Cover of Al GoreThe former V.P. of Al Gore's Current TV cable network has blamed that Rupert Murdoch's Italian satellite TV Company has dropped the network in Italy because it had just employed Keith Olbermann, their liberal politics news anchor. Addressing these allegation News Corp, the father company of Sky Italia, has already declared that its disagreements with Current Italy are not related with any kind of politics but money. News Corp complained that it had to make such decision for Sky Italia since Current had proposed them to double the carriage fee.
In retaliation to this statement, the Vice Chairman of Current, Joel Hyatt, personally spoke on Thursday declaring that Current Italy had only made the proposal of increasing the its carriage by 2 euro cents per subscriber, i.e. 33 percent, due to its boost in viewer ratings in 2010. Hyatt also went on revealing that he had cordial negations with the C.E.O. of Sky Italia, Tom Mockridge, for agreeing to a timely renewal of the deal ahead of May 7 deadline, which was the expiry date of its previous agreement. Lastly, Hyatt straight forwardly claimed that "We were told by a very senior News Corp source that the order came from New York because we had hired Olbermann.”
James, the son of Rupert Murdoch, has been recently promoted to the post of Chief Operating Officer at News Corp's international operations and just moved to New York. While on the other hand, a Current TV spokesperson confirmed that Gore is still residing in Italy to make further appearances on talk shows for showing his sentiments against the decision.
Both, Sky Italia and News Corp, gave same stance in separate statements asserting that Current TV's own viewer figures were declining recently so it had no right or justification to demand higher fees. The statement of News Corp read: "Current TV asked Sky Italia to double the carriage fee when prime-time viewing had fallen by 40 percent in the past year." It went on saying "Sky Italia's offer was in line with the market and reflected the performance of the channel. It had nothing to do with politics."
Olbermann was previously a sportscaster for Murdoch's Fox and ESPN. He often targeted the conservative politicians, resulting in a quarrel with News Corp's Fox News which had him fired. Olbermann soon joined MSNBC in January and is credited for MSNBC's highest rated show "Countdown," which he is now expected to launch on Current next month.
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