After broadcasting live Twitters during the U.S. presidential debate, Current TV had to go one notch higher for election night.
The cable channel, co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore, has partnered with both Twitter and social news site Digg for the evening of November 4, during which it will feature a "multimedia dashboard" with live messages from Twitter, headlines from Digg, and video from both Current and "video status update" start-up 12seconds.tv. In keeping with the network's young target audience, electronica act Diplo will be performing DJ sets throughout the night, too.
The funny irony is that Digg reportedly once walked away from a $100 million acquisition offer from Current.
"The new pace of democracy is real-time," Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said in a joint release. "Current is helping Twitter amplify the opinions, news, and trends that matter right now. Together, we're influencing more than media--we're evolving conversation."
Election night on Current will also feature (naturally) commentary, projected results, and a state-by-state map. So it won't be all fun and games and Kevin Rose, y'know.
Current Media, the youth-oriented cable channel founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and Joel Hyatt, has filed for a $100 million initial public offering.
The company aims to trade under the Nasdaq symbol CRTM; neither share prices nor number of shares have been disclosed.
Acknowledging that it has "a history of losses," relies on an "unproven media model," and had an accumulated deficit of $31.9 million at the end of 2007, Current Media is nevertheless pushing forward in the hopes that it will be able to better cover expenses as a public company. Revenues for 2007 were $63.7 million.
Current.com, relaunched in October 2007.
(Credit: current.com)According to Current Media's filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the network reaches 51 million households in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. Founded in 2005, when Gore and Hyatt purchased the News World International channel for $70.9 million, the Current TV network focuses on "independent" news coverage and documentary programming, much of which is submitted in 3- to 7-minute "pods" created by viewers.
Current also operates the Current.com site, which it relaunched last October, where all of the "pods" are available for streaming on-demand along with Digg-style social-news content. One of Current Media's stated goals is to better monetize the site, as well as to expand to "new platforms" (read: mobile) and more international regions.
Current Media's underwriters, as disclosed in the SEC filing, are Lehman Brothers, JPMorgan Chase, and Pacific Crest Securities.
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