Glenn Beck Contemplates Starting his Own Channel

[samplegirl]

Probably because his sorry ass ratings have dropped and he is washed up!


In a March 22 article, The New York Times' Brian Stetler reported that Glenn Beck has considered taking over a cable channel and expanding his Insider Extreme Web service, should Beck not renew his contract with Fox News at the end of this year. The article went on to say that neither approach would try to compete with Fox, but "would try to extract more value out of Mr. Beck's loyal fans." From the article:

But a cable channel takeover, even in part, carries enormous risk, as Ms. Winfrey and Ms. Stewart can attest -- they have more real estate now, but the ratings comparisons are not favorable. For Mr. Beck, the risk may be heightened by the fact that many advertisers have shunned him on Fox, in part because of a boycott that started after he called President Obama racist in 2009.

Furthermore, having cable channel turf may carry less importance in the future as more people access TV shows online.

Mr. Beck's other option is to expand Insider Extreme, the subscription portion of his Web site, glennbeck.com, by hosting an exclusive show there and by adding other content.
Insider Extreme already simulcasts Mr. Beck's three-hour radio show; shows a fourth hour hosted by his sidekicks; shows a daily show hosted by S. E. Cupp, a conservative commentator; and occasionally features documentaries. Peopple who have spoken to Mr. Beck say that neither option -- a cable channel or what would essentially be an Internet channel -- would be aimed at competing with Fox News, which is enormously popular on cable. Rather, it would try to extract more value out of Mr. Beck's loyal fans. The comparison to Stern may be apt: his audience on satellite radio is smaller than it was on terrestrial radio, but the profits are higher.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201103220046

[Teaser]

1. the crazy network.

CRZ on comcast.

[samplegirl]

2. Rich Losers

Die hard!

[warrior1]

3. yes, do it

and then go completely bankrupt.

[rurallib]

4. wow - what an ego.

would this be the definition of chutzpah?

[cloudbase]

5. "would try to extract more value out of Mr. Beck's loyal fans."

Such a nice way of saying that his loyal fans will get bent over.

[lpbk2713]

6. Ya gotta have advertisers, shithead.

And no advertisers want to be associated with your lunatic ass.
Seems like you'd be able to figure that out by now, loser.

[Drale]

7. It is going to be like

The episode or king of the hill when dale starts his own radio station and is on the air for like 72 hours and eventually sells it to mexican radio lol

[Erose999]

8. Charlie Sheen might be involved with this too. He's too crazy for CBS and Glenns too crazy for Faux

One of them is a narcissistic, former (and current?) addict, 9/11 truther who once had the highest ratings on cable... and the other one is Charlie Sheen.

I think they deserve eachother.

[AngryAmish]

9. Put aside Beck for now, this is very interesting

I see very little advantage to having a cable network anymore (or even over the air). What they have now is legacy users which from newspapers mean shit anymore. ABC, CNS looks the same online as AA's Network. Why would people watch my shows? They have to like it. Maybe I show lots of boobies. Maybe I become like the Economist, real news from throughout the globe.

This is the future.

[Armstead]

17. The Internet will run up against its limits soon though

In theory online media is a great opportunity and more convenient.

But the problem is that both bandwidth and access (including price of access) are going to become scarcer and more expensive and/or rationed, partly for physical reasons, socio-economic realities for many people and the greed of the providers (and the bipartisasn iness and corruption of politicians in terms of actually protectinbg consumers and preventing monopoilies of providers)

[otohara]

10. Beck, Ted Nugent, Joe The Media Whore, Steven Baldwin

Victoria Jackson...and more crazies coming up after this commercial break.

[jillan]

11. Palin, Breitbart.... He'll have enough people to fill the airwaves 24/7.

[otohara]

12. Palin Works For FOX

but I'm pretty sure Huffington Post would allow Breitbart to pimp HP on any channel that will have him.

[AsahinaKimi]

13. Maybe he should just retire...after all

According to him, the end of the world is coming.

[EC]

14. Good

he'll be broke in 6 months. If Fox can't get advertisers, who was he planning to have bankroll his station?

[Motown_Johnny]

15. I hope he sinks everything he has into it, including any pension

so when he is dead broke he can start telling all his crazy followers (on his blog) how wrong he was.

[TahitiNut]

16. EB ... Excrement in Broadcasting

:puke:

[KharmaTrain]

18. Sounds Like A Negotiating Tactic...

...and a shitty one at that. Dreck is attempting to steal a page from Howard Stern in his renegotiations with Faux. Seems like things aren't going well as the other week there was a "leak" saying that Dreck's show was close to being cancelled by Faux. Sure sounds like negotiations via the media. Faux needs to discount while Dreck attempts to make himself look more valuable.

Now the reality check. Starting a network requires a lot of moving parts and then a ton of money to survive in this three-digit channel world. That kinda works against Dreck who is a loss leader for Faux and his radio syndicator...advertisers see him as radioactive and boycott his show. That suits Faux just fine as his ratings boost their bottom line so those advertisers pay more elsewhere. But on his own and with the big money sitting on their hands, Dreck would have to do some major revision to get some to throw a couple of sheckles his way.

Next is Faux's media reach. Besides being the owner of a satellite system, Murdoch has a lot of sway over the major cable operators and he's not afraid to use it. This has been a big reason ComcastMSNBCGE was frozen out of so many systems and has lower ratings than Faux and surely would be used to either freeze the Dreckwork off many systems or relegate it to Channel 666.

Sounds like we could be in for several months of ego and threats...but the ugly truth is faux needs Dreck and visa versa.