By Brian Stelter / New York Times / February 8, 2011
Keith Olbermann, the former MSNBC anchor and liberal firebrand, will host a prime-time program for Current TV , the low-rated cable channel co-founded by Al Gore, starting in the spring.
The as-yet untitled hour of news and commentary will effectively mimic “Countdown,” the MSNBC program that Mr. Olbermann created eight years ago and quit hosting last month. Mr. Olbermann told reporters on a conference call Tuesday that the new program would be “an improved, and we hope amplified and stronger, version of the show that I just did.”
Current is betting that Mr. Olbermann will put the channel on the cable map — and it needs the help. It averages just 23,000 viewers in prime time each night.
Mr. Olbermann drew about 1 million viewers to his MSNBC program each night. This is “the best investment that Current has ever made,” said Joel Hyatt, who founded the channel with Mr. Gore.
Mr. Olbermann will have an equity stake in the company, and he will also have a management role. As the chief news officer, he will develop new programs and provide editorial guidance to the channel’s journalists.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Cox Cable service does not carry Current TV.
I need my Olbermann! Cox get Current!
Please contact Cox on their website and ask them to add Current TV to their lineup. (DirectTV and AT&T U-Verse do currently offer Current TV.)
Good idea Dorothy Lee, I added a link to your comment. Use that link to go directly to the Cox contact page.
Thank you, Patty.
I got this response from Cox:
“At the moment there is no definite information regarding the addition of
this channel. All requests are being forward to our feedback department
so they can take this into consideration for future upgrades on the
lineup.”
We can hope.
This was the reply I received (even though I said nothing about HD):
Thank you for your Current TV inquiry.
Your request for the Current TV channel in HD has been submitted to our
Marketing department. Our Marketing department keeps track of all
channels requested by our customers. We use that list in our
consideration for adding new channels. Your voice matters and does play
a part in our decision making. Of course, we can not guarantee the
channel will be added, as there are many considerations, but your
feedback is very important to us.
We are always actively negotiating contracts for new channels, and this
applies to HD channels as well. Unfortunately until a contract is signed
and agreed upon we have no way of knowing when a channel will be
launched.
Well, we can hope. C’mon, everybody! “Your voice matters .”
Is this a yes or no? with Uverse?
How are the numbers of people watching Keith Obermann going to grow if most of the viewers do not have the Current TV channel?