David Neuman, President of Programming, Current TV

Current, a TV channel targeted at the 18-34 demographic, began airing last week on DirecTV, Comcast and Time Warner Cable--giving it a reach of approximately 20 million viewers. The channel, which is the brainchild of former US vice president, Al Gore (who serves as the chairman of its parent company, INdTV Holdings), and his business partner, Joel Hyatt (who serves as INdTV's CEO), features short-form informational content (dubbed "pods"), much of which is contributed by viewers via its Web site (note: the channel pays for viewer- contributed content that it airs). The channel also invites its viewers to help determine its programming schedule by voting for video submissions on its site. Current's president of programming, David Neuman, recently spoke to [itvt]'s Tracy Swedlow about the channel's mission, its efforts to train potential contributors, its Web strategy, and more.

[itvt]: Although Current doesn't currently offer interactive TV applications, the network could nevertheless be said to be interactive, in the sense that much of its content is viewer-generated, correct?

Neuman: Yes, we've designed the line-up to facilitate contributions from the audience.

[itvt]: How does that work?

Neuman: Instead of conventional shows, we have what we call "pods." They're usually 2-7 minutes in length, and they cover every subject under the sun. We have different labels for different kinds of pods. We have Current Gigs, which is about career opportunities and jobs. We have Current Soul, which is about spirituality. We have Current Caring, which is about people who engage in altruistic activities. There's Current International, which features interesting stories from overseas. There's Current Travel, which, of course, is about travel. There's Currency, which is about money and finance. These are just a few of them.

So we produce pieces ourselves for every one of those categories, but we also leave the door open for the audience to produce pieces for them. As long as you understand what we're doing--that we're about non-fiction, that we're about informational content, that we're about what's going on for young adults, and that we want to show this in their own voice, and from their point of view--you're basically welcome to make any episode of any pod that we have.

[itvt]: Roughly what percentage of content on the new channel is viewer-contributed, versus produced in-house or licensed from libraries or production companies?

Neuman: About 10 percent is licensed from libraries or production companies. About 25 percent is viewer-contributed content--what we're calling "VC Squared." And the rest of it is content that we've produced ourselves. However, we hope that those numbers will look very different, once we've been on the air for a year and the audience understands that we have this open-door policy. We're hoping to get to 50 percent viewer-contributed content pretty soon. I think that the 10 percent acquired content figure will probably stay more or less the same for a while. I don't think you're going to see that grow. By way of comparison, a start-up network will usually offer 99 percent acquired content, and maybe one percent original programming. So obviously our content mix is extremely different.

[itvt]: To what extent are you putting yourselves at a disadvantage by featuring so much viewer-contributed content? Inasmuch as such content will likely have lower production values--and therefore may be less watchable--than professionally produced content?

Neuman: Well, as you know, viewer-contributed content is essential to our mission, which is about democratizing television. We're about telling stories that aren't being told right now. We're about giving the audience a complete voice and a complete role in what we're doing. Our mission statement begins with working with the audience, to create a new category of content.

So I don't think you're ever going to see us increasing the amount of professionally produced content we offer. But I think what you are going to see is that the quality level of viewer contributions is going to get better and better. Part of this is simply because the technology for producing video is improving, and is becoming ever more affordable. But it's also because we're going to give our viewers the resources to create better and better content. We just launched a training module online, free and available for everyone. We're also going to make other resources available online--graphics, music, and more--in order to help you to make your pieces better.

The reason I'm so optimistic about this is because we already have some first-hand experience. We've already seen that some of the stuff we've gotten is just terrific. We're not apologizing for it. It's great content.

[itvt]: You mentioned that you are offering training to viewers who are interested in contributing content to the channel. Could you talk a little bit about that?

Neuman: We are creating a lot of content right now that is designed to help train people to make high-quality video. We now have a training course online, available for free to anybody who's interested. We give you technical and creative information. You can learn the tricks of the trade from experts in the field. That's just the first step in assisting the viewer in the creation of our content. Our training module gives you information on shooting, compressing and uploading video. It includes a "Gear Guide," hosted by Evan Stone, who's a producer in LA. He's our "gear guru." More training modules will be coming through the end of the month.

[itvt]: How important a part of what you're doing is the Web going to be? Do you plan, for example, to offer a broadband version of your channel?

Neuman: Well, we live in the real world of today, and in that world conventional television is still where most people get their video content. For us, the Web is a complementary application. We've designed this whole thing for what we call the "two-screen experience." We've taken into account the fact that the audience is often watching TV while they're chatting on the Internet or talking on their cell phone-- that they often have their computers on while they're watching TV. The ability to upload content to our channel takes place through the Web. And our ability to communicate to you about how to make that content is through the Web.

So we see TV and the Web as really very complementary to one another. This is very consistent with the way that our audience consumes media anyway. They're multiplatform-capable.

We're really about collaborating with the audience to build this brand. People still like to watch great video content on their television screens, and that's why we're presenting it that way. However, if they want to watch more content contributed by other viewers, we do make some of that content available on the Web.

[itvt]: So rolling out a broadband TV service isn't currently part of your business plan?

Neuman: In this business, it's very wise to stay open to new ideas. But the customer is still the boss, and however the customer wants to get their programming, that's what you have to pay attention to. Obviously, we think that cable and satellite offer a very compelling way to get that content. So the channel is on cable and satellite. We're going to listen to what our customers tell us, and we're going to act accordingly.

[itvt]: You just described your channel as providing a "two-screen experience." Now, as you're probably aware, in the interactive TV industry "two-screen" is a term that generally describes an Internet application that runs in sync with a live show. That application might offer trivia, polls and other things related to the linear TV show. Are you planning to offer anything along those lines?

Neuman: Well, we have something like that right now--our program guide which we call our "live schedule." You need a live schedule because our programming line-up is very flexible and always changing, except for the GoogleCurrent segments which are at the top and the bottom of the hour. [Note: the content of the GoogleCurrent segments reflects the most popular searches on Google News.] So if you want to check out what we're airing and when, you can go online, and our live schedule will provide details about what's on right now and what's coming up in the next five, ten, 20 minutes and so on.

[itvt]: But you aren't currently planning any applications that are synchronized with the content of each show, correct?

Neuman: Our online group is very cool, so I'm sure they'll be examining the kinds of things you're talking about. Right now, though, all our energies are concentrated on the television product. But I think what you're talking about is very intriguing stuff, and we're always exploring what we can do to make this a more compelling experience for our customers.

[itvt]: Another interactive feature that Current offers, in addition to inviting viewers to be contributors, is allowing viewers to vote on the programming schedule. Could you explain how this works?

Neuman: You go to an online "screening room" in the Greenlight section of our Web site. You get a sampling of videos that people uploaded, you view the videos, and if you feel that a video is ready to air on our network, you push a button to "greenlight" it.

[itvt]: Right now, your content is delivered almost exclusively via a linear broadcast channel. Do you have any plans to offer VOD, for example through Comcast's or Time Warner Cable's VOD platforms?

Neuman: No. Not right now. We do not.

[itvt]: How did the idea for the new channel come about?

Neuman: The idea for it was developed by Al and Joel--Al Gore and his business partner, Joel Hyatt. I think it came from a very strong philosophical place with Al. He's looking at the world around us and he's saying, "We're missing something. The democratic--small 'd'-- dialog is missing something." When all debate happened in the print media, there were ways to participate. You could write letters to the editor, you could, like Thomas Paine, print pamphlets and spread them around. And society got better, as a result of the fact that there was this democracy of ideas. So Al Gore looks at television and sees that it's now our dominant medium for all the social decisions we make, but that it's still really a one-way medium. And he started asking himself, "Where is the opportunity for participation by the average person?"

What struck him was that, in the past, there was a reason for there being no participation by average people. It cost a quarter of a million dollars to have a really high-quality video camera. It cost half a million dollars to have a sophisticated editing system for videotape. Well, the digital revolution has completely and radically changed all of that. Now, the Mac that you buy to use in your college dorm room has an editing system in it that would have cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars a few years ago. So there's no reason any more why people shouldn't be able to participate in television.

That was kind of the germ of the idea. Al and Joel started thinking, "How can we democratize television? How can we open the door for the average person to participate?" They kept developing that idea, and they very smartly went out and bought a cable network. That was smart because a lot of people have good ideas, but you've got to have distribution for those ideas.

So they put a business plan together with this really compelling and needed idea, and that's how we got to where we are today. Now, 20 million homes have us, and we hope to grow that number.

URL: http://www.current.tv

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