Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Current.tv reaching out to NPR audience
On the drive home last night I was a little surprised to hear that the news was sponsored by Current TV. The short tagline allowed in such sponsorships promoted the prime time news shows hosted by Keith Olbermann, Cenk Uygur and Jennifer Granholm. It’s probably a good fit—at least in Chicago and other larger urban markets.
I watch Keith, though I tend to surf during commercials more than I did when he was on MBNBC, checking in on Ed and even peeking in to see what mischief O’Reilly might be up to, and sometimes get waylaid before I get a chance to discover who is the Worst Person in the World.
I don’t care for Uygur‘s and Granholm‘s shows, and I can’t really put my finger on why. The grunge sets are cool, but leave me feeling gritty. Uygur’s lack of journalism background shows. In introducing a recent guest who is a writer for Reuters, he said the reporter worked for “Reuters magazine,” not appearing to know that it’s an old established wire service, now part of an info conglomerate. Granholm, I just don’t know. I like her, like her politics, like that she was governor of my home state. Maybe she will grow into the host role.
Does Current have a shot at breaking through? The NYTimes Media Decoder column in January reported a bright spot: the channel does attract that elusive younger audience that doesn’t “do TV” much anymore. The young audience likes the net, but Current has a problem there; it can’t post full programs to the web because of its agreements with the cable cartel. I don’t really know the business equation but I’d surmise that from the cable companies’ point of view, the channel is just too small to have the clout to get on the channel lineup at all unless it caves to any and all cartel demands, including forcing viewers to watch on the tube. Squeeze-them-‘til-they-squeal deals like those may be history soon, at least we can hope.
Looks like the flap between Keith and the network over GOP primary coverage is over. If you missed the drama, you can catch up on the Hollywood Reporter site. They seem to enjoy covering him. There’s some charm in that. It seems to show a form of affection.
