Group Led by Gore Is in Talks To Buy Vivendi Cable Network (Al Gore Television? Must-Flee TV!)

The Wall Street Journal ^ | October 1, 2003 | Joe Flint

[Timesink]

Vivendi Universal SA is in talks to sell its Newsworld International cable network to a group of investors led by former Vice President Al Gore for $70 million, according to people familiar with the situation.

Newsworld International, a cable network that is available in less than 20 million homes in the U.S., currently runs newscasts from around the world. Vivendi Universal left it out of its deal to merge its entertainment assets with General Electric Co.'s NBC. Although the discussions between Vivendi and Mr. Gore's venture are progressing, a deal hasn't been finalized and could still fall apart.

[Timesink]

(Emphasis above mine.) If true, this would be the best of both worlds for us. Not only would the liberals not get the hard-left news channel they've been dreaming of, but Al Gore, their savior, would end up killing the DUh crowd's favorite news source! BWA-HA-HAAAA! (The DUh-ers love Newsworld International because it carries a lot of CBC programming, and there is no more anti-American, anti-Bush news organization in the free world than CBC News. The few angry Democrats that can receive it absolutely rave about it as a result. And their god is going to shut it down!!!)

[Timesink]

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[Timesink]

Vivendi nears cable asset sale to Gore group-paper

Wed October 01, 2003 02:25 AM ET

PARIS, Oct 1 (Reuters) - French-American media company Vivendi Universal EAUG.PA is close to a deal to sell its Newsworld International cable network to a group of investors led by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore for 70 million euros ($82.03 million), the Wall Street Journal said on Wednesday.

Citing people close to the situation, the paper said no deal had yet been finalised and could still fall apart.

The paper said the Gore group has been looking at moving into cable programming for the last few months and has also been looking at cable channel TechTV.

The Newsworld International cable network is available in less than 20 million homes in the United States. It runs newscasts from around the world but was left out of Vivendi's deal to merge its entertainment assets with General Electric's GE.N NBC.

Vivendi declined to comment, and the Gore group could not be reached, the paper said.

[tkathy]

They do not understand that Fox News is successful because it is balanced, full of attractive anchors, (except for Alan Combes) and brilliantly programmed.

[sauropod]

I fail to see how indoctrinating young people is part of the "best of both worlds for us." They specifically mentioned younger viewers as the target audience.

[mewzilla]

What do they need this for then? They've already got MTV. Have you ever watched any of MTV's Rock the Vote drivel? Scary.

[sauropod]

I have avoided that particular smorgasbord of vomit.

[mewzilla]

Well, I don't watch after eating :) But I have been curious to see how they'd do the political stuff. All I can say is that if MTV is where that demographic is getting most of its news, I'm darned glad they don't vote much.

[freedom1st]

If Gore has anything to do with this Cable Network, It will be bankrupt inside of 2 years.

[NativeNewYorker]

1) Gore is not "leading" this group. Gore is the promotional, gladhanding, headline generating faceboy. He is a certified moron, as we all know.

2) Rattner is a slimy investment banker, a former NYT reporter, and a man with his nose in Pinch Sulzberger's anus. Recall, Pinch is the only person Ann Coulter flatly says is a "traitor". Rattner is a major Dem money man.

3) Diller is a famously gay media mogul. I am pretty sure he is a big Dem donor, but I couldn't get into the opensecrets.org website. I wonder how "arms length" this transaction is likely to be.

4) And of course, scalping the enterprise from the French makes is all perfect.

[Timesink]

afternoon bump

[jackbill]

The biggest distributor of Newsworld is satellite broadcaster DirecTV, with more than 11 million subscribers.

Let's see. They have 20 million viewers, 11 million of which are on DirecTV. Hm.

Isn't Rupert Murdoch, through News Corp - the parent company of Fox News - buying DirecTV? How long will Murdoch keep this trash on his system? He could bury Algore and the rest of the "investors" with the stroke of the pen.

[Timesink]

bump

[Timesink]

I fail to see how indoctrinating young people is part of the "best of both worlds for us." They specifically mentioned younger viewers as the target audience.

Well, I interpreted the article as saying that the plan is for a more broad-based newsish/feature service for young adults (probably mostly features only vaguely related to current events, because launching a real news channel is hideously expensive). If it's not full-bore hard left "news", then it's a blow to the RATS who have been hoping for a specific liberal "antidote" to FNC. And if it is aimed at teens/young adults, it's doomed anyway because more kids aren't into watching that sort of stuff, and the few that are tend to lean conservative.

So either way, I think we win.

[Timesink]

Isn't Rupert Murdoch, through News Corp - the parent company of Fox News - buying DirecTV? How long will Murdoch keep this trash on his system? He could bury Algore and the rest of the "investors" with the stroke of the pen.

I believe most carriage contracts also give the cable companies the right to cancel their contracts with a given channel if the network's format is so radically changed that it no longer bears any resemblance to the original channel. (For example, if the Discovery Channel were to suddenly turn itself into an MTV clone.) NBC had to do a lot of ruffled-feather smoothing with a lot of cable companies back in 1996 when they suddenly decided to kill America's Talking and use the channel slots to launch MSNBC. At the time, NBC brought up the possibility of legal action, arguing that a switch from talk radio with pictures to a news channel wasn't actually "radical" enough to allow cable companies to invoke that provision in their contracts, but if I recall correctly, in the end they just made a few little side deals to sweeting the financial pot and prevent the truly angry cablecos from yanking the channel.

I doubt Murdoch would yank GoreTV, though. It would make him personally look too biased, and besides, he's got the channel space. If he can make money from an extra few thousand people so wildly indoctrinated that they'd want to watch GoreTV 24/7, why not?

[shotgun]

I hope they cancel that damn CNN and show plenty of stock car races, SEC football, and non-stop re-runs of Hee-Haw...

Tipper get me anuther beer!!! hic!!!

[.cnI redruM]

What will they call it. "EIB - Earth in The Bombast"
"GJ - Gore Jazeera". These are some that come to mind.

[Eva]

I just read in the WSJ that the program director for NBC has moved to FOX News in anticipation of the merger of NBC with Vivendi. This is not good. I have wonder if it is part of a plan to neutralize FOX.