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By: BRYAN ANDERTON COMMENTS
 
For the past several years, Viacom Inc., the media giant that owns such networks
as CBS, MTV and Showtime, has volleyed around the idea of producing a gay-themed
premium cable network. Just as that idea appeared dead, a report has surfaced
that the company is resurrecting plans for the network.
According to reports by Reuters and the Hollywood Reporter, Viacom is renewing
plans to launch the all-gay network, known at this stage as Outlet. The channel
is to be revived by the MTV Networks, according to the reports, which had worked
on the project for several years with its corporate sibling, Showtime Networks.
Showtime first developed the idea a decade ago, but plans for the network
were placed on the back burner indefinitely last year.
“Due to the current economic climate, the timetable has slowed down
for the development of a new network dedicated to programming to the gay and
lesbian audience,” Viacom officials said in a statement at the time.
A source at Showtime said they had not heard anything new regarding the project,
but directed inquiries to MTV instead. Officials at MTV and Viacom did not
return calls seeking comment by press time.
But an independent media company has apparently beaten Viacom to the punch.
In December, Palm Springs, Calif.-based PrideNation Networks launched the
country’s first 24-hour gay-themed TV network — at least in a manner
of speaking.
For $5.95 a month, people anywhere in the world with a broadband computer
connection can access the network through their computer. For a separate fee,
they can purchase hardware that transmits the network to their TV.
But Allen Edwards, the president of PNN, said the fact that the network wasn’t
on cable was actually a benefit, not a hindrance.
“Basically what we’re able to do is we really have no limits,
because we’re not on cable, we’re not on satellite or mainstream
television, so we can really present the community in reality form,” Edwards
said.
(Compiled by Matthew A. Hennie)
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The Palm Springs, Calif.-based Gay Television Network says it will debut
Oct. 1 with a 12-hour-a-day programming schedule and offerings to include
gay-themed
films, a morning talk show, music videos and a program on early gay activism
in Los Angeles and New York.
Launch plans for Gay Television Network delayed.
Officials with the Gay Television Network reschedule the channel’s launch
to Jan. 23, then move it again to Feb. 2, on the Dish Network. Dish later says
the announcement of an agreement with GTN is premature.
The Gay Television Network changes the name of its gay cable channel to Triangle
Television Network after its satellite provider raises concerns about using
the word “gay” in the channel’s name.
Triangle Television Network misses Sept. 5 launch, the fifth one the network
has announced since November 2000.
Canadian broadcast regulators order Shaw Communications to offer PrideVision,
making it that nation’s first gay-themed television channel.
Viacom properties Showtime and MTV announce they will research the viability
of a gay-oriented network. Later, informal advisory panels meet in several
U.S. cities. Panel members say a spring 2003 launch date is discussed with
the working name “Outlet.”
Triangle Television Network apparently inks an agreement with Dish Network
to carry the channel, but a launch date is not announced.
Headline Media Group, the parent company of PrideVision, slashes the network’s
staff amid budget problems.
PrideVision announces July 12 that it is available in U.S. through Largo Communications,
a satellite distributor in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., that provides access to Canadian
satellite company Bell ExpressVu.
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