Current TV Preps Second Portal
Basking In Emmy Glow, Gore, Hyatt Tease New ‘Influencing’ Site
By Multi Channel News Staff -- Multichannel News, 9/18/2007 6:43:00 AM
Current TV will launch a second Web portal Oct. 15, according to network founders Joel Hyatt and Al Gore.
The new site will work as a companion to the network's www.Current.TV Web address, which features the network's core user-generated content. Beyond that, however, the executives were coy about the actual content of the new site, current.com
“Consider this a teaser,” said Hyatt in an interview in Los Angeles today.
A video running on the home page of the network’s, er current, site isn't necessarily much more informative: it promises a Web site influencing TV, influencing a Web site.
Networks executives are still basking in the afterglow of their Emmy win Sunday night. Two-year-old Current's Web site beat out applications by Major League Baseball, Bravo, Disney Channel and the BIAP Fantasy Football Television Tracker to win the award as the best interactive television service.
Gore said he thought the win would be good for business, noting he'd been told that two hours after the Sept. 16 ceremony, “Current TV” was one of the most-searched terms on Google. Research shows that once viewers find Current, they stay with us, Gore said. The Emmy “validates our core vision” for the network, the former vice president added.
Most television-related broadband ventures exist at the Internet/television boundary, repurposing traditional television content as Internet fodder, Gore said. Current's primary business serves to reverse that flow: using the power of the Internet to harness creativity of individuals and bring it to the masses.
“The [television] industry's future will be better served by embracing the model of Current TV,” he said. He added the site had experienced thousands of new registrations in the 24 hours after the Emmy telecast.
The two also said they are happy with the growth of their network, which is now in 51 million cable and satellite homes. Of those, 17 million were acquired when Current launched and reformatted Newsworld International; and another 11 million are international subscribers in the United Kingdom, serviced through deals with BSkyB and Virgin Media Cable.
Hyatt anticipates other international deals will be announced within the next two weeks.
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