Gore's company buys TV network
Former vice president says content will not be political
(CNN) -- A company headed by former Vice President Al Gore has bought a cable television network with the vision of remaking it into a network aimed at young adults, the group announced Tuesday.
For nearly a year it had been rumored that Gore's company, INdTV Holdings, would buy the 24-hour Newsworld International network and relaunch it as a progressive news and information outlet aimed at young adults.
But Gore said at the National Cable and Television Association convention in New Orleans, Louisiana, that the network would not be political.
"The reports were out that we were going to launch a Democratic network, a liberal network. We're not," he said. "We never said we were."
Gore and Democratic fund-raiser Joel Hyatt bought the network from French-based Vivendi Universal Entertainment.
The network will eventually offer original, alternative programming.
"We're going to be irreverent. We're going to be bold," Hyatt said. "Our goal is not to have the 251st network that looks like all the others. Our goal is to look different from anything you've seen."
Gore said the company wants "to contribute to the democratization of the video medium."
"Having independent voices ... is a very important value to safeguard," Gore said. "We hope to launch a network that will be of, by, with and for people in their 20s, who will participate in making the content that is on our network."
The selling price was not disclosed.
Gore will serve as chairman of the board, and Hyatt, founder of Hyatt Legal Services and a former candidate for the Democratic Senate nomination in Ohio, its chief executive officer.
The former vice president termed himself "a rookie" in the media business and said he recognized the steep learning curve ahead of him.
Hyatt apologized for not bringing many details of the network's programming.
"Over the course of the next several months, we will have a series of announcements," including the name of the new network, Hyatt said.
"For the foreseeable future," Gore said, "the NWI content, which is truly excellent, will continue."
Newsworld International reaches 14 million households in North America, Europe and Japan.
