LOS ANGELES -TechTV next spring will debut "Tech Live," a six-hour daily lineup that includes five hours of live original programming, officials said last week.
Tech Live, which launches April 2, will be devoted to technology news, finance, products, entertainment and consumer advice, all of which will air in different "content zones," officials said at the Western Show here.
"This is a very significant expansion of our programming," said TechTV chairman and CEO Larry Wangberg. "We want to be a real go-to network for what's happening on the technology front."
Tech Live will run throughout the day and include a half-hour pre-stock market show at 7 a.m., a four-hour block of technology coverage from noon to 4 p.m. and a post-market show at 4 p.m. An additional hour-long compilation of that day's "best of Tech Live" will be featured each evening.
"Obviously, technology needs to be covered live," said senior vice president of programming Greg Drebin. "We need to cover technology as it's happening."
With the new Tech Live lineup, TechTV will nearly double its amount of overall programming, from 31 to 59 hours per week, officials said. The network will hire additional staffers and enter into programming partnerships to create Tech Live content, Drebin said.
TechTV will employ a main anchor and special reporters assigned to each of its content zones, such as news and finance. The noon to 4 p.m. block will be divided into four one-hour blocks dedicated to each of the "content zones."
Tech Live content will also be produced for TechTV's Web site, techtv.com.
The network, owned by Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures Inc., will open bureaus in New York, Washington, D.C., and Seattle. TechTV is also securing more studio space in San Francisco, nearly doubling its capacity.
The new programming will result in a significant increase in spending, according to Wangberg, who wouldn't say specifically how much.
TechTV, formerly known as ZDTV, passed the 20-million-subscriber mark in October. It now touts itself as the "network dedicated to the digital lifestyle."
