Content involving mature or adult themes. Aggregated from public sources for informational purposes only. Viewer discretion is advised. .

WGME 13 icon
WGME 134.4 (471)

Sinclair Broadcast Group

App Store

Report updated May 22, 2026

WGME 13 is a challenged news app that is completely free. With a 4.4/5 rating from 471 reviews, it faces significant user friction. Users particularly appreciate convenient access to local news and weather updates during daily routines, though frequent application crashes and white screen errors disrupt the news consumption experience remains a common concern.

What is WGME 13?

WGME 13 is a local news and weather application for regional residents, providing live streaming and breaking news alerts on iOS and Android.

Users hire the app to maintain situational awareness of local events and weather conditions during their daily routines.

Current Momentum

v10.24

  • Shipped home screen widget for news.
  • Latest release focused on stability.

Active Nemesis

WFAA - News from North Texas

WFAA - News from North Texas

By Tegna

Other Rivals

ABC 7 New York
NewsBreak: Local News & Alerts
CNN: Live & Breaking News
NBC News: Breaking & US News
Watch Duty: Wildfire Maps

7-Day Rank Pulse 🇺🇸

News

No ranking data

Rating Pulse 🇺🇸

Recent User Mood

What makes this app unique?

What Does It Look Like?

Loading...

What Are The Key Features?

Live News StreamingStandard

Real-time broadcast of local newscasts within the app interface

Breaking News AlertsStandard

Push notifications for local events and urgent news stories

Home Screen WidgetDifferentiator

Automated display of top stories on the device home screen

Weather RadarStandard

Live weather tracking and hourly/daily forecast data

How much does it cost?

Free
  • Free access to all news, weather, and streaming content

Ad-supported model providing free access to content, monetizing via display and video ad inventory.

Who Built It?

What do users think recently?

Low confidence · Latest 60 of 99 total reviews analyzed · Based on 99 reviews. Signal may be noisy.

How did the latest release land?

Overall
4.4/ 5
(471)
Current version
4.7/ 5
+0.3 vs overall
(187)
Main signal post-update: convenient access to local news and weather updates during daily routines.

What is the recent mood?

Frustrated

Recent user voice shows a frustrated sentiment. Users appreciate convenient access to local news and weather updates during daily routines and reliable emergency alert system provides critical information for local residents, but report frequent application crashes and white screen errors disrupt the news consumption experience and excessive video advertisements and forced ad-replays degrade the viewing experience.

What Users Love

Convenient access to local news and weather updates during daily routines
Reliable emergency alert system provides critical information for local residents

What Frustrates Users

Frequent application crashes and white screen errors disrupt the news consumption experience
Excessive video advertisements and forced ad-replays degrade the viewing experience
Inconsistent UI layout and broken navigation elements hinder basic app usability

What Users Want

Landscape orientation support for tablet users to improve reading and viewing comfort

View the full user-sentiment analysis

Mood gauge, ratings & review-volume history, every praise / complaint / request, and sentiment over time.

Go deeper

What is the competitive landscape for WGME 13?

How's The News Market?

Market outlook for this category

Available very soon

The rivals identified

Nemeses(1)

WFAA - News from North Texas icon

Tegna Inc.

4.8(71K)

High-velocity local news platform with significant market penetration and consistent release cadence.

Differentiators

  • Maintains a high-frequency release schedule of six updates in six months to ensure platform stability.
  • Leverages a massive, established user base to dominate the local North Texas news market segment.

Contenders(1)

ABC 7 New York icon
ABC 7 New Yorkmoat: high

Disney

4.8(49.1K)

Strong regional news leader backed by Disney's robust content distribution and frequent feature updates.

Differentiators

  • Utilizes Disney's extensive media infrastructure to provide high-quality live streaming and local news coverage.
  • Aggressive update cycle with ten releases in six months indicates a high commitment to feature parity.

Same space(3)

NBC News: Breaking & US News icon

NBC News Digital, LLC

4.7(150.7K)

A major national news player that competes for the same audience attention as local broadcast apps.

Differentiators

  • Integrates national investigative journalism with a clean, high-performance interface for rapid news consumption.
  • Maintains a steady cadence of ten updates in six months to optimize cross-platform news delivery.
CNN: Live & Breaking News icon

CNN Interactive Group, Inc.

4.8(1.7M)

Global news leader providing a comprehensive, high-scale alternative to local broadcast apps.

Differentiators

  • Offers a global-first perspective with deep integration for live breaking news and international reporting.
  • Provides a consistent, high-fidelity live streaming experience that sets the standard for major news networks.
NewsBreak: Local News & Alerts icon

Particle Media Inc.

4.8(1.4M)

A massive aggregator that dominates the local news space through algorithmic content delivery.

Differentiators

  • Employs a sophisticated algorithmic feed that prioritizes hyper-local content over traditional broadcast news formats.
  • Maintains an industry-leading release velocity with 26 updates in six months to refine personalization engines.

New entrants(1)

Watch Duty: Wildfire Maps icon

Sherwood Forestry Service, Inc.

4.9(37.2K)

Rapidly emerging niche utility that captures high-intent users through specialized, real-time safety data.

Differentiators

  • Provides hyper-specific, real-time wildfire mapping that traditional news apps fail to offer users.
  • Maintains an aggressive 21-release cadence in six months to rapidly iterate on critical safety features.

Compare WGME 13 against every rival

All rivals in one side-by-side table — identity, store metrics, ratings & sentiment, and strategic intel — plus a head-to-head page for each.

Go deeper

The outtake for WGME 13

Strengths to defend, gaps to attack

Core Strengths

  • Live broadcast integration provides a high-intent engagement loop for regional news consumers.
  • Home screen widget maintains brand presence on device home screens to drive daily opens.

Critical Frictions

  • High frequency of white screen errors and crashes on Android platform.
  • Excessive video ad-replays prioritize short-term revenue over long-term retention.
  • UI navigation regressions prevent access to core news sections.

Growth Levers

  • Implement landscape orientation support to improve tablet-based news consumption.
  • Integrate hyper-local safety mapping to compete with specialized utility entrants.

Market Threats

  • Aggressive release cadences from national competitors highlight technical stagnation.
  • Niche safety apps siphon high-intent users from traditional broadcast news platforms.

What are the next best moves?

highPivot

Rebuild Android navigation stack because white screen errors are the #1 complaint → restore content access.

Sentiment analysis identifies crashes and white screens as the primary driver of negative user feedback.

Trade-off: Pause the widget-expansion sprint — stability is the current churn-risk priority.

mediumInvest

Audit ad-frequency caps because forced ad-replays are the #2 complaint → improve session retention.

User reviews explicitly cite excessive video ads as a reason for abandoning the app.

Trade-off: Accept short-term ad-inventory dip — long-term retention requires reducing user frustration.

A counter-intuitive read

The app's reliance on live broadcast streaming is a liability, not an asset, because it forces a linear viewing experience that is increasingly incompatible with the on-demand expectations of modern news consumers.

Feature Gaps vs Competitors

  • Landscape orientation support (available in tablet-optimized news competitors but absent here)
  • Hyper-local safety mapping (available in Watch Duty but absent here)

Key Takeaways

WGME 13 provides essential local news utility, but persistent stability issues and aggressive ad-loading are eroding the user base, so the PM must prioritize technical hygiene over new feature development to prevent further churn.

Where Is It Heading?

Declining

The local news category is consolidating around platforms that offer high-fidelity stability and personalized content, leaving WGME 13 exposed due to its technical debt. Unless the team shifts focus to fixing core navigation and stability, the app will continue to lose market share to competitors with more frequent release cadences.

Persistent white screen errors in the latest release block content access, which directly accelerates the current sentiment decline.

Forced video ads before news segments frustrate viewers, leading to decreased session duration and lower long-term retention.

Disclosure: Independent intel to help mobile builders succeed.

AI-powered analysis with editorial review, built from publicly available sources. Marlvel.ai is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by WGME 13, its developer, the app publisher, Apple, or Google Play. All trademarks, logos, and screenshots referenced remain the property of their respective owners.

What's new

The app has transitioned from a standard news utility to a platform struggling with technical debt and user-hostile ad frequency, resulting in a negative sentiment trend.

declined

Sentiment Shift to Negative

added

Home Screen Widget

declined

Emergence of Technical Weaknesses

declined

New Complaint: Excessive Ad-Replays

Cite this report

Marlvel.ai. “WGME 13 Intelligence Report.” Updated May 22, 2026. https://marlvel.ai/apps/wgme-13

Agent Markdown (.md)See methodologyContact support

Data licensed under CC-BY-NC 4.0