Case Study: KING 5 News creates interactive real-time election coverage with Microsoft Power BI

Power BI Helped KING 5 News Create an Interactive and Engaging Data Story

KING 5 News, a local NBC affiliate in Seattle, wanted to enhance its election coverage by providing its viewers with interactive, real-time data visualizations similar to those used by large national networks. The station's challenge was to achieve this detailed, multi-platform reporting without the budget for expensive custom software. Microsoft provided a solution using its Power BI analytics service.

Microsoft's Power BI, integrated with a Surface Hub, enabled KING 5's reporters to analyze and annotate live election results on-air. The solution automatically refreshed data from an Azure SQL Database, ensuring accuracy across its broadcast, website, and mobile apps. This implementation was a major success, with the station reaching over 367,000 viewers and its published Power BI reports receiving more than 57,000 views, allowing them to report more up-to-date information than even the official state website.

KING 5 News

Peter O’Connell

Executive Producer for Special Projects