GORETV... AL GORE MEDIA MOGUL?

They're already calling it "GoreTV" out in the Bay Area. Please someone just stop him now before he says he invented the TV too.

Gore's new media venture seeks to blend TV, Internet
Former VP says his Current network gives viewers a voice

San Francisco Chronicle
by Jesse Hamlin
Tuesday, April 5, 2005

Al Gore never said he invented the Internet. But the new San Francisco-based cable TV network he's heading promises to transform television by plugging it into the Internet.

Current, the name of Gore's enterprise, hopes to do that by airing a shuffle of short news features, some produced by the network but many submitted online by viewers. Current will also air segments every half hour showing TV viewers what Google searchers are tapping into at that moment -- everything from current events to tourist destinations. It's all directed at a generation that thinks nothing of plugging into more than one media outlet at once.

"Those who are using the Internet are often watching TV at the same time, '' said the former vice president, who's chairman of the board of Current, the new independent cable venture pitched at audiences advertisers covet -- people 18 to 34 years old. "Part of our objective is to connect those two experiences.''

Gore, looking very much the hip TV executive in a gray suit, black cowboy boots and an open-necked black shirt, gave the press a taste of the Current vibe and programming Monday morning at the network's industrial chic quarters in an old brick building across from SBC Park. The network plans to hire about 125 people and begins building production and post-production studios on King Street this week.

The new network, planned for an Aug. 1 premiere, will enable Internet users to send video content through the online system "to help us make the viewer-created content that will be a large and growing part of what we put on the air," Gore said. (full article)