Free Republic

Comcast Corp., the nation's largest cable provider, said Monday it has agreed to significantly increase distribution of the television network founded by former Vice President Al Gore, saying the network will now reach 8 million customers. Comcast said the agreement will increase distribution of the network, Current TV, in nearly all of its systems across the country by June 1. The deal means 8 million Comcast customers will have access to the network, up from 500,000. It also expands the network's overall distribution from 20 million to 28 million U.S. households. Matt Bond, executive vice president of content acquisition for...

A cable television network co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore is facing at least two lawsuits challenging its use of the name Current TV. A Maryland company is suing in federal court in Cincinnati claiming trademark infringement. Minnesota Public Radio has made a similar complaint in a Minneapolis court. "This is a straight-forward case of trademark infringement," according to briefs filed last month in U.S. District Court by Current Communications Group of Germantown, Md., a provider of broadband Internet services that relies on a Cincinnati company to help distribute its service. Current Communications contends that it had registered several...

Gore TV: Audience Still Small After six months on the air, former Vice President Al Gore’s TV network for young people is struggling to reach viewers – and facing increasing competition from Google and other major Internet players. When Gore’s Current TV launched last August, industry experts expressed doubts that it could prosper, the New York Sun reports. Like other start-up networks, Current had to convince cable and satellite operators to carry the channel. Gore's lead partner in the venture, Joel Hyatt, devised a shortcut by buying a little-watched network from Canada, Newsworld International, for a reported $70 million. The...

He's BAAAAACK! Yup, Prince Alberta, newly relocated to the liberal mecca of San Francisco ensconsed in his new multi-million $$ condo, working in the venture capital field (all bad things when he was running for the WH) will today crawl out from under his rock to deliver himself of a major address about the "evils of executive power"

Al Gore's new television network, Current TV, is turning to Sean Penn, Robert Redford and others to give advice to fledgling filmmakers. Current TV has been operating since August. The bulk of its programming is short films by young documentarians. Current says it wants contributions from audience members along with material it solicits. To help would-be contributors, the network has just produced a "survival guide" that it is making available online that includes advice on journalism and storytelling from Redford and Penn, along with academics, authors and filmmakers. "We, and by we I mean everyone from a Hollywood director like...

Notice it or not, Al Gore’s ersatz TV network named “current TV” is part of the America media. Newsbusters doesn’t seem to have commented on it, so here goes. Today (Monday) “current” ran a news-type program, Current Controversy, with one of its post-pubescent male hosts, about “Fallujah: the Hidden Massacre.” The host called this a documentary, and said it had run on an Italian network in November. The analysis began by citing and showing on screen three news sources that had accused the US of using chemical weapons in the battle for Fallujah. Those sources were: Aljazeera.net, the Tehran Times...

Al Gore was in Philadelphia yesterday in an attempt to persuade Comcast Corp. to offer his youth-oriented television network, Current TV, throughout its system. Gore hosted a free concert in Dilworth Plaza, directly under the Comcast Building at 1500 Market St. Performers at the event, titled "Take Back TV," included the Roots, Little Brother and Fishbone. Current TV, co-founded by Gore and launched in August, is a 24-hour station that runs continuous short segments - three to seven minutes long. The segments are shot and sent in by viewers from around the country. "The very first words that we, the...

Friday, October 07, 2005 HDTV Just got HDTV. Why did I wait -- this is the greatest! I got it so I could see some details on Desperate Housewives, but turns out the only details I can see are wrinkles. The real good news is that Bill's face looks so funny in HDTV. It was worth it just for that! Har! He's got nose hair, ear hair, huge bags under his eyes, big enough to hide an intern, his nose looks huge, and you can see those horrid red splotches of his. I love those. Sometimes when he's on tv...

NEW YORK Al Gore says television is damaging American democracy. The former vice president was the keynote speaker at a conference on citizen journalism, He said the high cost of entry into television means that the only ideas that get debated are those that can pass muster with the corporations wealthy enough to broadcast. As he put it, "There is no meritocracy of ideas on T-V." Gore is co-founder of a television company that seeks in part to put television production into the hands of individuals. Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast,...

October 5, 2005 -- A pep rally to be held tomorrow in Central Park for Al Gore's new cable channel for young people, Current TV, is sold out, according to the event's Web site. Tickets were free... Instructions on the site indicate that there might be some tickets at the entrance available to those who register online for a waiting list. The event, called "Take Back TV," is scheduled to run from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Central Park's Rumsey Playfield, best known as the site of SummerStage. Besides promoting the fledgling cable channel, Take Back TV is aimed...

In the 1990s, liberal icon Thomas Frank’s journal, The Baffler, released a collection called Commodify Your Dissent. This compiled some of the strongest pieces from the crankily idiosyncratic quarterly, all revolving around the theme that there are pop-culture hucksters queuing up to profit from the well-worn paths of youth deviance. Considered en masse, the collection held that the youth would be better off creating subcultures that couldn’t be defined in a pat way, in order to escape corporate shaping of their desires. Times have changed. Thomas Frank has become part of the liberal establishment he once decried. Meanwhile, that liberal...

Current TV Connects With DirecTV Sky Retailer, 28 July 2005 DirecTV and Current TV announced the signing of a multi-year affiliation agreement that extends carriage on DirecTV's "Total Choice" programming packages. At the moment, carriage is being usedby Newsworld International, a network owned by Current Media. Starting Aug. 1, Current Media will replace Newsworld International programming with Current TV, a national network created by, for and with an 18- to 34-year-old audience. Current TV, the new independent youth network, is led by company chair Al Gore and CEO Joel Hyatt and will represent young adults in "their world, in their...

It's a wonder you're even reading this piece. I mean, it's a compliment of course -- for which I'm grateful. But it's a surprise. I was certain that most of you would be spending the day glued to your television sets. August first was, after all, the debut of Al Gore's new television network, Current TV. Are you still with me? Or have I already lost you to your TV rooms and TiVos? It's okay. I'd understand. The prospect of an entertainment vehicle as fresh and lively as the former vice president is awfully hard to resist. That's why I'm...

Al Gore’s new television network, Current TV, hit the airwaves August 1, and it should be off the air by September 1. It claims to be the first national network created by, for and with an 18 – 34 year-old audience, and proudly boasts, “Current is about what’s going on.” But, from what I can tell, after watching the youth oriented channel for an hour and a half, what’s “going on” isn’t much!

Ever have a teacher who tried way too hard to be "down" with the kids? Who never knew that he was using out-of-date lingo or patronizing the intelligence of the people he wanted to befriend? If you have a masochistic desire to spend hours with that kind of person, you could tune into Current TV, a new cable channel that debuted in 20 million homes nationwide Monday. (In South Florida, Current is available on DirecTV.) For a channel that is supposed to be aimed squarely at 18- to 34-year-olds and reflect their views and concerns, Current (whose chairman is Al...

just visited this thing. i am sure it will be a hugh hit! siriusly!/sarc and if i screwed this up wellll, i r not too savvy at this yet

It’s a wonder you’re even reading this column. I mean, it’s a compliment of course—for which I’m grateful. But it’s a surprise. I was certain that most of you would be spending the day glued to your television sets. August first was, after all, the debut of Al Gore’s new television network, Current TV. Are you still with me? Or have I already lost you to your TV rooms and TiVos? It’s okay. I’d understand. The prospect of an entertainment vehicle as fresh and lively as the former vice president is awfully hard to resist. That’s why I’m sure Mr....

Looks like CurrentTv is off the air again! They're displaying the technical difficulties sign again and playing music. How long has this been going on? I've been checking since 6:15 pm PST. I'm watching the Direct Tv feed. Is anyone getting a broadcast? I miss my MTV NWI! AlGore's CurrentTv starts with huge errors! Displaying 'technical difficulties' sign!

Just checking on Current TV, to see what is showing on the Gore TV Network...Title of first blip... "EGG DONOR WANTED." In 21 minutes...."Shepard Fairy #1 Bio". In 42 Minutes "Sneaker Pimp". Seems Current TV only shows short films..for short attention spans.

...politics had been the family business, Gore's friends have always traced the awakening of his own interest in it to his senior thesis at Harvard: "The Impact of Television on the Presidency, 1947-1969." The small screen had created a new, unforgiving standard in politics, the young Gore wrote, one that rewards the smooth performer and dooms the stilted one. His 99-page paper turned out to be a prescient analysis of some of the forces that would conspire to deny him the White House three decades later. But while Gore's political career may be over, his fascination with television is taking...