The news that the parent company of WMUR will join four other large television station groups to create their own streaming service so you watch Tom Griffith live on your smartphone is a sign of innovation in the TV industry.

Or maybe that should be desperation.

“People are spending more time looking at their cell phone screens than their TV screens,” said Josh Lauer, media studies professor at the University of New Hampshire. “Television audiences are probably never coming back. This is their effort to stem the tide; I don’t think they can reverse it.”

It’s no secret that the Internet and mobile communications have upended traditional media. Newspapers and magazines have seen their advertising-based business models eviscerated, the music-publishing industry has shrunk by half, cable-TV subscriptions have stagnated and broadcast television viewership is falling.

But local television, anchored by local newscasts, is still very popular, in New Hampshire as well as throughout the country. And it’s profitable, especially in New Hampshire when presidential politics is almost always in full swing, as demonstrated by businessman/politico Bill Binnie’s launch of the NH1 News Network in September 2014.

“There’s a lot of money to be made in local television news – people care about it,” said Lauer.

It’s a business worth protecting as habits shift from living-room TVs to hand-held devices, hence the plan to launch what NewsON this fall.

It’s not the first online foray for WMUR. Like most media companies, including The Telegraph, the Manchester-based ABC affiliate has had an online presence for years that mostly repackages regular content. The June 10 announcement of the creation of NewsON service by five television groups, which collectively reach two-thirds of the nation’s TV households, is a different matter.

For one thing, the business model is different. NewsON (www.NewsON.us) is a separate venture formed by The ABC Owned Television Station Group, which includes WMUR and WCVB in Boston, as well as Cox Media Group, Hearst Television, Media General and Raycom Media.

It will have its own CEO – Louis Gump, who was involved in the mobile business for The Weather Channel and CNN – and will bundle the newscasts from all these competing companies into a free, ad-supported service smartphone and tablet apps.

“The member station groups will pay a fee to be part of the service, and there will be a revenue split of the advertising,” said Tom Campo of Campo Communications in Washington, D.C., who handled questions about the announcement.

NewsON, which plans to launch in the fall, will include live streams of newscasts from at least 112 stations in 94 “viewing markets” (Manchester is lumped in with Boston by the Neilsen Co., so WMUR and WCVB share a market), plus “on-demand replay for at least 24 hour period,” Campo said. At the moment, the website is just a place-holder.

Future plans include creating “short clips” from newscasts, Campo said. Such clips suitable for sharing via Facebook, Twitter and other social-media services, can be a big driver of audience numbers.

Lauer says the service holds out hope for income from more online video ads, one of the few bright spots in the shrinking market of traditional advertising.

“I could see the appeal of having some sort of cooperative aggregator. … If local news can find ways to attract local video advertisers, that’s in their interest as well,” he said.

On the other hand, he added, the joining of hands by traditional competitors also reflects weakness.

“If they’re going to share ad revenues, it means they’re not optimistic about the future going it alone,” he said.

David Brooks can be reached at 594-6531, dbrooks@nashuatelegraph.com or @GraniteGeek.