How did the media react to the announcement that Glenn was taking TheBlaze to national cable and satellite outlets starting with DISH Network?
Well, here's the front page of HuffPo's media vertical this morning:
Glenn Beck likes to style himself a sort of latter-day Revolutionary War hero, rallying the forces of freedom to rise up against oppression. Whatever you think of his politics, the analogy is apt in at least one regard: The deal he just made to put his fledgling internet news channel on Dish Network may be remembered as the Shot Heard ’round the World in the battle to break cable distributors’ stranglehold on network content....
As a new network with no corporate parentage and no legacy restrictions, The Blaze can afford to negotiate deals that allow it to satisfy both pay-TV subscribers and cord-cutters. If enough networks like this emerge, it could pressure the Time Warners of the world into unlocking their self-administered handcuffs and give viewers an online-only option. If that happens, Beck will have truly helped create some of that thing he loves so much to talk about: freedom.
The Weekly Standard's Jonathan Last wrote on his blog:
Yet what really fascinates me is how The Blaze seems to be basically ignored by the rest of the media world. While everyone else is writing about what Buzzfeed and Huffington Post are doing (which are also both interesting) it’s like The Blaze is tearing up the world and making money hand over fist in some alternate universe which is invisible to media reporters in the mainstream.If you want further evidence that The Blaze is probably the media story of the last year, check out this news that Beck has reached a deal with Dish Network to bring its TV component to the satcaster.
It’s pretty amazing. Anyone can have a cable channel–there’s probably 100 channels that exist with virtually no viewership. But Beck looks like he’s trying to build a channel by establishing his audience on the internet first, and then porting them over to satellite (and eventually cable) after the fact. It’s ingenious and daring and really impressive.