CBS to make news programme for US gay network
American LGBT cable channel Logo is planning to screen a half-hour weekly news programme by CBS News.
“CBS News on Logo” will premiere next Monday evening.
The news broadcast stems from a two-year partnership between the MTV Networks channel and CBS News.
CBS News had been producing three-minute bulletins that aired daily on Logo, which will now be replaced by the half-hour news programme.
According to Reuters, Logo president and president of MTV Networks Music Group Entertainment Brina Graden said on Monday that Logo had got to the point where it had the distribution and roster of advertisers to take things to another level.
“It seemed like there was enough news to sustain that (half-hour) format and then some, and that the audience had a concentrated interest,” a year out from the 2008 general elections, Graden said.
He also didn’t rule out further news programming if the new format is successful.
The new show will focus on LGBT issues including the 2008 election, HIV/AIDs and entertainment, sports and science news.
The newscast will be available on Logo as well as streamed at 365gay.com, a Logo-owned Website.
“The opportunity here is that the same team that’s been effectively doing a whole new project will have a week to work on it now,” John Frazee, a senior VP at CBS News, told the Hollywood Reporter.
Logo is owned by Viacom’s MTV. Targeting programming aimed at the LGBT community, it launched in June 2005.
