We Are Iowa

What We Are Iowa does

We Are Iowa is the consumer-facing brand of WOI-TV (Local 5), a local broadcast television station headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, that delivers hyperlocal news, weather, and sports coverage to central Iowa. The station produces original local journalism, severe weather coverage, and community-focused content (including the Weather Lab educational franchise, HeartThreads, and Artist Spotlight segments), and distributes it across a multi-platform footprint comprising over-the-air broadcast, the weareiowa.com news portal, iOS and Android mobile apps, the WeAreIowa+ 24/7 OTT streaming service on Roku and Amazon Fire TV, and a YouTube channel. The technical stack is a conventional broadcast-and-CMS architecture operated on shared TEGNA media infrastructure, with no disclosed proprietary AI or data platform components beyond standard interactive radar and weather alerting functionality.

The business model is a hybrid of broadcast advertising (the primary revenue stream, monetized through on-air commercials and digital display/video ads on owned properties) and an emerging direct-to-consumer subscription tier (WeAreIowa+) priced on a monthly cadence but with publicly undisclosed rates. The station is owned and operated by TEGNA Inc. (NYSE: TGNA), a publicly traded broadcast and digital media company that owns approximately 64 U.S. television stations and provides shared technology, advertising sales support, and content syndication. Go-to-market is direct-to-consumer: WOI-TV reaches Iowa households through free over-the-air reception, cable/satellite carriage, and self-serve digital access, with no enterprise sales motion or named B2B customers disclosed. The customer base is geographically narrow — residents of central Iowa and the Des Moines metropolitan area — and the value proposition is centered on local relevance rather than scale or technology differentiation.

Name

We Are Iowa

Legal name

WOI-TV

Website

https://weareiowa.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1950

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

We Are Iowa (WOI-TV, Local 5) is a TEGNA-owned local broadcast television station and digital news platform that delivers hyperlocal news, weather, and sports content to residents of central Iowa and the Des Moines metropolitan area via broadcast, web, mobile, and OTT streaming.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Local Broadcast Television

NAICS

Television Broadcasting Stations (51612)

SIC

Television Broadcasting Stations (4833)

akta.pro primary industry

Network-Affiliated Local TV Stations (ABC/CBS/NBC/FOX/CW/Telemundo/Univision, etc.) (MPABACAE)

akta.pro secondary industry

News OTT & Live News Streaming Channels (MPABAHAK)

Keywords

• Local news broadcasting
• Weather forecasting
• Local sports coverage
• Over-the-air television
• Streaming news platform

Headquarters

HQ city

West Des Moines

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Advertising Revenue: The station generates primary revenue through advertising sales, including display ads on the website, video ads, and commercials on the broadcast channel. The site uses cookies and similar technologies for interest-based advertising targeting.
2. Subscription Revenue (WeAreIowa+): Premium subscription service offering 24/7 livestreaming access to local news content on OTT platforms including Roku and Amazon Fire TV.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

We Are Iowa is the consumer-facing brand for WOI-TV (Local 5), a local broadcast television station serving central Iowa. The station produces and distributes hyperlocal news, weather, sports, and community content through over-the-air broadcast (Local 5), the weareiowa.com news portal, mobile applications, and the WeAreIowa+ OTT streaming service available on Roku and Amazon Fire TV. Content coverage includes central Iowa weather, Iowa State Cyclones and Iowa Hawkeyes athletics, high school sports, local politics, and community features such as Artist Spotlight and HeartThreads.

Product overview

We Are Iowa (Local 5) is a unified local media platform operated by WOI-TV (a TEGNA station) that delivers news, weather, and sports content to central Iowa. The offering consists of the WeAreIowa.com news portal as the primary digital hub, the WeAreIowa+ OTT streaming service for 24/7 live content delivery on Roku and Amazon Fire TV, a mobile app for iOS and Android, and the Local 5 Weather Lab as an educational weather extension. These products share the TEGNA media infrastructure and collectively serve the Des Moines market with local news coverage, weather forecasting, sports reporting, and community-focused content.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• WeAreIowa+: Subscription streaming service offering 24/7 livestreaming of local news content
• Weather Lab Experience
• HeartThreads
• Artist Spotlight

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• Central Iowa Sports Network (CISN)minorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorLocal 5 has partnered with Central Iowa Sports Network (CISN) to stream high school sports content on the WeAreIowa+ platform, expanding the station's local sports coverage to include additional high school athletic events.
• TEGNA Inc.coreOthersWe Are Iowa (WOI-TV) is owned and operated by TEGNA Inc., a large publicly traded broadcast and digital media company. TEGNA provides technology infrastructure, advertising sales support, and content syndication across its station network.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves3 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• KARE 11: KARE 11 is TEGNA's NBC-affiliated station in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Sister station to We Are Iowa with the same operating model, digital platform, and parent infrastructure, serving a comparable Midwestern regional audience.
• KCCI: KCCI is the CBS-affiliated local broadcast television station in Des Moines, owned by Hearst Television. It directly competes with We Are Iowa across local news, weather, and ad sales in the same DMA.
• WFAA: WFAA is TEGNA's ABC-affiliated flagship station in Dallas-Fort Worth, a sister station to WOI-TV. Comparable as a network-affiliated local TV station leveraging the same TEGNA shared infrastructure, ad sales, and digital platform stack.
• KING 5: KING 5 is TEGNA's NBC affiliate in Seattle, another sister station under the same brand and digital platform conventions used by We Are Iowa, providing a direct operational peer for benchmarking.
• WHO-TV: WHO-TV is the NBC-affiliated local broadcast television station serving the Des Moines DMA, owned by Nexstar Media Group. It is the most direct head-to-head competitor to We Are Iowa (WOI-TV/ABC) in the same market, competing for local news viewers, sports rights, and advertisers.

Broad incumbents

• Sinclair Broadcast Group: Sinclair is a major U.S. broadcast group with stations in dozens of markets. It competes with We Are Iowa for local and national advertising, sports rights, and digital audience engagement across comparable DMAs.
• Nexstar Media Group: Nexstar is the largest U.S. television broadcast operator (owner of WHO-TV in Des Moines and ~200 stations nationwide). It is the dominant broad incumbent competing for local ad budgets, retransmission fees, and syndicated content against TEGNA properties like We Are Iowa.
• Hearst Television: Hearst Television owns KCCI and roughly 30 other local TV stations. As a major station group, it is a broad incumbent that competes with We Are Iowa's parent for ad sales, content syndication, and operating talent across markets.
• Gray Television: Gray Television operates approximately 180 local TV stations across the U.S. It is a broad incumbent broadcast group competing with TEGNA for advertisers, syndicated programming, and digital audience share in similar Midwestern and regional markets.

Emerging players

• Patch: Patch is a digital-first local news network covering thousands of U.S. communities. It is an emerging competitor chipping away at local news share-of-time, particularly among younger Iowa-area audiences that We Are Iowa also targets with its digital properties.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCvoiXGD8UhXXKzbI-tYo_Ig
• Xx.com/weareiowa5news

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about We Are Iowa