Glenn Beck rumored to be planning Web channel

Following Beck's announcement that he'll be leaving Fox News, the Web welcomes him with open arms

Some six weeks after Glenn Beck and Fox News jointly announced that the Glenn Beck show would be ending, Beck is now said to be planning to launch a new Web-based TV channel called GBTV, with the very Glenn Beck tagline, “The truth lives here,” according to a report based on information from sources familiar with the matter.

Beck’s company, Mercury Radio Arts, bought the GBTV.com domain back in January, in addition to filing a trademark on the tagline “The truth lives here,” as well as the logo. It isn’t yet clear what kind of content will be featured on GBTV.com, but TVNewser notes that the trademark is limited exclusively to Web-based programming, so it won’t be offering TV programming any time soon.

In the weeks since the announcement that Beck’s daily Fox News show would be ending, speculation has swirled as to what Beck would be doing next. There certainly isn’t a shortage of Glenn Beck in every content medium currently available. In addition to his Fox News program, he also hosts a daily radio talk show, as well as a number of websites, including GlennBeck.com and TheBlaze (Beck’s answer to the Huffington Post).

Most recently, Beck launched Markdown.com, a uniquely Beckian approach to the daily deal craze that delivers deals from companies that are aligned with Beck’s personal “values.” Each deal includes an overview of the company’s “values.” For example, today’s deal is for credit monitoring from LifeLock.com, and the company’s “values” are even more vague than the way Markdown.com is using the word “values.” Observe: “LifeLock firmly believes in doing what you should, not what you can.  That principle—the idea that you should always do what’s right, no matter the situation—can be found in everything the company does.” (So does the company denounce affirmative action? Gay marriage? The Obama healthcare plan? I don't know!)

Following Beck’s announced departure from Fox News, he hired Fox News executive Joel Cheatwood to join Mercury Radio Arts. Cheatwood is said to be developing programming concepts for GBTV.com. 

Whatever GBTV.com ends up becoming, it likely won't be short on visitors. His daily Fox News program averages 2.2 million viewers a day. Beck's troubles with Fox News may be traceable back to Beck's 2009 gaffe in which he called President Barack Obama a racist, a move that cost the show some 300 advertisers as progressive groups lobbied advertisers to boycott the show. 2009 was also Beck's first year at Fox News. Nonetheless, Beck prevailed and made bank in 2009, with an estimated $32 million in total revenues for the year. 

Image source: Thehotjoints.com