Former Vice President Al Gore is starting is own network. It will be released on August 1st. Here is the Press Release from CNN.com
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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Former Vice President Al Gore Monday unveiled his new television network, Current, which aims to attract younger viewers with its short videos and a tie-in with the popular Google Inc. search engine.
The network plans to debut Aug. 1 and be available to 19 million subscription television viewers, Gore said at a news conference at the cable industry's annual convention. Gore led an investment group that last May bought the network from Vivendi Universal for an undisclosed sum.
The channel will show professionally produced segments as well as viewer-produced videos mostly short in length, running from a few seconds to up to 15 minutes.
"We are about empowering this generation of young people in their 20s, the 18 to 34 population, to engage in a dialogue of democracy and to tell their stories about what's going in their lives in the dominant media of our time," he said.
Viewers will also be able to vote for their favorite videos and get tutorials via the Internet on how to produce their own segments, according to network officials.
"We're starting something new and we're trying to bring about a change in the way the television medium is used," said Gore. "We know it's hard, but we're excited about trying."
In addition to the videos, the new network reached a pact with the search firm to include Google data on the most popular Web searches.
The deal came despite early skepticism from Sergey Brin, a co-founder of Google, the No. 1 Web search engine that earlier this year stepped into the realm of entertainment by releasing a test video search service that pulls up still shots from such content providers as Fox News, PBS and the NBA.
When first approached, "I thought it would be an extraordinarily challenging endeavor," Brin said. "Having seen some of the work they've now put together, I think it's an extraordinary opportunity."
Google (Research) did not disclose the terms of the deal. Brin said the company is providing specialized data from its Zeitgeist service, which tracks search patterns and trends.
Gore, who lost the 2000 election in a bitter contest with current President Bush, seemed to have put politics behind him, insisting the channel would not be a liberal pulpit.
"We have no intention of being a Democratic channel, a liberal channel, or a TV version of Air America; that's not what we're all about," he said, referring to the liberal radio network.
Gore serves as chairman of the board of that channel.
The network said its financial backers included Rob Glaser, chief executive of RealNetworks Inc. (Research), Bob Pittman who helped create the popular MTV networks and Joel Hyatt, who is chief executive of the network and built a network of legal services clinics.
Network officials said they were trying to expand the viewer base, but acknowledged that lining up more cable systems was not easy.
So far, they have agreements involving DirecTV's Total Choice tier, as well as in certain markets operated by Comcast Corp. (Research) and Time Warner Inc. (Research).
this was found at: http://money.cnn.com/2005/04/04/news/newsmakers/gore_tv.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes
***********************************
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Former Vice President Al Gore Monday unveiled his new television network, Current, which aims to attract younger viewers with its short videos and a tie-in with the popular Google Inc. search engine.
The network plans to debut Aug. 1 and be available to 19 million subscription television viewers, Gore said at a news conference at the cable industry's annual convention. Gore led an investment group that last May bought the network from Vivendi Universal for an undisclosed sum.
The channel will show professionally produced segments as well as viewer-produced videos mostly short in length, running from a few seconds to up to 15 minutes.
"We are about empowering this generation of young people in their 20s, the 18 to 34 population, to engage in a dialogue of democracy and to tell their stories about what's going in their lives in the dominant media of our time," he said.
Viewers will also be able to vote for their favorite videos and get tutorials via the Internet on how to produce their own segments, according to network officials.
"We're starting something new and we're trying to bring about a change in the way the television medium is used," said Gore. "We know it's hard, but we're excited about trying."
In addition to the videos, the new network reached a pact with the search firm to include Google data on the most popular Web searches.
The deal came despite early skepticism from Sergey Brin, a co-founder of Google, the No. 1 Web search engine that earlier this year stepped into the realm of entertainment by releasing a test video search service that pulls up still shots from such content providers as Fox News, PBS and the NBA.
When first approached, "I thought it would be an extraordinarily challenging endeavor," Brin said. "Having seen some of the work they've now put together, I think it's an extraordinary opportunity."
Google (Research) did not disclose the terms of the deal. Brin said the company is providing specialized data from its Zeitgeist service, which tracks search patterns and trends.
Gore, who lost the 2000 election in a bitter contest with current President Bush, seemed to have put politics behind him, insisting the channel would not be a liberal pulpit.
"We have no intention of being a Democratic channel, a liberal channel, or a TV version of Air America; that's not what we're all about," he said, referring to the liberal radio network.
Gore serves as chairman of the board of that channel.
The network said its financial backers included Rob Glaser, chief executive of RealNetworks Inc. (Research), Bob Pittman who helped create the popular MTV networks and Joel Hyatt, who is chief executive of the network and built a network of legal services clinics.
Network officials said they were trying to expand the viewer base, but acknowledged that lining up more cable systems was not easy.
So far, they have agreements involving DirecTV's Total Choice tier, as well as in certain markets operated by Comcast Corp. (Research) and Time Warner Inc. (Research).
this was found at: http://money.cnn.com/2005/04/04/news/newsmakers/gore_tv.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes
