Ratings-challenged Current TV, the cable channel co-founded by Al Gore, may be going on the auction block.
According to the New York Post and other news organizations, Current TV CEO Joel Hyatt said that many acquisition-minded media companies have approached the cable channel and “as a consequence, we thought it might be useful to engage expertise to help us evaluate our strategic options.”
Reuters subsequently reported that Current TV hired JP Morgan and The Raine Group to test the waters for a sale of the liberal network. A strategic partnership with another media company may also be a possibility instead of an outright sale.
The Post observes that “the service, launched in August 2005 after Gore had begun his crusade against global warming, has churned through programming and personnel as it tried to find its voice.”
Current TV tried to be the poor-man’s MSNBC and even hired high-strung former “Countdown” host Keith Olbermann to anchor a prime time show. But Olbermann was let go in March 2012 after feuding with management and now is going after the network in court .
According to CainTV , “predictably, its early crusade against global warming failed to attract eyeballs, so it began to reinvent itself as a standard, left-wing, talking head channel — packed with a host of zany pundits that even MSNBC had rejected.”
Current is said to reach 60 million homes, but it’s actual viewership is very low. Current TV seems to find itself in the same position as liberal talk radio which also failed for lack of listenership.
Have you ever watched Current TV? Do you have any idea if it’s even on your cable system?