Current TV has signed a deal with BSkyB to launch a localized version of its channel in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. (Note: Current TV, which is targeted at the 18-34 demographic, is the brainchild of former US vice president, Al Gore, who serves as the chairman of its parent company, INdTV Holdings, and his business partner, Joel Hyatt, who serves as INdTV’s CEO. It features short-form informational programs, dubbed "pods," around 30% of which are contributed by viewers via its Web site: Current terms this content "VC2" for "viewer-created content." The channel, which pays for all user-generated content that it airs, also invites its viewers to help determine its programming schedule by voting for video submissions on its site.) According to Current TV, the new deal, which will provide it with its first presence outside the US, is one of the first steps of a strategy to become an international media company. BSkyB, meanwhile, describes the deal as a first step in a strategy "to develop a broader presence in the fast-growing field of user-generated content." Just like the US version of Current TV, the UK- and Ireland-localized version of the channel that will air on Sky will invite British and Irish "viewer-producers" to submit videos via its Web site; if their pieces are selected for broadcast on the UK version of the channel, there is also a chance that they will air on Current’s US channel or on Current TV channels in any other markets into which the company expands in the future.
According to Current TV, the new deal will give it access to another 22 million viewers (note: the Sky satellite service is currently available in around 8.2 million households–which is equivalent to almost one in three households in the UK and Ireland). In the US over the past year, the channel has expanded its carriage from 17 million to nearly 30 million households (i.e. by 70%): it is currently offered by Comcast, DirecTV and Time Warner Cable; it also recently launched a broadband video service, Yahoo! Current, in partnership with Internet portal, Yahoo!. "Current TV is bringing the Web’s sense of empowerment to television for the first time," BSkyB CEO, James Murdoch, said in a prepared statement. "It has a uniquely collaborative approach to working with viewer-producers that stands out among other platforms for user-generated video. As a first step towards Sky’s own moves in this fascinating field, we’re pleased to help give a voice to millions of young people throughout the UK and Ireland." (Note: for more on how Current TV works with "viewer-producers" to help them create broadcast-quality short-form programming, see [itvt]’s interview with Current’s president of online, Joanna Drake Earl, in Issue 6.97.)
Originally Published: October 17, 2006 Part 3 in [itvt] Issue 7.00
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