BuzzFeed News and Decision Desk HQ Team Up on Election Night Coverage Through 2018

BuzzFeed News and Decision Desk HQ Team Up on Election Night Coverage Through 2018

BuzzFeed News and Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ) announced today that they’re partnering on election night coverage through 2018. BuzzFeed News and DDHQ have worked together on a number of successful election live streams already – the 2016 presidential election, Georgia’s 6th congressional district special election, Montana’s at-large congressional district special election, Alabama’s Senate special election – and are excited to expand their existing relationship to bring audiences a fast, accurate alternative to the television network’s single set of election data.

As part of the partnership, DDHQ will provide BuzzFeed News election data, and founder and director Brandon Finnigan will participate exclusively in BuzzFeed News’ election night broadcasts.

“Our focus at Decision Desk HQ is to provide accurate election night results fast and first. We do this by embracing new technologies and an open mind about how we approach our work,” said founder of DDHQ Brandon Finnigan. “We’re excited to continue and deepen our partnership with BuzzFeed, a news organization that shares our passion and commitment to the transparent reporting of election results.”

“DDHQ is the real thing: An internet-native startup, born on Twitter, with same transparency and sophistication that we seek to bring to news,” said BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith. “We’re thrilled to continue to work with Brandon and the team at Decision Desk HQ to change the way elections are reported and understood to fit a contemporary audience.”

Tens of millions of people have tuned into BuzzFeed News’ live video productions, from the Inauguration to strikes and rallies taking place across the country, most recently in Charlottesville, to coverage of last night’s Alabama Senate special election, “BuzzFeed News Presents Alabama Primary Night,” hosted by Brandon Finnigan and BuzzFeed News Political Editor Katherine Miller. Previously, 7.5 million unique viewers tuned into BuzzFeed News and Twitter’s Election Night special, making it the most-viewed U.S. election related live stream on Twitter.