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Keith Olbermann's New Network: Current TV

The article points out that Current TV would be "part of" Olbermann's post-MSNBC media strategy, and says he wants to focus online (handily pointing out AOL's recent $315 million acquisition of Huffington Post).

A network you need a microscope to find on the digital cable lineup can't be his only end game post-MSNBC, and it's quite apt to say that small network can't contain his ego :)

(No, I'm not a "right wing detractor" of him, I just think he's the mirror image, at times, of Bill O'Reilly.)

A reader points out the Ohio connection here - long-time local lawyer/former TV commercial star Joel Hyatt is the co-founder of Current TV, along with a certain former VP...
 
...how would this be sad? At the very least, he wouldn't have to put up with somebody else's stupid management stunts in his new position, as any that arise would be his own...
 
Also remember that when Olbermann started at MSNBC, it was a bigger joke than Current TV is right now. I remember a story about how, at one point, it would actually be cheaper for a company to visit each viewer of MSNBC personally than to buy an ad.

Olbermann built MSNBC into the #2 news channel. He can build Current TV.
 
There are big, big differences between MSNBC when Keith joined, and Current TV now.

MSNBC has nearly always enjoyed prime low-channel cable carriage. It is in the sub-100 "analog" channels on most every cable system in America, most of them carrying it right next to CNN and Fox News (37 here, with CNN at 34 and FNC at 38). As they say in real estate, "location, location, location".

Current TV is not anywhere on non-digital cable, as far as I know. Here, it's buried on digital 226, between BBC America and LOGO.

Now, digital cable is somewhat more prevalent than when MSNBC started, but channel placement in the lower channels next to existing powerhouse networks (analog or digital) means you're not buried. It's the same problem Fox Business Network has vs. CNBC.

One problem FBN doesn't have vs. CNBC, but Current TV has vs. MSNBC - the former is a scrappy independent operation, and the latter is a division of a major broadcast entity with a giant news operation. Can you say "resources", anyone?
 
One key part of this deal is that KO will be an "equity partner" in the channel. That means he's part owner. He's not just another employee with salary and benefits. He's got a stake in building the channel up from where it is. That takes imagination and work. Sure, the channel isn't a slam dunk now. He'd have more viewers on Speed. He'd have more viewers on IFC. That's not the point. He's putting together a diversified media plan with multiple platforms. So his fans will have access to what he does.
 
TheBigA said:
He's putting together a diversified media plan with multiple platforms. So his fans will have access to what he does.
Click to expand...

I think that's the key here, not that his show "will be seen on Current TV", if that's accurate with these reports.

Think of his former ESPN "SportsCenter" partner Dan Patrick...same deal, aiming at multimedia success, not just a radio show (which Keith could do as well).

Heck, Keith has a much bigger ego than Dan does. Maybe with a stake in Current TV, he'll convince Al Gore and Joel Hyatt to rename it "Keith TV"! :)
 
@OMW: Are you saying that cable systems in Ohio still have analog channels? I doubt that's really the case, but even if it is, it doesn't apply to much of the country. The satellite systems and the fiber optic systems are all digital, all the time. Most cable systems have switched to digital for standard definition channels (which is what Current is). Analog looks terrible on an HD receiver. Analog takes up significantly more space on a DVR hard drive. And it eats bandwidth for the cable provider. Maybe Ohio needs to catch up with current technology. And channel position doesn't matter like it used to when people twisted a knob on the side of a TV.

That said, I have no use for Al Gore. I hated Love Story. I froze my ears off breaking up ice on the sidewalk the last few days. And I much preferred News World International before Al scuttled it so he could have his own ego-trip hobby channel.
 
MattParker said:
@OMW: Are you saying that cable systems in Ohio still have analog channels? I doubt that's really the case, but even if it is, it doesn't apply to much of the country. The satellite systems and the fiber optic systems are all digital, all the time. Most cable systems have switched to digital for standard definition channels (which is what Current is)
Click to expand...

You must live in a Comcast area. :)

Analog cable is alive and well almost everywhere in the country, including on every Time Warner Cable system I know of (including ours). MSOs are moving to kill analog and put in DTAs for those who don't have full-fledged digital cable, but only Comcast is doing it on a nationwide basis. Around here, one smaller system (Clear Picture/Massillon Cable) did it a year or two back.

But my point is not "analog vs. digital", it's about channel placement, which is still important in the gazillion channel digital age.

What viewer looking for news-related programming is going to look for Current TV? People still surf for channels, even with digital cable, and they now go to the program guide on the digital box.

On that program guide, Current TV is surrounded by, here, BBC America and LOGO.

TWC has mirrored the traditional analog channels into digital versions, and the news channels (CNN, Fox News, and Keith's old home of MSNBC) are in the 350s. Current TV is 226. What drives one of Keith's more casual MSNBC viewers (not the "FOK" folks) to move to 226?

Is Current TV going to mount an advertising campaign, or are they just hoping that word of mouth among his more rabid fans is going to drive people to a channel very few know even exists?

And I'm with you...I wish it were still Newsworld International, but I'm an admitted CBC junkie. :D
 
Current TV is in a much better neighborhood on DirecTV, on 358 between Keith's former home and FNC. (Not directly between them, but close, with CNBC World on one side and FBN on the other.)

I suspect the cable picture elsewhere is similar to what we're seeing here, though.

The other problem is that Current TV has no HD feed right now. I can't remember if they're going to add one.
 
Current TV is not offered at all on my cable system - on any tier or in any of their sub-regions (Insight Communications in the Ohio River Valley)
 
It doesn't look like Armstrong Cable (Medina and Boardman, OH) carries Current TV at all.

ETA: The aforementioned all-digital Clear Picture (Wooster, OH) and its sister system Massillon Cable (Massillon, OH) doesn't carry it, either.
 
I know Current TV quit covering it a few years ago, but part of me really wants to see Olbermann live from Black Rock City for Burning Man. Maybe he'd loosen up after about 4 tabs of brown acid. :D
 
OhioMediaWatch said:
A network you need a microscope to find on the digital cable lineup can't be his only end game post-MSNBC, and it's quite apt to say that small network can't contain his ego :)
Click to expand...

Well, look at Imus. Remember when he was on RFD-TV for five minutes before bringing his radio show simulcast to the aforementioned (by you, OMW) Fox Business Channel? I'm pretty sure he'll have some more irons in the fire... that is, if his current job at Current isn't keeping him too busy: According to Mediaite, his official title is "Chief News Officer, Current Media":
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/keith-olbermanns-new-gig-revealed-chief-news-officer-current-media/
 
I was actually thinking of the Imus/RFD connection.

And perhaps Current is hoping for improved carriage out of this, though it's much more widely distributed than RFD was before Imus. In fact, I believe TWC didn't carry RFD at all until the Imus contract.

And it's Fox Business Network, not Channel. Fox didn't want confusion with Fox Broadcasting Company, the over-air network now known simply as Fox. (Fox actively used "FBC" in its very early days.)

Anyway, the major MSOs seem to already carry Current, but it seems to be missing from the smaller systems around here, at least (see above).
 
Has anyone on here actually watched current tv? Last time I watched it, this program was on http://current.com/entertainment/comedy/76343982_learn-to-hug-a-b-cs-of-hugz.htm

Maybe KO shows can follow this prize program. This will fail big time. Some have mentioned that MSNBC was n0othing when KO joined them, but fact is he had the power and money of NBC news behind him there. Cable companies were paying MSNBC money for the channel. Current tv probably gets .1 cents per subscriber, and since they are buried on most systems in the highest tier, that ain't many.

Current tv is basically a community access channel on a national level. His show won't be as good as it used to be, simply for the fact his show won't have enough of a budget to have more then 2 people on its staff. Unless KO is funding the show himself.
 
And Current appears to be missing from the lineup of the other major local cable systems, Cox (suburban Cleveland) and WOW (alternative provider in the Cleveland area).

All of the Northeast Ohio systems I mentioned have an extensive digital cable lineup, so that's not the problem.
 
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