Al Gore brings DIY television 'revolution' to Britain

[cal04]

· Ex vice-president targets internet generation
· Google and British Library join 'snack' view channel

Former US vice-president turned Oscar-winning environmental campaigner Al Gore yesterday unveiled the British version of his Current TV network, claiming it was the first example of "television for the internet generation".

He said the new service, which relies on viewer-created content for more than a third of its schedule, marked a media revolution that would prove as pivotal as the invention of the printing press.

Current TV, which launched yesterday on the Sky and Virgin Media pay-TV platforms, is aimed at the 18- to 34-year-olds increasingly turning to the net, mobile phones and a myriad of digital channels to complement mainstream media habits.

Instead of a traditional schedule, programming is made up of various branded "pods" of three to eight minutes in length designed to be "snacked on".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,2032528,00.html

[Greeby]

1. I turned over this afternoon and saw a "pod"

Of an American amateur film crew in a train maintenance shed in Haifa. They and the engineers had to take cover in the makeshift bomb shelter as stray Hezbollah rockets came crashing through the shed roof