UNITED KINGDOM: British satellite broadcaster BSkyB joins forces with Al Gore to unveil a new version of Current TV for the UK and Ireland

Record ID: 774887

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: British satellite broadcaster BSkyB joins forces with Al Gore to unveil a new version of Current TV for the UK and Ireland
  • Date: 14th October 2006
  • Summary: VARIOUS LOCATIONS (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF CURRENT WEBSITE OF COMPUTER SCREEN
  • Embargoed: 29th October 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Communications,Lifestyle
  • Reuters ID: LVA7HY0MHY2DCO4GOJW4ZRK0FEO3
  • Story Text: It may not be something you can see on TV just yet, but there is a media revolution underway.
    The viewing audience, once effectively dismissed as a bunch of couch potatoes, is content to sit back no longer. Ordinary people are creating their own content, sharing it and, in the process, making traditional TV types very nervous.
    UK satellite broadcaster, BSkyB, has joined forces with Al Gore to unveil a British version of his Current TV, a channel showing user-generated programmes.
    BSkyB Chief Executive, James Murdoch, and the former U.S. vice president told Reuters in a joint interview they hoped to use the channel to democratise the broadcast medium by allowing viewers to produce and broadcast their own short films.
    User generated content has already reshaped the way people experience and perceive media, but most of the focus has been on internet video sharing sites like YouTube and Google Video.
    Now viewers are being asked to help contribute to a new TV station to be launched in the UK and Ireland - Current TV. This network, which started in the US a year ago, is teaming up with British broadcaster BSkyB to launch a localized version of its viewer-created TV channel.
    "James has been the first person outside of the United States to see and understand why it's important to democratize the medium of television so that people can join the conversation," said Gore of his new business partner.
    The phenomenon of video clips created at home and distributed over the Internet has exploded over the past year with YouTube streaming more than 100 million a day, and Google and others rapidly expanding their own similar services. Some people posting their home-made videos on the web have become instant 'internet celebrities'.
    James Murdoch said it was a natural leap to take those user generated video clips from the net and on to broadcast television.
    "People want to consume more choice, they want to have more flexibility over how they tailor their content for themselves et cetera, but they also increasingly want to publish more as well, they want to talk more, they want their views shared," he told Reuters Television. "We're very excited to be working with Current on this to bring to the UK something that really uniquely brings together the kind of ingenuity and excitement and empowerment of being able to publish on to the internet viewer generated content but then also to be able to broadcast it to the population at large."
    Despite the rampant popularity of video on the Internet, Gore said he believes TV will remain the medium of choice for now because it has the unique ability to reach a mass audience.
    "Television proper is the dominant medium," he said. "It's what people spend their time receiving information from. And no matter the internet and no matter books or newspapers the power of television - it's almost quasi-hypnotic, if you will - people watch it. So that's the medium that it's most important to democratise."
    He said he created Current TV to combine the enthusiasm and unique outlook people bring to the Internet with television's ability to reach millions of viewers at the same time.
    James Murdoch added that he doesn't see any conflict between the two mediums.
    "I don't think it's a question of versus," he said. "I think the key thing to remember here is that people consume content in different ways - on their PC, through a television screen in a living room, et cetera. And really, some of these distinctions are as simple as: 'where do families gather?' They gather around what was known as the electronic hearth. Where do friends gather to share experience et cetera. But that doesn't mean that they're necessarily only going to do one thing and not the other, so I think what we see here, and what is so interesting about Current, is it really sticks those together in an interesting way. It gives this sort of broadcast amplification the marketplace which the television medium has, but also the empowerment of com activity that the internet gives you."
    The viewer-produced videos last from a few seconds to 15 minutes and cover technology, the environment, fashion or politics. Viewers can send their videos to the www.current.tv Web site for selection for the channel.
    Viewer-created programming makes up about 30 percent of the schedule for Current TV in the United States while the remainder is current affairs content produced by the channel.
    Gore insisted that despite the 'home-grown' nature of the content, the channel will be a premium service.
    "In order to get on current and be featured, it has to be really good and really fascinating. And so many people are making these forms of short documentaries, or pods as we call them, two minutes to eight minutes, about things that are fascinating to them," he said. "And viewers help us choose among the thousand and thousands of those submitted the very best and most interesting and that's the way a conversation of democracy should work."
    On the topic of television and online content, the new business partners were questioned about former President Bill Clinton's recent appearance on the Murdoch owned Fox Sunday News program. During the interview with Chris Wallace, Clinton launched a scathing attack - or, some would argue, counter-attack - on the conservative media. Perhaps a perfect example of the growing relationship between television and the internet, the interview became a hot item on the web, with the video receiving more than a million hits on YouTube alone. FoxNews demanded that YouTube pull the video from the site, before admitting 'poor judgement' in trying to get the clip taken off YouTube.
    Neither Gore or Murdoch would be drawn on the topic, both remaining non-partisan, so to speak.
    "I have not seen it and we haven't discussed it," said Murdoch.
    "I DID seen it and we haven't discussed it," said Gore, laughing.
    On the potentially sensitive issue, Murdoch then joked to Reuters: "I'm going to have to finger wag at you now."
    Current TV reaches nearly 30 million homes in the United States and will reach another 8.2 million Sky households when it launches in the next few months.
    Financial details of the Current/Sky deal were not disclosed. ENDS.
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