Struggling Q Television to scale back Gay Games coverage
Struggling Q Television to scale back Gay Games coverage
By Gary Barlow
Copyright by The Chicago Free Press
Q Television Network President Carol Hinnant said last week that the struggling GLBT-oriented television network still plans to broadcast the Gay Games from Chicago July 15-22, although its live coverage is going be more limited than originally envisioned.
The network shut down production briefly in February, leaving production staff and on-air talent unpaid for weeks. In early March investor Lloyd Fan replaced CEO and founder Frank Olsen and forced the company’s entire board to step down. Since taking over, Fan has acknowledged that the financial woes of QTN and its parent company, Triangle Multi-Media Limited, Inc. are even more severe than originally thought.
Fan announced April 5 that Triangle was unable to submit promised financial statements to its shareholders “due to the lack of required accounting records.”
In a statement, Fan said he had been “unable to cure the late payments due to the financial difficulties caused by QTN’s former management. At this time, it appears that the actual liabilities of Triangle Multi-Media and QTN are greater than the former management team had indicated.”
Reached by phone at the company’s Southern California offices last week, Hinnant said QTN has “every intention of moving forward” with its contract to broadcast the Gay Games.
“There may be less actual live coverage and then less actual full sport coverage,” Hinnant said. “It’s not likely that you’ll see a full soccer game or a full water polo game. ÉIt’s a management overhaul (at QTN), so it’s a different view of how it will be covered.”
Hinnant said most of QTN’s payments to the Gay Games for broadcast rights were upfront.
“It was a very lucrative contract, and we’ve made significant payments to them over the last 18 months,” she said.
QTN has struggled to compete with two other GLBT-oriented networks—here! TV and Logo. Both of those networks have deals with cable TV providers that enable their shows to reach most of the country—here! is available to more than 50 million households and Logo, launched by MTV and its parent company, media giant Viacom, also reaches tens of millions of households.
QTN, on the other hand, is only available in a relative handful of markets covering an estimated six million households. In many of its markets it’s not available on the leading cable provider, as in Chicago, where RCN carries it but Comcast doesn’t.
Hinnant said QTN is moving toward allowing people to subscribe to it and view its programming on their computers if they have high-speed Internet connections, but as CFP went to press, that option didn’t appear to be operational.
By Gary Barlow
Copyright by The Chicago Free Press
Q Television Network President Carol Hinnant said last week that the struggling GLBT-oriented television network still plans to broadcast the Gay Games from Chicago July 15-22, although its live coverage is going be more limited than originally envisioned.
The network shut down production briefly in February, leaving production staff and on-air talent unpaid for weeks. In early March investor Lloyd Fan replaced CEO and founder Frank Olsen and forced the company’s entire board to step down. Since taking over, Fan has acknowledged that the financial woes of QTN and its parent company, Triangle Multi-Media Limited, Inc. are even more severe than originally thought.
Fan announced April 5 that Triangle was unable to submit promised financial statements to its shareholders “due to the lack of required accounting records.”
In a statement, Fan said he had been “unable to cure the late payments due to the financial difficulties caused by QTN’s former management. At this time, it appears that the actual liabilities of Triangle Multi-Media and QTN are greater than the former management team had indicated.”
Reached by phone at the company’s Southern California offices last week, Hinnant said QTN has “every intention of moving forward” with its contract to broadcast the Gay Games.
“There may be less actual live coverage and then less actual full sport coverage,” Hinnant said. “It’s not likely that you’ll see a full soccer game or a full water polo game. ÉIt’s a management overhaul (at QTN), so it’s a different view of how it will be covered.”
Hinnant said most of QTN’s payments to the Gay Games for broadcast rights were upfront.
“It was a very lucrative contract, and we’ve made significant payments to them over the last 18 months,” she said.
QTN has struggled to compete with two other GLBT-oriented networks—here! TV and Logo. Both of those networks have deals with cable TV providers that enable their shows to reach most of the country—here! is available to more than 50 million households and Logo, launched by MTV and its parent company, media giant Viacom, also reaches tens of millions of households.
QTN, on the other hand, is only available in a relative handful of markets covering an estimated six million households. In many of its markets it’s not available on the leading cable provider, as in Chicago, where RCN carries it but Comcast doesn’t.
Hinnant said QTN is moving toward allowing people to subscribe to it and view its programming on their computers if they have high-speed Internet connections, but as CFP went to press, that option didn’t appear to be operational.
posted by Carlos T Mock at 3:48 PM
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