Report updated Apr 17, 2026
27 News NOW - WKOW
For residents of Madison and South Central Wisconsin seeking localized news, weather, and sports updates.
27 News NOW - WKOW is a challenged news app that is completely free. With a 4.5/5 rating from 794 reviews, it faces significant user friction. Users particularly appreciate local news content, though technical stability and performance remains a common concern.
What is 27 News NOW - WKOW?
Current Momentum
v3.1
• Bug fixes and performance improvements.
Active Nemesis
Channel 3000 News
By Morgan Murphy Media
Other Rivals
7-Day Rank Pulse 🇺🇸
NewsNo ranking data
Rating Pulse 🇺🇸
Recent User MoodAI-powered deep analysis surfacing high-signal insights. Still in beta, accuracy improves daily. For informational purposes only.
What makes this app unique?
What Does It Look Like?
How Is The App's Momentum Right Now?
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What Are The Key Features?
Localized weather forecasting and tracking for the South Central Wisconsin community
Dedicated coverage of local teams including Badgers, Packers, Brewers, and high school sports
Access to live news broadcasts and video content directly within the app
How much does it cost?
- Free to download and use
The app is a free utility designed to extend the station's broadcast reach and capture digital ad revenue.
Who Built It?
Allen Media Broadcasting
Providing hyper-local news and high-precision weather tracking to regional communities through integrated broadcast partnerships.
Portfolio
13
Apps
Who is Allen Media Broadcasting?
Allen Media Broadcasting operates as a localized digital extension of regional television newsrooms, leveraging established broadcast trust to dominate local news and weather niches. Their moat is built on proprietary local data and high-resolution radar assets that national competitors struggle to localize with the same granularity. The portfolio's high release velocity indicates a sophisticated white-label platform strategy, allowing them to maintain dozens of high-performing, region-specific apps with a unified technical infrastructure.
Who is Allen Media Broadcasting for?
- Local residents
- Commuters in specific US broadcast markets requiring real-time safety alerts
- Community-centric news
Portfolio momentum
The publisher maintains an exceptionally high development cadence with 65 releases across 43 active apps in the last 6 months.
What other apps does Allen Media Broadcasting make?
What do users think recently?
High confidence · Latest 100 of 792 total reviews analyzed
How did the latest release land?
What is the recent mood?
Recent user voice shows a frustrated sentiment. Users appreciate local news content, but report technical stability and performance and notification issues.
What Users Love
What Frustrates Users
What is the competitive landscape for 27 News NOW - WKOW?
How's The News Market?
How does it evolve in the News market?
| Country | Category | Chart | Rank | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸 US | News & Magazines | AndroidFree | #190 | NEW |
The rivals identified
The Nemesis
Channel 3000 News
Morgan Murphy Media
Channel 3000 (WISC-TV) is the dominant local news leader in the Madison market, competing directly for the same South Central Wisconsin audience with a nearly identical feature set.
Head to Head
While WKOW maintains a higher numerical rating, its low sentiment score and technical complaints give Channel 3000 the edge in long-term user retention. Channel 3000 is the incumbent that WKOW must disrupt through improved app stability.
What sets 27 News NOW - WKOW apart
Higher average App Store rating (4.5 vs ~4.0 for Channel 3000)
More comprehensive dedicated coverage of regional professional sports (Packers/Brewers/Badgers)
What's Channel 3000 News's Edge
Better sentiment regarding ad-to-content ratio
More reliable push notification delivery for breaking news
Peers
Spectrum News: Local Stories
★4.7 (48.7K)Charter Communications
⚡Provides regional Wisconsin news and weather for Spectrum subscribers, acting as a secondary news source for many Madison residents.
24/7 local news cycle without traditional broadcast time slots
Exclusive weather data and hyper-local community stories
New Kids on the Block
AI-driven personalization that learns user interests faster than station apps
Hyper-local 'neighborhood' level news granularity
The outtake for 27 News NOW - WKOW
Strengths to defend, gaps to attack
Core Strengths
- Comprehensive regional sports coverage (Packers/Brewers/Badgers)
- Strong 'StormTrack' weather brand recognition
- High volume of App Store ratings
Critical Frictions
- Severe technical instability and loading failures
- Broken push notification deep-linking
- Intrusive video advertising UX
Growth Levers
- Stabilize live stream to disrupt Channel 3000's market lead
- Expand hyper-local high school sports reporting
Market Threats
- AI aggregators like NewsBreak siphoning local traffic
- Competitors using more stable, standardized app templates
What are the next best moves?
Fix notification deep-linking architecture
Users report that clicking notifications fails to open the specific story, a top complaint that breaks the primary re-engagement loop.
Optimize app boot sequence and load times
Technical stability is the #1 frustration theme, with users citing frequent freezes and stories failing to load.
Audit ad-to-content ratio and timing
Medium-frequency complaints indicate users are uninstalling specifically due to intrusive video ads appearing immediately upon app launch.
Feature Gaps vs Competitors
- Integrated local lifestyle content (available in Channel 3000 via Madison Magazine)
- AI-driven personalization (available in NewsBreak)
- Ad-free experience for subscribers (available in Spectrum News)
Key Takeaways
WKOW has a strong content moat in regional sports and weather, but it is currently leaking users to Channel 3000 and NewsBreak due to a broken technical experience. If the PM does not prioritize fixing the notification-to-story pipeline and general stability, the app's high rating will continue to be eroded by its 'Upset' user base.
Where Is It Heading?
Declining
Upset mood label driven by high-frequency technical stability complaints.
Broken deep-linking for notifications directly impacting user retention.
Recent updates focused only on 'bug fixes' without addressing core UX failures reported by users.