Commentary

Gore's Channel Wants a More Serious MTV

Al Gore's new cable channel wants to take on MTV -- as well as Fox News, CNN, and possibly some advertising agencies. The new network called Current, which will focus on current events for young adults 18 to 49, looks to take on the MTV audience - in a more serious way.

MTV has done its best with its Rock the Vote and other community efforts - but these public service pushes have always been a subset of MTV's general interest entertainment programming and music videos.

Current plans to flip that equation around; most of its efforts will focus on political issues with some entertainment programming added to spice up the schedule - or relieve the boredom, depending on your point of view.

Gore says the channel will be apolitical, which is admirable, but difficult to achieve. MTV and Fox News say they don't take political sides - yet they have gravitated to specific political leanings.

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The bigger trick for Current, which will launch August 1 with the now standard 20 million subscribers, is this: How to get young adults interested in news and current events without shows such as "Pimp My Ride" or "The Osbournes" or "TRL" or beach parties.

Gore and his business partner Joe Hyatt say it's in the short-attention span mindset of its target audience. A mix of one to six minute short-form segments will be standard fare, including technology trends, politics, environment, relationships, and parenting (no doubt, young-skewing parenting).

One interesting added benefit - that even MTV hasn't even thought of - is that Current not only wants its viewers to be heavily involved in creating content, but also to create TV advertising as well.

Think about it. All this time advertisers have been worrying about broadcast ratings erosion, the effects of TiVo, and how to start up branded entertainment efforts. Current will solve the problem.

Cable ad sales executives everywhere will have no excuse anymore. If they don't get on a media buy, they should give a free trial offer.

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