RSSAl Gore's TV Network Launches
By Ed Oswald | Published August 1, 2005, 2:51 PM
Current, the television network aimed at the younger generation and chaired by former vice president Al Gore, silently went live on Monday to about 20 million households. The network allows its viewers to submit content to be shown on the channel that will give it a television news magazine feel.
The network does its programming in what it calls "pods." Each of the sections are about two to seven minutes long and cover a broad range of topics from parenting, to fashion, finances, and current events.
Every half hour Current will produce a short news brief listing the top searched for news stories courtesy of Google.
The channel also makes use of the Internet through its Web site. Viewers will be able to submit content, vote for what they would like to see on the air, and see a continuously updated schedule of upcoming "pods" on the main page.
However, the network's producers say they realize in order to keep viewers attention, the content they select for air needs to be compelling. Gore has said that they intend for Current "to be the television home page for the Internet generation."
Forget about Gore's political affiliation too. At a news conference for the network in July, he said that Current would be completely non-partisan and would be open to views from all walks of life.
"I think the reality of the network will speak for itself," Gore said. "It's not intended to be partisan in any way and not intended to be ideological."
Current will be broadcast on the old Newsworld International channel, which is available on some cable networks and nationwide on channel 366 on DirecTV - about 20 million homes in total. The network hopes to double that number in a few years.
I'm a liberal democrat and proud of it. Partison or not, If this works as a method for competeing against Karl Rove (the voice behind the throne) and his puppet Bush, and all the garbage they have been promoting (going all the way back to Bush's Texas reign) & especially the last 8 years, then I'm all for it. Their rhetoric & lies are way out of control. So all you nay sayers give this a chance, or change the channel. Americans need an outlet to speak their opinions where they can be heard.
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|I'm an individual and proud of it. I'd rather not identify with either group, though I agree with more conservative ideas than I do liberal. It is partisan, but so is CNN, Fox news, and every other station. CNN is almost always liberal, Fox News is about 1/4th conservative bias and 3/4th liberal biased, and so far this channel is 100%--nevermind.
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|This is how old I am:
241-36+13+111-12-3.5546+78-367+33.334-40 * 1.687346
:)
Enjoy
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|i can see how it might not be non-partisian, buy i think its definatly not going to be partisian.
google wouldnt be involved with anything like that i dont think.
plus, all of the ground qwork for this has already been layed. deep dish tv, paper tiger etc...
vive la epic 2k14!
oh yeah, im 20years old :-P
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|I'm 24. Watched an hour or so of Current last night on my DirecTV. Well, I liked it. But I also love documentaries and indie stuff (like Sundance, IFC) so this channel really works for me. I like the Google stats they show every so often, but that's nothing you couldn't already get from Google's own site. I thought the personalities they have as the hosts are intersting as well. They actually show PERSONALITY and don't just try to act really cool like what you see from MTV's hosts. I think it's off to a pretty good start and I'll definitely be checking it out every so often.
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|"Al Gore's TV Network Launches"
WOW! I CAN BARELY CONTAIN MY EXCITEMENT! YIPPEE!
Oh, it's just Algore. Nevermind.
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|Could everyone else that replys to this give their age? I am curious to see what Gore's target market thinks of his new "invention". I am 20 and I have not seen this channel, but i highly doubt it is non-partisan.
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|I just had to see this but DirecTV has the message "We are experiencing temporary technical difficulties. Please stand by. We apologize for the inconvenience."
This channel must realy suck.
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|I tried it ... lasted about five minutes and fell asleep, head smashed into the remote control and changed the channel.
I WAS SAVED!
What a joke. Black guy telling how black prisoners were mistreated.
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|non-partisan? This is going to be about as non-partisan as NPR or Howard Dean. Honestly why don't they just come out and say this is a liberal outlet? Why not just be honest about the whole thing.
We should all be sick of people on both sides trying to hide behind so called non-partisan outlets.
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|Newsflash: non-partisan Television simply does not exist, and it never will. Unless someone truly has no opinion whatsoever, everyone will lean in one direction when it comes to religion, politics, ethics--anything. Say that all you want, trust me if a discussion ends up promoting conservative ideas someone will intervene.
Actually now that I think about it why is this even on Betanews anyway? Guess cause he invented the Internet :)
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|i thought it was because he invented betanews aswell
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|Well in that case I hope it's liberal and not a dirty conservative channel. :P
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|What a tool!
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|First he invents the internet, now a TV station, next THE WORLD!!!
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|IT SUCKS!
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|Non Partisan eh? I can't wait to see how that plays out.
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|First of all, I was a regular watcher of NewsWorld International, the channel that Current replaced and I was very disappointed to see it go. NWI provided a much needed world view on world news, not the USA network version.
I don't think much of Current's content. I watched bits of the programming the first day. Nothing much--a twenty something girl talking about her innovative modular home designs and some advice on life choices and the latest technical gadets. I tuned in a couple of days later to see they were showing the modular home girl again. Re-runs after two days? I can't imagine how Al hopes to double his audience with this kind of programming.
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