Guest MikeSC Report post Posted March 31, 2004 PAPER: GORE SET TO CLOSE DEAL ON CABLE TV CHANNEL The NEW YORK OBSERVER will report on Wednesday that former Vice President Al Gore will close the deal to buy his own cable TV channel this week! MORE Mr. Gore and his business partner, entreprenuer and Democratic fundraiser Joel Hyatt, will acquire Newsworld International for around $70 million from Vivendi. The Observer will also report that Mr. Gore approached French-owned Vivendi through French President Jacques Chirac in 2003, hoping to get a better deal from Vivendi CEO Jean-Rene Fourtou. That resulted in a meeting with Universal Television executives and the COO of Vivendi in the summer of 2003. From newspaper copy, obtained by DRUDGE: "Mr. Gore's group plans to transform the sleepy foreign-news outlet into a youth-oriented public-affairs channel, a jump-cut news network for the iPod set. Despite vociferous claims that the network isn't' attempting to be the liberal antidote to Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, it's difficult to ignore the obvious: It may be fair, it may be balanced, but it's going to be owned by Al Gore." http://drudgereport.com/rc4.htm Well, if this is true, this MIGHT be a real test for the whole CFR movement. You can claim Fox News is biased all day long --- they are not OWNED by a guy who was defeated for President. -=Mike Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jobber of the Week 0 Report post Posted March 31, 2004 I was going to make a crack about how young people can't afford iPods, but ah well. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kkktookmybabyaway 0 Report post Posted March 31, 2004 And we thought MSNBC's ratings were low... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest OctoberBlood Report post Posted March 31, 2004 And we thought MSNBC's ratings were low... MSNBC's programming > Anyone elses'. BOYEEEEE! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kkktookmybabyaway 0 Report post Posted March 31, 2004 Ratings don't always dictate quality (although in MSNBC's case it may), so take your panties out of your crack, hippie... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CanadianChris 0 Report post Posted March 31, 2004 First night's lead story... "Al Gore Invented Cable TV" Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Cerebus Report post Posted March 31, 2004 I love Drudge's little one word codas. "impacting..." Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kkktookmybabyaway 0 Report post Posted March 31, 2004 Speaking of Drudge, it looks like Dennis Miller's show has jumped from a .1 to a .3, passing Norville's show... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BUTT 0 Report post Posted March 31, 2004 Why is Miller on CNBC anyway? I'd figure he'd be a better fit for MSNBC. Isn't CNBC supposed to be about financial news? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kkktookmybabyaway 0 Report post Posted March 31, 2004 I dunno. I guess MSNBC already had Scarborough so they figured they could get crappy ratings with just one right-wing oriented show... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jobber of the Week 0 Report post Posted March 31, 2004 No, they had Savage too, until he showed what he's usually like. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest SideFXs Report post Posted March 31, 2004 CNBC is probably diversifying. After all they lost the day-trader audience when the bubble burst and the market stopped it big daily swings. I doubt algore's network will succeed, due to the abundance of 'dead air' Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kkktookmybabyaway 0 Report post Posted March 31, 2004 No, they had Savage too, until he showed what he's usually like. Savage was weekends, which is why I didn't include him... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Styles 0 Report post Posted March 31, 2004 Gore TV? Is this going to be like The Truman Show? Are we going to see Al brushing his teeth in the morning and making pancakes? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kkktookmybabyaway 0 Report post Posted April 3, 2004 For those that care... Gore TV Deal Is Stalled At The 11th Hour; Major Investor Pulls Out The Observer has learned that the deal for former Vice President Al Gore and his business partner Joel Hyatt to acquire digital-cable channel Newsworld International (NWI) has hit a major obstacle and may have fallen through in the 11th hour of negotiations. Sources familiar with the situation said that one of Mr. Gore's crucial investors got cold feet in the last stage of the deal and that Mr. Gore's group and the channel's owner, Vivendi Universal Entertainment, could not agree on a price. Mr. Gore's group was said to be paying around $70 million for Newsworld. Reached for comment, and asked if the deal had died, Mr. Hyatt initially said, "No," but then added, "No comment. It's always been no comment. We never talked about this deal, never. When we're at liberty to talk, I very much look forward do doing so." A spokeswoman for Vivendi Universal said, "Things are still in flux, but it hasn't been officially declared over." Sources close to Mr. Gore told The Observer that the capital raised by Mr. Gore and Mr. Hyatt had come from dozens of investors, with a mix of individual, venture capital and investment banking money. It is not clear which investor pulled out of the deal. If the deal should fall apart completely, NWI would become part of the Universal Entertainment properties currently being sold to NBC, sources said. It's not clear if NBC would be interested in a digital cable property, especially considering that it already owns news channels MSNBC and CNBC. It could still be possible, in theory, for NBC to sell Newsworld to Mr. Gore 's group once its own deal is cleared. Spokespersons for NBC could not be reached for comment. NWI has carriage in about 20 million homes, and packages "foreign newscasts originally broadcast in countries such as Germany, Japan, Canada and the European community," according to its Web site. Mr. Gore's group has had plans of transforming the channel into a 24-hour news, documentary and public-affairs channel geared toward kids in their 20's. The deal for Mr. Gore and Mr. Hyatt to buy Newsworld International has been nearly a year in the making. It was initially stalled in the fall of 2003 by Vivendi Universal's sale of its cable assets to NBC. Later, Barry Diller, former Newsworld owner and chief executive of InterActive Corp., held up the deal while he resolved his own ownership issues. A source close to Mr. Diller told the Observer that Mr. Diller had cleared the way for Mr. Gore to acquire the company about three weeks ago. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
