Some of the material you see will be original, but Oppenheim added that News Now will pull material from the "other corners" of NBCUniversal, including E News and sports.

The service will be entering a competitive field. ABC News Live is the most obvious rival due to its relatively recent launch, but there's also the long-serving CBSN as well as online-focused outlets like Cheddar. NBC might not have much choice, as Oppenheim pointed out. People's news habits are "changing rapidly," he said -- if NBC didn't act, it might miss out on viewers who have no inclination to tune in to conventional TV.