Al Gore and Joel Hyatt Unveil "Current"

Yahoo News ^ | Apr 4, 2005 | PRNewswire

[james500]

Offering a glimpse of the independent network first announced at last year's National Cable & Telecommunications Association convention, former Vice President Al Gore and entrepreneur Joel Hyatt, joined by executives and on-air talent, revealed this morning that the name of the new venture, formerly known as INdTV, will be Current. The unveiling of the much-anticipated network's positioning, logo and prototype programming reel took place at a press conference in Current's San Francisco headquarters during NCTA '05.

[mhking]

Based on that, it looks to be a "younger, hipper" version of Bravo with a schedule entirely composed of independant content.

Naaaa. After looking at the longer form of their release (PDF), I'm convinced they're trying to do "Blip-Verts" (any Max Headroom fans remember that?) for the unwashed masses.

[Hegemony Cricket]

Current? My prediction: Resistance!

[rocksblues]

Didn't he invent the Internet?

[speekinout]

The first national network created by, for and with an 18-34 year-old audience,

What dorks they are. The 18-34 market is not exactly homogenous. Many tv and political ventures have already tried to appeal to that audience. Will they wind up appealing to the students in the 18-24 group (who largely don't vote), or the 30ish crowd who have careers, are starting families and have interests more like the 40's and 50's?

I don't know any show or network that has succeeded with that age range. I'm sure that someone will correct me if I'm wrong.
(Yes, I do know that some things like football appeal to everyone in that range, but they appeal to older and younger people as well)

[Recovering_Democrat]

Currents pull things under, don't they? Sounds like a fitting name.

[pepperhead]

What's this, LinkTV with more money?

[PAR35]

You don't get full credit unless you come up with Joel Hyatt's orginal name.

[Voltage]

Time to revive NET National Empowerment Television.

[dennisw]

AlGore's the front man. How much did he put up? $2 and a can of baked beans?

[lainie]

I just realized Al & Friends are using current.tv -- dot-tv. That's hilarious.

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

http://money.cnn.com/2004/05/04/news/international/gore_vivendi/

Gore is expected to be the chairman of the NWI board, while Hyatt will be running the company as the new cable network's chief executive officer, the company said.

"This will not be a political network," the former U.S. vice president said in a statement. But NWI will be developed into a network offering programming for a target audience of 18-34 year-olds, said the company.

Newsworld International is a 24-hour channel broadcasting international news produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC). It is distributed to about 17 million subscriber homes.

ALL COMMUNIST TV ALL THE TIME

wonderful just freeking WONDERFUL

[SolidRedState]

And, in a few years, Al can claim he invented television.

[Nick Danger]

See, this is what happens when you put Al Gore on the board of Apple Computer. A couple years later, he thinks he's cool.

[Dont Mention the War]

Wow. The entire design of Current just screams "1990s retro".

I'd say it was doomed, but I presume they'll find useful idiots to toss them funding for years to come, even as they never pull more than 5,000 viewers.

[L.N. Smithee]

Current is led by a talented executive team with deep experience in television news, entertainment, business, finance, advertising sales, marketing and youth culture. They include: ... David Neuman (President, Programming)... most recently, chief programming officer at CNN, spearheading the revamping of the network's primetime strategy and the hiring of Anderson Cooper, Soledad O'Brien and Paula Zahn...

And that's worked out so well for CNN. One wonders why he isn't still working there.

[singletrack]

Its ZOOM.A 70s kid show is now a real network. TV by kids for kids.
Zooma, Zooma, Zooma, Zoom
I hope the Currant newscasters speak " ubby dubby" talk

[L.N. Smithee]

I loved ZOOM as a kid. I had a crush on Donna and Bernadette (the Asian chick who did the arm thing).

[hershey]

So they plan to steal MTV's audience?

[goldstategop]

When Algore's involved with anything, its usually something that goes south.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[L.N. Smithee]

So they plan to steal MTV's audience?

I don't know if they can. MTV's programming is lowest com denom -- as feeble as Current sounds, it's not dumb enough for Empty-V people. They would probably flip away after realizing nobody was going to set themselves on fire or strip down to a thong.