Current TV is broadcasting now!

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I hate to admit this but I have a TV with cable. I did just get the news about Current TV going live though. There are streamed uploads that you can view on the site and there are quite a few of these uploads available for streaming. The uploads play just fine on my Mac using Safari, but the "pods" that they play on the TV channel are not streamed on the site yet. Maybe in the near future they will start streaming the channel from the site as well.

There's lots of interesting "pods" I've seen since last night. One of the pods is about suicide clubs that are sadly popular in Japan as well as a short about Shepard Fairey's Obey street art. Another Current TV "pod" documents young people in Iran at a party with alcohol which are both illegal. Homosexuality is also illegal in Iran and they execute homosexuals in that country. The documentarian is surprised to see ecstacy at the house party as well which can land offenders in prison for a long time.

The station's Current Soul segment just featured Deepak Chopra with a short discussion of karma, physics and prayer. Deepak is a "mentor" on Current TV; apparently one of a few that will be featured as proramming ramps up. I haven't seen very many commercials so far on the network. Of course, right after I said that, I saw a Sony DVD HandyCam ad but there was only one not three or four back to back.

People that are capable of producing compelling content can submit it to the site and if your upload is selected, Current TV will pay you up to $1000 per piece. I hope some people on tribe get their poop together and produce some content for the site. If anyone wants to license or use any of my music for a spot, please feel free to contact me so that we can sort something out.

The CurrentTV site continuously updates with a blurb and a photo about the current pod that's playing and also features a list of upcoming pods and how many minutes away they are that can be clicked on. The TV channel has a little progress bar that indicates how long the segment is while you're watching.

So far, my only complaints are that they seem to play some of the pods more often than others, including the Deepak Chopra pod almost back to back recently, and their promo videos are waaaay louder than the "pod" content and the VJ segues into the "pods".

Google has also partnered with Current but from what I can tell, there's no mention of it yet on their site.

Where to find Current on your cable system:

DirecTV Nationwide: 366

Time Warner Digital:
New York City 103
Los Angeles 116
Honolulu 108
Other cities:

See the Current TV website and click on the Get Current image link to find your area's Time/Warner Digital channel.

Comcast:

S.F. Bay Area, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Seattle, Portland, D.C., Philadelphia, Denver, Miami, Salt Lake City, Aspen, Fresno: 125
Atlanta: 287
Cleveland, St. Paul, Pittsburgh: 107

For other Comcast cities, check out the website and click on the Get Current image link
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Shepard Fairey link
Current TV link