex stresses that these are "credible news sources" with a nod to the many fake news sources available in this post-truth era.

Watchup on Amazon Fire TV
Watchup on Amazon Fire TV
Watchup

“Our mission at Plex has always been to provide our users with one simple and personalized window into all of their media, accessible from any device," said Plex CEO Keith Valory. "Adding a trusted and reliable news experience into Plex, so that people can choose and organize the news they care about along with the other content they care about, is a natural next step for us.”

The purchase of Watchup, like the rollout of Plex DVR and the company's recent efforts around photo and music sharing, should help assuage Plex's reputation as "a pirate's best friend." Plex says that it's setting its sights on building out a content ecosystem in 2017, and today's acquisition is a clear step in that direction.