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Two US Groups to
Launch “Gay-oriented”

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BY KEVIN THOMAS ALTHOUSE
OITM Staff Writer

hree “gay-oriented” cable
I channels may be available
to American audiences
within the next year.
Less than a week after
MTV and Showtime announced
plans to introduce a cable chan-
nel targeted to the lesbian and
gay audience, a Washington, DC-
based entertainment group
announced on January 17th that it
is also planning to introduce their

‘ own version of gay program-

ming, according to PlanetOut.
And, the creators of Canada’s
PrideVision, a gay channel
launched last autumn in the Great
White North, have indicated
interest in expanding their view-
ership southward to the U.S.,
according to reports. Apparently,
the folks at PrideVision will
await the results of the MTV-
Showtime gay TV effort.

The MTV—Showtime
proposal doesn’t suggest a start-
up date. Ifthe network is born, it
will be a premium channel,
reportedly costing less than the
current $6 or more monthly fee
for Showtime. Unlike Showtime,

the gay channel will also include
paid advertising. The MDC

Entertainment Group is reported-
ly ready to fire-up their gay net-
work, Altl-TV, sometime early in
2003. This channel will be entire-
ly ad-based, according to reports.

Toronto-based
PrideVision was launched last
autumn, and is a subscription-
based, gay-oriented network for
digital and satellite services in
the provinces. The Canadian net-
work spends about $5 million in
programming with a mix of
British shows like
Metrosexuality, as well as the
American Queer as Folk, MTV’s
Undressed, and Will & Grace.

Programming for the
Showtime-MTV venture could
include gay-oriented information
shows, documentaries and .
standup comedy with gay comics,
according to a recent Associated
Press interview with Gene Falk,
Showtime’s senior vice president
of digital.media. “It could include
independent films with gay
themes and story lines, many of
which never see the light of day
other than at gay film festivals
and a handful of theaters,” Falk
reportedly told the AP.

Falk also tried to down-
play concerns that the gay chan-
nel might precipitate opposition
from anti-gay groups: ‘‘If people
want to find'a whipping boy to
raise money for what they’re
doing, they’ll find one.”

The concept of a gay-
oriented channel in the U. S. is
not new; a Palm Springs group,

. . . . . .

 
 

Triangle Multi-Media Limited.
launched a 24-hour channel last
August. One problem, though: no
one can see the channel until the
company works out distribution
concerns with cable companies
and satellite TV distributors.

K And cltv, a relatively
new gay-oriented Miami-based
communications group,
announces on its Web site
(cltv.com) that it is “currently
positioning and negotiating for
24-7 broadcasting via both cable
and satellite." The Florida group
does not, however, indicate when
they plan to go national.

Now that gay-oriented,
24-hour cable TV programming
in the near future appears as a
given, a recent visit to MTV’s
community message boards can
be instructive.

“I just have to say that I
never got enough gay people on
T. V. when l was a kid,” wrote
“evepstein" who was responding
to a post that belittled a gay chan-
nel. “When I saw them they were
either flaming homosexuals or
manly lesbians. Being a Jewish
lesbian I certainly ended up see-
ing a lot more of the Christian
channels than I wanted to. And
what about BET? Are you hon- -
estly going to toll--neH.+lt1l"ga‘y”'
people shouldn’t have their own
channel but religion and ethnicity
deserve their own channels?
Thank you MTV and Showtime."
But, as with any argument, there
are always two sides.

“We need to put a stop
to this type of programming and
allowance because it only serves
to advance the ‘problem’,” wrote
“VietnamVetUH 1 .” The author
didn’t define the “problem,” but
most readers could probably
extrapolate his meaning.

It was also instructive to
ask a couple of gay Vermonters
their opinion about gay-oriented
cable television stations.

“l’m honestly surprised
that they’re really doing it,” said
Theresa Krieger, 25, of Castleton.
“And ifthey do it, I think it’s
pretty cool—maybe a bit main-
stream with informational issues
about the gay community. I’d
really like to see the issue of gay
relationships, legal and other-
wise, to be reviewed.”

But Paul Leduc, 26, of
Shelbume, thinks that a gay
channel might further segment
and exclude lesbians and gays.
“I’m not sure that we can trust
the entertainment community, a
group that is notoriously and
securely closeted, to make any
programming choices for the rest
of us,” Leduc said. “I think the
benefits of mere inclusion and
acknowledgement through repre-
sentation on current shows would
be much more -valuable and far
less divisive.” I '

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