In the vein of former Jon Stewart vehicle “Short Attention Span Theater,” Current TV will offer “short-format” content.
The common wisdom of the day claims the 18-34 year old demographic has the attention span of a ferret being fed Pixy Stix, Reese’s Cups, and Jolt Cola. Five hundred channels to choose from on television feeds that claim. “In the news..””Beckham scored in the 64th…””D’oh!””C-SPAN brings live coverage of…”.
Meanwhile, former Vice President Al Gore has moved away from the academic world in favor of working on something different. A press release describes Mr. Gore’s Current as a different breed of television animal:
“The new TV network adopts what has made the Internet the medium of choice for young adults – customizable content and consumer participation. It offers unique short-format content created in the voice of its viewers an uniquely tailored to their interests…”
The network will debut on Monday, August 1. Carriage, the figure that notes how many potential viewers might see the channel based on service providers offering it, is nearly 20 million households. That encompasses DirecTV, Time Warner Cable’s “Digital Basic” service, and some Comcast markets.
Active Instead Of Passive
Current touts its participatory model, where the audience collaborates on the programming it sees instead of being a passive recipient. While the Internet and the vast sea of web pages, forums, and blogs gives that 18-34 demographic plenty of options to contribute a voice, television hasn’t done so.
“We intend to change that with Current, giving those who crave the empowerment of the Web the same opportunity for expression on television,” Mr. Gore said in a statement.
For those who might dismiss the concept out of hand, it should be noted that independent bloggers were influential in determining a CBS News story on George Bush’s National Guard service was based on phony documents, and that anchor Dan Rather has since retired in the wake of the scandal.
A large portion of Current’s programming will be professionally produced; the channel isn’t about to come across as a cheaply-made public access broadcast. But other stories will begin at the online Current Studio.
Current describes this as the place where viewers can access an online assignment desk. After finding a topic, viewers can go after the story, shoot and edit their reporting piece, and upload it to Current’s website. Visitors to the website will be able to view and rank those submissions.
The channel also plans to launch a training program online, to teach those with digital cameras and computers how to produce a segment. Current says this offering will be the first of its kind.
Whither Google?
Presently, Google offers its Google News service online. While technically in beta form, the site has been in place for some time. A computer algorithm chooses the stories placed on the page, and sorts coverage of those stories by a variety of news outlets.
One feature of Google News displays a list of ten search terms, topics that Google News visitors have been querying recently on the site. The deal with Current seems to be an extension of these searches.
Each half-hour, “Google Current” will present news segments based on topics people have been searching for via its signature search engine. Those segments will vary from 30 seconds to three minutes in length, which Current characterizes as “easily digestible.”
Whether or not 18-34 year olds want to dine on that will be determined after the August 1 Current launch.
David Utter is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
