Gore Says Tough U.S. Network Competition Forced Sale of Current TV

[Hissyspit]

Source: Reuters

Gore says tough U.S. network competition forced sale of Current TV

WASHINGTON | Tue Jan 29, 2013 10:09am EST

By Susan Heavey

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Al Gore said on Tuesday that tough competition from major U.S. television networks forced him to sell Current TV, a struggling progressive cable channel, to Al Jazeera, and he praised the Arabic news broadcaster's coverage of climate change.

Gore, a former vice president who won a Nobel Peace Prize for raising awareness about the problems with climate change, said on NBC's "Today" show that he was proud of the channel and had never thought of it as simply a monetary investment.

"As an independent network ... we found it difficult to compete in this age of conglomerates," he said.

Earlier this month, Qatar-based Al Jazeera announced it was buying Current TV, a move that could enable it to better compete with American news networks like CNN, MSNBC and Fox.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE90S0N920130129

[srican69]

1. Is he complaining about getting a nice chunk of change??

[AlbertCat]

2. Is he complaining about .... anything?

Noting that it is tough to compete with huge conglomerates is merely an observation. And a reason for selling in case someone wonders why.

[srican69]

5. The title of the OP sure sounds like a whine...

[Paulie]

7. Its from the article which must be quoted exactly in LBN

[JDPriestly]

3. Advertisers are starving out media left of Limbaugh.

We lost our AM left station in LA. At least most of the good shows are gone. We have only an FM station left. It's good, but it was great having AM to listen to also. Now -- very little in LA as far as I can tell. I just don't bother to turn on the radio. At least I'm not listening to annoying ads.

[winterpark]

4. What I want to know is where is Elliot Spitzer? His show is now John Fugelsang's and

he was a guest on Rachel on Friday. What's up? Anyone know?

[Plucketeer]

6. How about???

Spitzer and Olbermann co-hosting a show? That is, if Keith's ego could handle it.

[hughee99]

8. It couldn't even handle hosting a show alone. n/t

[Ian Iam]

9. In other words...

it was a purely capitalistic transaction! How could the "free-market" Republicans possibly object?

[diabeticman]

10. Seems to me Keith Olbermann's prediction and suggestion that the station wasn't manage right or

would be able to survive.

[davidpdx]

11. I think while the idea of the network was a good idea

The business model wasn't very good. Essentially the company would have had to find a way to get around all of those conglomerates. Now I know someone is going to ask just how you do that. The answer is I don't know exactly.

They might have been able to go to a purely internet based TV network and not bothered with celestial TV. That would have still required some form of commercials to generate revenue though. It also would have solved the problem if the station being offered by such a limited number of cable providers.