Meanwhile, some more dreaming, this one from Al Gore-backed Current TV channel, a year after it was launched. The long SFC story says it has defied critics in that year, and the idea for such a thing seems more feasible in a user-generated media world.
Now carried in 30 million homes, Current will announce a plan next month for online expansion and is planning an international version next year. Madeleine Smithberg, co-creator of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,” will start a daily offering this fall that’s still under wraps.
The operation is making a small profit, according to Derek Baine, a senior analyst with Monterey-based Kagan Research, though I am not sure that is verifiable yet.
But then, the challenges ahead are tough: Its target audience prefers YouTube’s free-form format rather than Current’s more organized site…and this is a great quote: Current “caught the (viewer-created content) trend early, but it is kind of surfing by them,” said John Higgins, business editor at Broadcasting & Cable. “These guys (at Current) had all the right ideas and all the same machinery in place that YouTube did, but they didn’t quite do it. Lighting struck 10 feet to the left of them.” Meaning it should have done this online.