Political Voices Network to Go OTT

Headnote

New left-leaning programmer to feature video simulcasts of satellite radio talk shows

DAVID BOHRMAN built his career on the foundation of the traditional TV model, but his newest venture will steer decidedly clear of that.

His new left-leaning network, called Political Voices Network, will go over-the-top, delivering its content direct to consumers via internet-fueled mobile apps and web browsers, as well as TV-connected devices such as Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV devices, Roku players and Roku TVs.

Though he isn't completely ruling out the idea of carriage deals with pay TV operators, Bohrman believes that the path of least resistance is going direct to the viewer.

"We are going around cable intentionally," Bohrman, Political Voices Network's president and CEO, said last month in Denver at a cable technology-focused event hosted by Light Reading.

"I've been in the broadcast and cable world, and I've run into, for decades, the golden handcuffs that come with affiliates and MSOs," Bohrman said in an interview.

Bohrman, an award-winning journalist and executive whose orbit has circled the world of political TV for more than 30 years, speaks from experience. During his career, he's served as producer and executive producer at ABC News, with similar roles at NBC News, CNN (where he served as chief innovation officer for a time) and Pseudo (a programmer that was early to the OTT distribution game); he was also president of Current TV, the political news...