Earlier today, TheBlaze announced a grassroots campaign to get viewers, listeners, and readers actively involved in the effort to put TheBlaze on channel lineups across the country. That effort continued tonight on The Glenn Beck Program, as Glenn laid out some of the amazing stats behind TheBlaze's success and explained how the channel would operate in the current media and political landscape.
"I want to show you the progress for a couple of reasons," Glenn said.
"When we started this network everyone said it couldn't be done," Glenn said. The left taunted Glenn when he left FOX News to start GBTV, and many industry experts were doubtful that the live streaming video network could succeed.
Glenn said that over the past 18 months, TheBlaze has spent close to a $100 million investing in programming and infrastructure that now broadcasts 42.5 hours of original programming every week. As a result, TheBlaze is ahead of Comedy Central, HGTV, History, Fox Business, and Bravo in online unique viewership on TV-related websites.
"If you don't speak geek, let me put it into perspective," Glenn said. He compared TheBlaze to the left's darling The Daily Beast. After one month, TheBlaze had web traffic that beat what The Daily Beast built in one year - and they did so with less money and less staff.
"TheBlaze currently is bigger than Politico, CNBC, Reuters, LA Times, PBS, NPR, and yes I'm happy to say TheWhiteHouse.gov," Glenn explained.
But now TheBlaze needs to get bigger. Glenn asked that viewers of TheBlaze, including the subscribers who had invested in the company and helped build the channel, asked the viewers to contact their TV providers and ask them to add TheBlaze to their channel lineup, details of which can be found at GetTheBlaze.com.
According to Gallup, 39 percent of the country identifies themselves as conservative and 37 percent as moderate, only 23 percent see themselves as liberal. And yet out of all the networks, only FOX News brings a conservative perspective into the conversation. On the other hand, CNN, MSNBC, Current TV, and others are on the spectrum of left of center to unabashed progressive. And in July, Current TV will be switching over to Al-Jazeera America.
“You probably pay good money every month to your TV provider for access to channels like MSNBC and Al Jazeera America — channels that you might not watch, or even agree with,” Glenn wrote in a letter posted on GlennBeck.com earlier today. “Adding TheBlaze will ensure that you and your family have a source of news and analysis that you can trust and that doesn’t betray your values.”
Glenn explained that the network would look to occupy the political space that the mainstream media has decided to classify as "kooky" and "fringe". The network will focus on a more libertarian viewpoint, especially on the political spectrum between some like Paul Ryan and someone like Penn Jillette.
