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Current TV was sold to Al Jazeera for about $500 million, two people with knowledge of the deal told Bloomberg. Gore and partners paid about $71 million in 2004 for the channel that became Current TV. Gore, chairman, and Joel Hyatt, co-founder and CEO announced the sale Wednesday without providing terms. The deal gives Qatar-based Al Jazeera access to the biggest U.S. pay-TV carriers but Current’s viewership needs to increase significantly. Current averaged about 42,000 nightly primetime viewers last quarter, according to Horizon Media Inc. SNL Kagan cable analyst Derek Baine said the $500M price “sounds high”. Current TV’s owners had raised a total of $153 million including debt, according to NY-based research firm PrivCo.
Related: Will Time Warner Cable Carry Al Jazeera America?
Separately, former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm said yesterday on Facebook she will be leaving Current when her contract is up. Granholm, a Democrat who served two terms, said her agreement covered the election through the transition period and she plans to pursue other interests.
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Overpaid. Ally J prolly coulda copped it for $500,000…
So a couple months ago Al Gore is droning on about “the rich needing to pay their fair share” then he attempts to rush this sale to avoid the capital gains increase in 2013? A sale to AL-freakin’-JAZEERA no less?!?!
So sick of this hypocrisy. Just like Will Smith going on about “the rich needing to pay their fair share” then learning what the rich actually pay in France in that French interview and Will responding “Uhhh, yeah. Wow. Didn’t know that. God bless America.”
“Do as we say, not as we do”, eh guys?
I think this deal had more to do with carriage deal deadlines than the capital gains increases. Correlation doesn’t equal causation.
Yes…AND? At least he’ll PAY his taxes and not hide it overseas. And Al Jazeera , along with McClatchy, is one of the best news services around.
He sold out to the highest bidder but can’t believe they paid almost a quarter-billion dollars for such a worthless network as this. Those figures must be wrong as this network isn’t worth twenty five bucks, let alone this figure.
I await the news that the bulk of the $500 Million is going to the needy.
So the world’s biggest global warm-monger sold his worthless TV station to an Arab dictator/oil sheik for 500 million petrodollars. Somehow, it’s fitting.
Typical conservative comments gettng it all ass backwards.
First since when is a quarter – billion = $500 million? Jed you need to go back to school.
All this sounds like sour grapes by a bunch of conservative. He did what any American would have done sold it to the highest bidder. I doubt Glen Beck would have paid 500 million for it, again sour grapes. Just think with all that money behind it maybe they can give FOX a run for their money, MSNBC sure is.
Al Gore you sold your TV network to a petrocartel’s media arm (which is still a far better network than any us cable news outlet). But it does make me regret giving your and Guggenheim’s hugely profitable doc the time of day.
That’s exactly $500 million more than it is worth.
Unlike the above commenters, I could care less that Al Gore sold it, or who he sold it to. What I will say though is that I think Al Jazerra is going to have to rebrand the channel from something other than “Al Jazerra America” if they want to gain a foothold in the news media out here.
Perhaps something like “Middle East Network” or something a little less foreign sounding. With a large portion of the country suspicious of anything Islamic-sounding, it’d be best to Americanize the station as much as possible.
All that being said though, I’m going to MSNBC for the time being.
If you want true hate, nothing comes close to MSNBC. It’s interesting that those who hate the most accuse others of hating. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…
At least AL JAZEERA will not be broadcast on PBS anymore and subscribers can pay for it instead of the American taxpayers.
I don’t know Pete
I got tweet from KCET Los Angeles they told me they still carry it
Maybe certain PBS station would “stop” carry it
I know my local Public station would carry it STILL
Considering Al Jazeera English has been blocked at every turn in their attempt to expand their program offerings to more than a tiny portion of the USA, $500 million is probably a bargain.
Sure PBS will still carry Al Jazeera. It’s past the point of being trendy and pseudo-intellectual to treat all things traditionally American with disdain- it’s become the moral high ground. Anyone who questions another culture’s motives is a fascist and a racist, even if that culture has publicly expressed a desire to end our way of life. Why not give our sworn enemies a domestic public forum? Let’s institute “Shariah”. That would be so global, dude.