Al Gore's Current TV May Be Bought By Texas Startup Looking To Make It More Centrist

December 1st, 2012 5:24 PM

NewsBusters reported in October that Al Gore's struggling television network Current was up for sale.

An Austin, Texas, startup named SocialGood.tv came out of hiding this week and announced  that it's raising money to make a bid wanting to move the station from its "far-left talking points" and instead "focusing the programming in a centrist line."

In a statement published at the organization's website Wednesday, CEO Stephen Vogelpohl said, "Our startup does not presently have the capital necessary to complete a transaction of the size needed to acquire a company the size of Current. After learning Current’s CEO, Joel Hyatt, and Mr. Gore publicly put the cable network on the market, we saw an opportunity that aligned well with our business model and the direction we are headed in."

"We reached out to a few people in the film, financial and digital communities in my network and bounced the idea of acquiring Current TV and how we could build an audience, increase revenue, and how moving the company from California to Austin would be good for the local economy," he continued. "Although we cannot yet disclose who the interested parties are at this time, I can say that the parties at the table have the wherewithal to complete a transaction on this scale and turn Current TV into a major media enterprise an enterprise of good."


Fans - as few as they are - of Current's programming likely won't be pleased with the prospective direction of the network.

"Current TV is currently focused on programming that appeals to a far-left audience. They do focus on causes, specifically clean air and social justice, but they do it in a way that alienates many people who are stuck in the middle of the ideological and political spectrum," wrote Vogelpohl. "They chose to focus more on pushing legislation and spreading messages that are in line with far-left talking points than they are about promoting solutions that have the greatest impact which can also find support from a broad range of people."

"SocialGood.TV will change this by focusing the programming in a centrist line and promoting people, non-profits, NGO’s like the UN, and companies that are actively working to change things for the better across the globe," he continued. "Our programming will include more documentaries, reality programming featuring people and groups changing the world, and entertaining educational programming."

The organization describes itself as "focused on driving engagement into causes through rich content and interactive programming. The Company has been operating in stealth mode until an opportunity presented itself that simply could not be passed up."

Apparently that opportunity was Current going up for sale.

Stay tuned.