New Cable TV Network PIVOT to Feature Programming Aimed and Middle Age People

But Can a Network That Brings Us “Little Mosque on the Prairie” Really Be Serious?

This Forum is going to assume that a story in USA Today is not something that they pirated from The Onion.  So unless someone tells us otherwise, we assume that the report that a new cable network will debut in August is real.  Here is what those putting this thing together hope to do.

Pivot, due Aug. 1, will feature a mix of programming aimed at the "new greatest generation," the 85 million or so 15-to-34-year-olds, says Jim Berk, CEO of parent Participant Media, being created from the ashes of Documentary Channel and Halogen TV, two small cable networks that reach 40 million homes. In an apparent first, the channel's entire lineup also will be available via a mobile app to viewers who don't subscribe to cable, at a monthly cost paid to Internet providers that's "less than a cup of coffee," promises Pivot president Evan Shapiro.

Ok, so what kind of programming to they envision?  Oh, this

Other original shows include TakePart Live, a topical daily talk show; Raising McCain, a 10-episode series starring Sen. John McCain's 28-year-old daughter, who described it as "a cross between Meet the Press and Jackass"; Will, a scripted drama series about a young William Shakespeare, from Craig Pearce (Romeo and Juliet, Moulin Rouge); and Jersey Strong, a docu-series profiling two connected Newark families, one comprising gang members, the other made up of criminal lawyers.

Not the stuff that Emmy’s or high ratings are made of.  But wait, there is also this.

Pivot also has acquired rights to reruns of Friday Night Lights, Farscape and Little Mosque on the Prairie, a series about Canadian Muslims.

No way.  So what’s really going on here?  We think that after Al Gore and friends started a failed cable channel and were able to sell it to a bunch of foreign investors with more money than knowledge, skill or even basic common sense, the owners of this venture see big bucks in going the same route.  After all, if there was one group of deep pockets foreigners willing to pay $500 million for a failed cable network, there must be more.