Sky moves into UGC market with Current TV

According to Digital Spy, Sky has done a deal with former US vice-president Al Gore to broadcast a UK version of the user-generated channel Current TV.

Gore, who lost the 2000 US presidential election to George W Bush, launched the US version of the channel with business partner Joel Hyatt in August 2005.

Current TV's output includes non-fiction programmes, or "pods", aimed at 18-to-34-year-old Internet-savvy viewers.

Gore and Sky chief executive James Murdoch hope to use the UK channel to democratise the broadcast medium by allowing viewers to produce and broadcast their own short films.

Gore said: "We are grateful to be working with BSkyB in our first international venture. This is a big step in fulfilling Current's mission of sparking a global conversation among young adults."

Viewers send their videos to the http://www.current.tv web site for selection for the channel. The videos, which make up 30% of Current TV's US schedule, cover technology, the environment, fashion or politics. The channel, which calls itself "the TV network created by the people who watch it", reaches nearly 30 million homes in the US via DirecTV, Comcast and TimeWarner Cable.

In the UK it will reach 8.2 million households when it launches in a few months. The channel confirmed the content would be aimed at a UK audience, but that it would also use videos from contributors around the world.

Gore added: "Bringing our viewer created content model to the UK and Ireland will give millions of young viewers the opportunity to not only watch, but also to create, television programming that is relevant to them."

Earlier this year the channel signed with Sony, Toyota and L'Oreal to enlist viewers to produce the brands' commercials in the first user-generated ads deal.

Source - http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds37862.html.