Showtime Networks Inc. is shelving plans to launch a gay network, chairman Matt Blank said
Wednesday.
The idea is not dead, but Blank said the current business environment is
wrong.
"This was a channel you really had to invest in to have some special and
unique programming covering a broad range of genres and subject matter," he told
a Television Critics Association audience in Los Angeles. "The timing is not
great."
Still, Blank said, the channel is "something we would like to do."
Showtime already has some programming that could have fit, but it would have
needed to produce or acquire plenty more.
The service, said to be named Outlet, was envisioned as a mini-pay premium
channel.
But it wasn't distribution problems that scuttled the project, Blank said.
"It wasn't that anyone was saying they wouldn't carry us. On the contrary, we
got a lot of good feedback," he added.
