The state of gay tv

Gay TV channels have been around for many years now, but with gays reflected positively in mainstream television, is there much need for the speciality channels? The channels do have their place, but are they delivering enough shows to make it worth supporting?

PrideVision/OutTV launched 2001 while HereTV began broadcasting in 2002, and LogoTV followed in 2005. In the beginning these channels invested a lot in original programming, especially HereTV, however in recent years the original content has been minimal.

Over on the mainstream channels, even network television is portraying gay characters in a positive light as the main characters in many shows. Shows written by gay writers. Therefore if we’re seen on network television, what’s left for the specialty channels? Where are the comparable live events that have helped save the main networks? Would we be interested in live gay sports coverage… if that was even feasible? There are stories to tell, with truths that would make mainstream audiences uncomfortable, there is current events coverage, but there needs to be an audience.

Is it possible gay speciality channels had a brief period, basically at the time they launched, where it made sense. And since, the world has come along way, not least of which that’s to the internet. A quick review of the main gay networks shows only a minimal amount of new and fresh content. They hardly have the audience to fund the content they need, yet these channels are less likely to reflect a ‘community tv’ style when they are all owned by large media corporations and have geographically dispersed audiences.

Soon after PrideVision launched, they split the channel in two, sending the adult content off into the hinterland with a high-number channel. Then again having porn was surely a wise move for financial reasons. HereTV on the other hand delivered to some the precursor to Netflix, on demand television with new regular content that could be watched when the viewer was in the mood and on a binge. Network television is only now working for major live events (and it seems thanks to Twitter, if there’s a collective community watching along side). We’re heading down this route.

What the gay community needs is a Netflix style online streaming service that has an on demand catalog of content with new original content (also a la Netflix). Netflix could make this a bespoke service, an add on feature that adds to their small collection of gay content. Or maybe another company is out there with the resources (unlikely)? This assumes there’s an audience; a mass of gays hungry to see themselves and our community stories told every day.