Some in Cable Scorn Gore Plan

As a lawmaker more than a decade ago, Al Gore relentlessly attacked cable TV distributors as gougers and monopolists.

In the U.S. Senate, Gore instigated the price caps that for a time paralyzed cable operators and coined a phrase that still makes them flinch: the “Cable Cosa Nostra.” More than once, he compared John Malone, the industry leader at the time, to Darth Vader.

Now Gore is fashioning himself as a cable guy, asking the operators he once derided to carry Newsworld International, an obscure news network that he and a group of investors plan to reshape to focus on the youthful audience favored by advertisers.

Some cable executives say they are offended by what they see as Gore’s hypocrisy. They poured scorn on his efforts when he announced the purchase of the channel last week, though they all asked not to be identified.

“It’s very ironic that the same guy who tried to blow-torch the industry now wants our help,” said one executive for a leading cable operator. “He won’t get any help from me.”

Gore shrugged off questions about his previous attitude toward cable companies, saying at a news conference last week that “there have been so many changes in this industry in the last 12 years.”

And as a matter of fact, Gore is getting a warm welcome from a number of the industry’s leading companies because of the former vice president and Democratic presidential nominee’s secret weapon: an armada of political connections in Washington that no other cable newcomer could match.

Several cable operators have agreed to continue carrying Gore’s Newsworld International on their systems in exchange for his political support, people familiar with the situation said.

For example, Time Warner Inc. Chief Executive Richard Parsons, a staunch Republican whose company is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission over alleged accounting irregularities, promised after a meeting with Gore last fall that Time Warner would continue carrying the channel, these people said. They said Parsons told executives at the company that “it doesn’t hurt to have someone on the other side,” especially if the balance of power shifts after the upcoming election.

And after Gore met last fall with News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch, who is on the opposite side of the political spectrum from Gore, he made a similar pledge, according to people with knowledge of the conversation.

News Corp.’s purchase of DirecTV was undergoing federal regulatory approval at the time, and with both Democratic and Republican regulators reviewing the acquisition, Murdoch wasn’t willing to take any chances, these people said.

Murdoch’s commitment to NWI enabled Gore to secure Wall Street financing for the deal, which cost his investors an estimated $70 million, according to industry executives.

Of NWI’s 17 million subscribers, 11 million get access through DirecTV, which News Corp. took control of in December. Time Warner accounts for about 5 million subscribers, and Comcast Corp. distributes the channel to about 800,000 subscribers.

Gore and executives with Time Warner and News Corp. declined to comment.

Cable and satellite TV providers typically seize on any opportunity to drop a channel, especially one as obscure as Gore’s NWI. Space on cable systems is tight, and providers are eager to recapture capacity to use for new services, such as high-definition and interactive television.

For instance, when Walt Disney Co. bought the Family Channel from News Corp. in late 2001, EchoStar Communications Corp. threatened to drop the service to make room for local broadcast channels it needed to carry under federal law, according to court documents. Disney sued EchoStar to keep the channel on the air.

In the case of NWI, distributors would have been free to drop it because of contract provisions preventing any change in its content.

But Gore said in an interview last week that the contracts had been amended to allow him to retool the channel.

He said news that the channel now airs from Canadian Broadcasting Corp. would be replaced in coming months by youth-oriented programming produced by the new owners. Although he was vague about the programming, people who have heard the pitch said it would blend unscripted entertainment and public affairs shows.

Some industry sources said it was unclear what political aid the former vice president could offer. Noted one cable executive who asked not to be identified, “Gore doesn’t command any votes.”