Glenn Beck Thinking Of Launching Own Cable Channel: NYT

Glenn Beck is thinking about starting his own cable channel, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

Beck's contract with Fox News is up in December, and both sides are, as an earlier Times report put it, "contemplating life without" each other. On Monday, news broke that Beck was hiring a Fox News executive, Joel Cheatwood, to a senior position at his Mercury Radio Arts company. This was seen as a signal that Beck was gearing up to bolt Fox News, though sources there dismissed the news as irrelevant and said that Mercury was playing a "dangerous game" with Roger Ailes.

The Times' Brian Stelter reported that Beck has been thinking about starting his own channel for over a year. He could rebrand an already existing channel in his image, in a move akin to the launch of the Oprah Winfrey Network or Martha Stewart's move to the Hallmark Channel. (Of course, this strategy carries some risk: both are struggling in the ratings, and OWN is undergoing an overhaul just a few months after its launch.) He could also choose to extend his "Insider Extreme" subscription package on his website.

According to Stelter, Beck will not want to compete with Fox News if he leaves. Rather, he will seek to leverage his personal brand and his devoted followers into higher profits and a broader reach.

Beck has been fairly cryptic about his future with Fox News. In a lengthy monologue on his radio show last week, he would only say that he and his audience would "continue to find each other," whether on Fox News or elsewhere.

Comments

[psmarc93]

02:25 AM on 04/07/2011

Oh, it's a sad day in Beckistan. The Emperor is packing his invisible clothes into his very visible baggage. Every once in a while, he runs his sausage fingers over his blackboard and weeps. He had so much yet to say... he didn't even get to the part about the Xenu and the volcanos and ... sigh...

[TankGirlz]

11:50 AM on 03/30/2011

Cool! It'll be the top rated channel....In mental institutions.

[MiamiMama]

05:25 PM on 03/27/2011

Maybe it will be like Cartoon Network. There are plenty of Looney Tones that will watch him. He can take them all right to the edge of the cliff and poof, they will go over the edge and become dust. Then the ACME ambulance will come and take them away to Bellevue.

[zendem1]

04:00 PM on 03/25/2011

Is anybody thinking of launching Glenn Beck?

[zenbamboo]

03:40 PM on 03/25/2011

If Sarah doesn't run, which I don't think she will, I was thinking she was going to start her own network as well.

[zenbamboo]

03:37 PM on 03/25/2011

I see this as clear evidence that he has worn out his welcome at Fox. What does that mean if Fox won't even take him?

[real1234]

02:43 PM on 03/25/2011

And thus the dumbing down of America continues.

[MadMadMan]

02:37 PM on 03/25/2011

What would the call letters be -- DUH?

[SalesmanForLife]

02:35 PM on 03/25/2011

Beck is for the everyday ordinary nonindividual scared cats. He is junk and has always been junk. Further more, MSNBC is getting junkier by the day and I am insulted watching MSNBC but thrilled at not watching the huge junk pile of focks.

[zenbamboo]

03:42 PM on 03/25/2011

I do have to wonder what the heck MSNBC is thinking with their weekend lineup. At 10pm Friday it switches over to the prison network.

[zendem1]

04:01 PM on 03/25/2011

Dont even get me started..There are 800 better programs they could run on the weekend better that that stuff.

[Vetinari]

02:09 PM on 03/25/2011

Mercury huh?

That explains soo much

[The Rokk]

01:35 PM on 03/25/2011

And from what I see in the content of this thread. He will succeed, because you will watch. If you don't watch the critisism will become more difficult and less based on his over the top rhetoric and based solely on uncredible critical oppinion. So I imagine that there will not be the backbone to snub such a network and its rating will beat that of OWN or Hallmark. And his wealth and message base will grow.

[LynnW49]

01:27 PM on 03/25/2011

It would be refreshing to see Beck lose a collosal amount of money on the venture.

[floridaray]

11:40 AM on 03/25/2011

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."
- Voltaire
From Commentary the flagship of Neo-Conservatism....
One cannot watch him for any length of time without being struck by his affinity for conspiracies and for portraying himself as the great decoder of events.

[jdrourke]

11:40 AM on 03/25/2011

Wow! Beck's insecurity is only eclipsed by his massive ego...

http://jdrourke.wordpress.com/2010/08/30/memo-to-messiah-glenn-beck/

[CharlesW299]

11:13 AM on 03/25/2011

I say "Go for it Beck".
Just another Beck channel I can avoid.