Did Keith Olbermann Just Make a Huge Mistake?
source: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/keith-olbermann-huge-mistake-97465
-
-
- CarlosBobthe3rd
- added this
Keith Olbermann knows a lot about history. And media. And comebacks. So no doubt he’s familiar with the last time a big name anchor had an acrimonious fall out with his employer, only to turn up on a tiny cable channel, preaching the joys of freedom to do whatever he wanted.
That man was Dan Rather. And he’s at HDNet.
If your first reaction to that was, “Dan Rather’s still alive?” Or, “HDWhat?,” then, well, Olbermann might have some issues ahead of him as he goes over to Current TV, aka Al Gore’s Channel That Nobody Watches. Frankly, this whole thing would have been loads more fun had Olbermann gone to Fox News or ran for senator or relocated to the UK so he could mock American politics – three of 15 wishes/guesses I had for him that didn’t pan out.
Instead, Olbermann will go to a cable channel that initially tried to run on user generated content from the youth market, until people realized that the youth market had better things to do – like illegally download HBO and just released movies. Oh, and then there was the whole YouTube issue. Apparently that giant elephant in the room was, shockingly, really gigantic. And popular. So Current did a bunch of its own stuff – some of it very cool and interesting to the people who made it and their families who watched it. No, seriously, Current had some interesting content that I can vaguely remember watching.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/keith-olbermann-huge-mistake-97465
-
-
Mr_Brainwash
-
I remember when I was a kid and I had a friend with "LIKE 100 CHANNELS" on his TV when I had only about 30 channels. Today, my friend has the internet with virtually millions of channels and almost NO commercials. Now my parents have "modernized" and pay for over priced cable that comes with 250 channels and we spend 20 minutes of every hour watching commercials.
The point is, Current TV represents something beyond ratings. Ratings were invented for advertisers and network executives. TV channels will have to become "websites" which become niche experiences. A channel will have to aggregate it's content from a worldwide pool of talent and draw users to a community that interacts with each other instead of passively staring at a screen.
I'm hoping Keith chose Current TV for this amazing community as well as the freedom to donate his money to any Democrat he chooses, not simply following the almighty dollar and some short lived fame.
- 1 year ago
-
Mr_Brainwash
-
-
JohnA
-
I wonder what his contract is? Not that MSNBC's ratings were great, but they were a powerhouse next to Current TV. And he's not exactly Howard Stern. I'll be curious to see what he's making.
- 1 year ago
-
JohnA
