NBCUniversal invests in a video news startup

NBCUniversal News Group is announcing a minority investment in NowThisNews, a New York-based startup that’s looking to reinvent video journalism for the Facebook and smartphone era. As part of the investment, the two companies will co-produce original short-form news videos to be distributed across mobile and social platforms.

Broadcasting executives realize that viewers increasingly get their news by glancing on their smartphones instead of spending a half-hour in front of the television. Reacting to that shift, NBC’s news division has invested in a company that will help it produce short videos as brief as six seconds. NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast, will announce on Monday a partnership with NowThis News, a start-up that creates short-form news segments tailored for distribution over social media sites like Vine, Instagram and Snapchat. The videos are also stored on NowThis News’s mobile apps for viewers to watch throughout the day.