Glenn Beck Is Crazy, and It's Making Him Richer By The Minute
Glenn Beck's few encounters with reality all have one thing in common: Making Glenn Beck richer. And they have. Given that, you have to give him the benefit of the doubt when it comes to his latest venture. Beck is going to re-launch his TV show on the web and charge people to watch it.
GBTV.com will kick off next Tuesday with a behind-the-scenes making-of-the-network show. The Glennster's own show (ending on Fox News on June 30) will begin running in September, to be followed by an expanded slate with documentaries and specials. Beck is also threatening scripted TV shows. It's $5 for basic crazy and $10 for the all-the-crazy-you-can-eat special.
The venture takes Beck into some very rarefied company. Only a few news organizations and "adult" film stars have been able make money from online subscriptions. Beck also has something in common with at least one of these other entities. He, too, has a group willing to pay for seeing all the naughty bits.
Beck has already proven this strategy works
For the past two years Beck's Insider Extreme web service has been giving subscribers an extra hour of rants, their own call-in time and more. Currently more than 80,000 people are paying $10 a month for the privilege. So he starts with about as many subscribers as The Daily, News Corp.'s iPad channel has after four months. That's $10 million a year without advertising -- which he most certainly will have.
There's no reason, for instance, to think he won't continue to shill for Goldline, the not-in-the-least-bit-financially-dubious gold purveyor. The company has been the subject of investigations by the Los Angeles District Attorney, ABC Nightline News and NY Congressman Anthony Weiner. That last one may have run into a few problems.
GBTV is just the latest part of Beck's Oprah-like desire for a media empire. (The King of All Crazies, anyone?). He also has his own book imprint, HuffPo-type news website, and Groupon-like coupon service. That last, if it's anything like the original, seems a perfect fit with Goldline and more than a few other of Beck's business partners.
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