“Too many Ads!! — Every news article starts with an Ad. It’s so annoying. Today, I was trying to watch a live broadcast of a news conference on an active shooter at a college. There should never be Ads to access this type of news. Shame on…”
Independent automated assessment · 3 signal sources · 503 reviews scanned · analyzed 2026-10-04.
4.6 ★15,659 ratings
—Downloads
12+Age rating
136 MBApp size
FreeIn-app purchases
About this app
Stay connected to Boston with the WCVB Newscenter 5 app!
Be the first to know about breaking news, weather updates, and top stories in Boston and the surrounding area. With the WCVB NewsCenter 5 app, you’ll have real-time news, sports highlights, traffic alerts, and entertainment updates – all at your fingertips. Download for free today and experience news like never before. Trusted by nearly 400,000 users across Boston and New England, the WCVB NewsCenter 5 app is the go-to source for breaking news, weather updates, and more. Join the growing community today!
LIVE NEWS
- Get instant push notifications for breaking news. - Launch full live newscasts using the Nowcast bar. - Catch up on the latest newscast with On Demand playback. - Stay updated with Boston sports results and highlights, including dedicated segments in every newscast.
REAL-TIME WEATHER…
Preview
Real screenshots from the store listing.
Independent evidence report
The evidence behind this assessment
This is where the page changes from an app-store listing into an evidence report: findings, important reviews, pricing and a dated history.
Which version this describes
When we ran this analysis, and what the store lists now.
This analysis describes version 5.15.2313 of the app, analyzed 2026-10-04 . The app may have changed since.
The store currently lists version 5.15.2313, updated 2026-09-29.
What we measured
Each line is a measurement published as a measurement, never a verdict.
Each line is a measurement, published as a measurement. Where we have not looked, the line says so rather than reading as a zero.
Developer replies to reviews
Replies to fewer than 1 review in 20
Price in the store description
States no price and billing period
Cancelling, in the store description
Does not say how to cancel
Themes reported by reviewers
1 theme reported
Counted from the reviews we have read for this app. "No theme reported" means no theme reached our reporting threshold — it is not a finding that nothing is wrong with this app, and we do not say it is.
Five-star share of ratings
Not assessed
No rating histogram has been captured for this app
In the package we scanned
No package has been scanned for this app, so nothing is published about what it ships. That is an absence of evidence about the app, not a finding about it.
Graded bands · predicate set 1.4 · how these are measured
What the analysis found
App-specific findings, grouped by what each one rests on. How they are graded lives on its own page.
The catch list 1
Charges we publish at a strength we stand behind: measured from an artefact, agreed by independent sources, or reported by enough users to clear that charge's own published bar.
Reported by users: Aggressive ad load
Advertising volume or placement that interrupts normal use: ads between every action, unskippable or forced full-screen ads.
What we saw: Raised by 53 distinct reviewers — 10.5% of the 503 reviews scanned on this store leg (App Store).
Highlighted reviews
Representative public review excerpts shown as user reports, not Appworthy audit evidence.
“too many adds, old news — You can’t read any article without having to watch an ad. So…want to see 5 articles…you get 5 ads. And articles get ‘stale’, sometimes it seems like the same article remains for days…so is it really news if it is…”
“Review — The amount of commercials you have is ridiculous and they are the same commercials over and over. Completely disrespectful to the time of your audience.”
Assessment & version history
App changes and Appworthy events in one timeline.
Store listing updated to version 5.15.2313.
What this app sells
Useful store-disclosed pricing, kept below the app listing.
Business modelFree
Prices and terms as disclosed by the store listing.