Plex Acquires Watchup, Will Likely Integrate News Streaming Into Its Media Apps

Plex has today announced plans to acquire streaming news service Watchup, with a view to delivering news directly to its 10 million users. The move will bring content from the likes of CNN, CBS, Sky News, Euronews, the Wall Street Journal, and more to Plex’s existing users who already access video, photos and music from their own media servers.

Watchup will bring outside news content, regardless of media server, to users of Plex’s apps across mobile, computers and apps on any number of devices including set-top boxes and game consoles.

In its current form, Watchup has deals with 150 partners, which would bring a considerable amount of news-based content to Plex’s user base, something the Plex apps were not previously capable of. According to Plex’s CEO, the whole idea is to bring the content everyone wants under one roof rather than have them need multiple apps and interfaces.

“People have to navigate a ridiculous number of interfaces and apps to get to their favorite content,” said Keith Valory, CEO of Plex. “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. 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.”

Whilst it isn’t yet known whether Watchup will be rolled into Plex’s existing apps or the existing Watchup apps will live on, the language used by Plex’s own CEO would suggest that the company will not want to make its users access content across multiple apps moving forward.

Watchup currently has apps for Android, Fire TV, iOS, Apple TV and, surprisingly, the Nintendo Wii U, but no presence beyond that. Plex’s reach into other platforms should help the service reach more eyes.

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