Glenn Beck TV Launches Today… Something New for Liberals to Despise & MSNBC to Attack, GBTV Already Has More ‘Net Subscribers Than Oprah Winfrey Network Has Viewers (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on September 12, 2011
Gigantic billboard in NYC's Times Square... Glenn Beck - GBTV - launches today. From the GBTV billboard: 'If I had a dollar for every person who bad-mouthed me... I'd have enough money to launch a network'
GBTV — a new nightmare for the ultra-liberal media — launches today.
Conservative host Glenn Beck said good-bye to his Fox Network viewers in April, saying that it was time for him to pursue new endeavors. Today, one of those endeavors will be unveiled — GBTV subscribers already number more than 230,000.
Just a little bit over a year ago, Beck’s news website The Blaze launched.
From Wall Street Journal, Glenn Beck Faces Big Test as New Show Bows:
Conservative firebrand Glenn Beck faces his first big test since leaving Fox News when his new two-hour show begins Monday.
The first episode of Mr. Beck’s program “Glenn Beck,” which will air on his new Internet-only network GBTV, will focus on taking action, particularly in the wake of the 10-year anniversary of Sept. 11. Mr. Beck will also discuss the state of the economy.
In an interview, Mr. Beck said the show will in some ways break from his old program, with several new contributors and double the length.
[...]
When Mr. Beck announced GBTV in June, the network had 80,000 subscribers. In the months since, GBTV subscribers have swelled to more than 230,000, according to people close to the network, even though Mr. Beck‘s show hasn’t yet begun.
The audience is far less than the more than 2.2 million daily viewers his program on Fox drew, on average, over its 27-month run, which ended in June after clashes with the network’s management.
But it is more than the average 156,000 people who were watching the Oprah Winfrey Network in June.
From The Blaze, WALL STREET JOURNAL: GBTV ALREADY HAS MORE SUBSCRIBERS THAN OPRAH’S NETWORK HAS VIEWERS:
One writer at Forbes has looked at the numbers and done a little extrapolation:
Analyst Rich Greenfield of BTIG Research estimates that GBTV is already generating revenues of $27 million a year from subscription fees by monetizing a mere 1 percent of the total audience for his Fox show, his radio show, his websites (glennbeck.com and theblaze.com) and other outlets. Greenfield envisions Beck increasing that conversion rate to 5 percent, yielding a subscriber base of over 1 million. In that scenario, extrapolating from Greenfield’s current run rate estimate of $27 million, GBTV would be generating $135 million in subscription revenues.
The Forbes writer, Jeff Bercovici, acknowledges that those estimates might be optimistic. But he posits that Beck is on course to the $100 million dollar earnings barrier “sooner than later” when you consider all of his media endeavors.
Say Hello to My Little Friend!
As was reported last spring by Newsmax:
Fox News host Glenn Beck took viewers by surprise Wednesday with the announcement that his 5 p.m. program will “transition off” the network.
“I am going to leave this program later this year, but I am not leaving Fox,” Beck told viewers at the top of his TV program Wednesday.
Beck’s program is the nation’s third-highest rated cable news program, attracting nearly 2.2 million viewers a night.
Fox News and Beck stated that they will continue to “produce a variety of television projects for air on the Fox News Channel as well as content for other platforms including Fox News’ digital properties.”
The news surprised millions of loyal Beck fans, but rumors had swirled for months that Beck might be leaving his 5 p.m. slot. There had been widespread speculation that Beck would be expanding his own subscription-based television programming.
From Bloomberg Businessweek:
Beck, 47, has made a fortune by preaching that we are living in cataclysmic times, that politicians shouldn’t be trusted (especially liberals), and that humanity’s salvation lies in buying gold, hoarding food, putting faith in traditional conservative values—and paying him. Beck is the sole investor in Mercury Radio Arts, the Manhattan-based company that produces his radio, television, book publishing, Internet, and live event projects. According to someone familiar with the company who was not authorized to speak publicly about its finances, it brought in $40 million in 2010, $2.5 million of it from Beck’s now-defunct Fox television show and the rest from the other diverse arms of Glenn Beck Inc. “He has monetized every possible platform,” says Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers, an industry trade publication, who describes Beck as a “brilliant businessman.”
After his bitter break with Fox, the network that made him a known quantity in every household in America, Beck is leaving the mainstream television world behind and embarking on an audacious new business venture. He is pouring resources into GBTV, which he promises will grow into a 24-hour, Internet-based network with scripted and unscripted shows. He is moving from Manhattan to Dallas, where he plans to build a broadcasting studio to house his radio and television programs; he hopes it will become a tourist attraction and powerful symbol of his brand, not unlike NBC’s Today show studio in Rockefeller Center. And he is bankrolling all of it himself. “I’m not going to risk anybody else’s money but mine,” he says in an interview in his Manhattan office. Beck has similarly grand plans for The Blaze, his year-old news website named after the Biblical burning bush, which he hopes to turn into a conservative rival to the Huffington Post. According to comScore, The Blaze attracted 2 million visitors in July.
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