Why is the CRTC still the arbiter of television tastes?
It's not hard to predict winners in the digital race

This morning, Ottawa regulators kick off three weeks of public hearings to determine who will win licences to launch TV channels in the digital universe.

Less than 10% of Canadian households actually subscribe to digital cable or satellite TV. Still, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission believes the best way to encourage Canadians to upgrade to digital TV is through a massive supply-side stimulus of niche TV channels devoted to everything from biography, documentaries, books and computers to fashion, health, parenting and gays.

The vaunted 500-channel universe, it seems, is finally on the horizon. But here's a question that few -- especially in Ottawa --have bothered to ask: Why, in the boundless digital universe, is an archaic bureaucracy like the CRTC still the officially authorized arbiter of consumer taste in Canada?

The CRTC doubtless would make the familiar argument that, in the "transition" toward digital TV, only a selective licensing process can ensure that Canadian content finds adequate "shelf space" amid vastly expanded consumer choice.

Nonsense. In truth, this latest regulatory spectacle is not aimed at promoting Canadian content. Rather, the CRTC is using the pretext of "digital" TV channels to help a small group of big Canadian media groups to extend their businesses into the digital realm.

The CRTC tacitly admitted this when organizing these hearings. Unlike in the past, when the CRTC assessed rival applications in the same program themes -- say, comedy -- the regulator has orchestrated these hearings on a firm-by-firm basis. Each company will make an omnibus pitch for its entire roster of applications -- first Alliance Atlantis, then Rogers, followed by CTV, BCE Media, CHUM and so on.

The consequence of this approach is easily anticipated. Instead of rewarding smart ideas, the CRTC will end up dealing out digital licences to the seven or eight big companies that made the most impressive corporate pitches. The CRTC's only dilemma will be to determine who gets what.

Here's a better idea: Grandiose regulatory rituals like the hearings beginning today should be abolished altogether. First, they impose unnecessary costs on both private companies (which spend millions to package their applications) and Canadian taxpayers (who foot the bill for CRTC hearings). Second, in this case the outcome is known in advance, so why bother with a costly spectacle?

To prove this second point, I will make here precise predictions about which companies will walk off with the dozen priority-carriage licences for digital channels in English.

It's actually not that difficult to figure out. Given the CRTC's explicit position in favour of industry consolidation, there can be little doubt the big winners will be large-scale Canadian media groups that either already own specialty channels or have deep enough pockets to lose money in the short term. Upstart firms and regional companies don't have a hope.

Accordingly, I predict the CRTC will grant the following digital licences:

• Alliance Atlantis (one licence): Signature, a biography channel. Alliance Atlantis already owns History, which provides good synergies with the biography theme.
• Rogers (two licences): ZDTV, a computer channel; and Today's Parent, a TV spin-off of the Rogers-owned magazine.
• CHUM Television (two licences): Fashion Television, because CHUM already produces fashion programs; and gay channel, Q! Television, a perfect fit for the urban CHUM brand.
• Corus Entertainment (two licences): Canadian Documentary Channel, partnered with the CBC and National Film Board. CRTC commissioner, Joan Pennefather, is a former head of the NFB. Also, Land and Sea -- a CBC channel fronted by Corus -- about rural Canada.
• CTV Network (one licence): MEN, a channel for males. There is already a women's channel, WTN, so regulators will add symmetry by licensing this one. CTV already attracts male jocks with its sports channels.
• CanWest Global (two licences): Your Money, a personal finance channel; and Vital TV, a health channel. Global is moving into these themes on its Web sites, so money and health will provide TV outlets with Internet synergies. CanWest, of course, now owns half of this newspaper and 100% of most of Canada's major metropolitan dailies.
• Astral Media (one licence): Cinefest, a movie channel. Astral already owns The Movie Network. Cinefest will reinforce its bargaining strength in product acquisition.
• BCE Media (one licence): Bell Canada Enterprises already owns a travel channel in French, so an English version makes sense.

Clip this column and dust it off when the CRTC decisions are made just before Christmas. If my margin of error is small, you may ask yourself why private companies and Canadian taxpayers spend millions on a hollow regulatory ritual that -- while evoking the principles of due process and the "public interest" -- actually serves the more self-interested goal of preserving bureaucratic prerogatives.

By the way, you can watch the CRTC's digital hearings live on CPAC.

Silicon Valley North - April 2, 2000.

Citytv's QT comes out around the planet

Citytv's QT-Queer Television, a weekly 30-minute television show about gay, lesbian and bisexual culture and politics, is the first TV program to be broadcast in its entirety on the Internet. Citytv has sold the exclusive Internet streaming rights for the program to San Francisco-based planetout.com. Planetout.com is one of the top Web destinations worldwide for gays and lesbians and has distribution partnerships with AOL, Netscape, ICQ, Yahoo!, Snap.com, Lycos, RealNetworks and Compuserve.

Cam Wong, producer of Web content for QT-Queer Television, says the show is using RealVideo to stream the television program. Wong is co-ordinating the development of Web content that is supplementary to the program. Following each broadcast, the producer and host of the show, Irshad Manji, will lead online discussions on the planetout.com website and will encourage audience participation. This was what the Internet was originally designed to do, to encourage person-to-person communication internationally, to motivate and encourage political mobilization and to stimulate awareness.

Housed right in the midst of the Citytv building in downtown Toronto is City Interactive, an in-house design and new media department made up of 15 people. "We have so much content to draw from right within the building," says Wong. There are already stories in the can from Citytv's other niche programs, such as Fashion Television, Media Television or Movie Television.

While streaming television over the Web is still a new technology, through its partnership with planetout.com, QT-Queer Television will be broadcast to countries such as Iran where gays and lesbian face persecution and censorship. "Many countries around the world will never allow queer programming on their airwaves, on their state-controlled airwaves," says Manji. "We'll be circumventing these state-controlled airwaves via the Internet."

Tom Rielly, founder and chair of planetout.com is elated about his company's partnership with Citytv, but he emphasizes that developing the interactive component of the program is a work in progress. "Anybody who tells you that they know the formula for the perfect interactive TV and Internet site together is lying," says Rielly. "We are like D.W. Griffith was in the film world years ago."

Wong says Citytv is taking QT-Queer Television to MIP, the international television market, with hopes to syndicate the show internationally.

ABBE EDELSON

Back to the index

Toronto Star - March 3, 2000

QT Makes T.O. Look Hot
Peeks into the lives and loves of gays and lesbians

Amazing how, what with all that dot.com ado, CHUM/CITY slips under the media merger frenzy radar.

The little station that could is probably Canada's most prolific provider and packager of programming.

Not only do its FashionTelevision, MediaTelevision, MovieTelevision, SexTelevision and Whatever-Television land on all the CHUM channels (Bravo, Space, CLT, Star, etc.) but they are also sold around the world.

What's more, there's synergy between the shows. If you watch them all, you can't help but see that, when Citytv is in L.A. shooting something for, say,

MovieTelevision, it's also squeezing out items for the other shows. It's doubtful any other TV operation anywhere works as effectively and efficiently.

Sunday at Midnight, Citytv and CP24 launch yet another ground-breaker called QT - QueerTelevision, fashioned like its sister shows in that it's host-less, fast-paced and out there, The series replaces Irshad Manji's The Q Files, which was probably too earthy-crunchy a talkfest for those edgy CITY people.

QT peeks into the lives and loves of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and "open-minded straight people" around the world - who can all see the show on the Internet through www.planetout.com, where Manji will lead online discussions.

This is going to be a boon to gays and lesbians who are isolated by their sexuality in oppressive countries/communities, or in families who do not understand.

Bot only that but, because QT is quirky and kinda kinky, it's bound to attract some of the more narrow-minded channel surfers who can't help but be arrested by its subject matter and presentation.

That's fine.

Anybody who thinks gay guys are girlie men really ought to meet Gerry Bourgeois, a popular corrections officer at the Don Jail, who is profiled in the first episode.

Bourgeois doesn't talk, he barks: "it was no picnic coming out, not at all," and then proceeds to tell what it's like being gay in the testosterone-charged world of cons.

Later, Rupert Everett riffs on "fag hags" and his relationship with Madonna. (This, by the way, is one of those synergistic items, probably shot by the same crew on the movie junket for Everett and Madonna's movie The Next Best Thing.)

There's also a piece on Toronto's Walk on the Wild Side, a purveyor of sexy ladies' fashions to (hetero!) men who enjoy being a girl.

Qt makes Toronto look so hip, hot and open-minded, it's bound to turn the town into a gay Mecca.

Then again, in many ways, it already is.

ANTONIA ZERBISIAS

Back to the index

Maclean's - March 2000

www.Queer

It's queer, and if Irshad Manji has her way, it's about to be here - in your living room. A lesbian activist, she previously hosted The Q Files, a Citytv-produced show for the Toronto area with a target audience of gay people. Now, City is taking the concept online- and international. With PlanetOut.com, a San Francisco-based, gay-oriented site, it has launched QueerTelevision, or QT, an online TV-magazine-style show that focuses on gay, lesbian and transsexual stories. "We're not interested in what would only be relevant to gays and lesbians," says host Manji. "The interesting stuff happens when gay and straight worlds meet." With a reach of 156 countries, Manji says, QT will infiltrate less accepting societies - and give a rare view of gay life out of the closet.

Back to the index

The National Post - January 25, 2000

Strong ratings launch QueerTelevision on Citytv, the Web and the world After so much talk about how eager advertisers are to target the lucrative gay market, it's something of a surprise to hear that there's only one commercial television show in North America dedicated to that demographic group. But that is the claim Citytv is making in support of QT-QueerTelevision, a slick and saucy weekly program beginning Sunday at midnight (repeated Monday at 11:35pm).

The idea was born out of the success of CP24's The Q Files, an hour-long show launched in October 1998. "The reason we moved up to Citytv has first and foremost to do with our ratings. They were spectacular," says 31-year old producer and host Irshad Manji. She describes the new 30-minute incarnation as having less of a newsroom feel, and more of a polished FashionTelevision-style quality. "We realized pretty early on that there is a major audience for a program like this," she says.

This time around, the show is also going to be webcast on San Francisco-based PlanetOut.com, a site Ms. Manji describes as the world's leading gay Internet portal.

And after each show, she'll lead an online discussion about questions raised on-air. Interestingly enough, it's this Internet presence that could be the show's key to gaining acceptance on overseas television. That's because webcasting can tap into a previously unquantified audience - "you don't have to be out [of the closet] on the Net to fully participate on the Net" - and also convince jittery broadcasters and advertisers of the show's viability, "I don't pretend for a minute that it's going to be an easy sell around the world or even in the United States, for that matter."

While QueerTelevision is unquestionably a Toronto-based show, its cameras may also travel to Los Angeles, France, Britain and Australia. Subjects will include a Toronto bed and breakfast for transvestites - where most of the guests are straight - as well as an openly gay prison guard and a gay minister who ghost-wrote Jerry Falwell's autobiography. There'll be lifestyle topics, too, providing advice on everything from travel to taxes. But as it sets out to conquer the world from the corner of Queen and John streets, QueerTelevision also wants to keep the straight audience it attracted with The Q Files. "Insider conversations plateau in relevance really fast," says Ms. Manji, "and we don't intend to do that."

JENNIFER PRITTIE

Back to the index

Fab Magazine - April 13-26, 2000

On The QT
Citytv takes queer life to a mainstream audience

After four episodes, the producers of QueerTelevision are bubbling with energy and are ready to challenge the perceptions and assumptions of queers everywhere. The high budget magazine-format show premiered in March on Citytv and immediately caught the attention of critics and fans alike.

Qt is aimed at queers, or "anyone who is happily non-conformist," says Irshad Manji, the cheerful producer and host of QT. This includes the gay community and open-minded straights. "people are always asking for endeavours of this kind, to reach out to those beyond the converted, and we're having tremendous success with that," she says.

The show evolved out of The Q Files, a 60-minute show broadcast on CablePulse24 (CP24) last year. "When we were with CP24, we were a local program for the local queer community," says Manji. "Having moved up to Citytv, that mandate has changed. This is part of the international collection of programs now."

The audience has broadened, but The Q Files was definitely a learning experience for Manji. She doesn't regret that the program started in the news department - quite the opposite.

"I laud the fact that this station was willing to conduct an experiment with a program that no commercial broadcaster anywhere in North America has ever touched," she says. "you've got to start somewhere." Producing The Q Files is an open and resourceful environment meant that she could experiment style and format. "Without experimentation, there is no growth," she says.

QT's thought-provoking and perky hostess is real - Manji is just as articulate and buoyant off the air as on. Philosophical phrases and polysyllabic puns roll off her tongue with ease, and her comments are insightful. With an impressive background in politics, newspaper, activism, and journalism, she's obviously got the experience to back it up. Toss in her eternal perkiness (even at 10 in the morning) and the result is the passionate bundle of energy viewers see weekly. It's a personality that has also grated on many viewers' nerves and prompted a number of critics to suggest she'' hosting a game show.

QT may have a slightly different focus than The Q Files, but the passion is still there. Marcia Martin, the vice-president of production at Citytv, is also part of the team running QT. When she heard that The Q Files was being transferred to Citytv, she was thrilled.

"I think it's got huge potential," she says. "I knew we could grow more with it, do more with it, and go different places, and that really excited me."

Martin ensures there's a balance of fun and seriousness. "There's got to be humour, there's got to be entertainment involved with it," she says. "It's a lifestyle show, so it has to involve high moments, low moments, and celebrations."

Topics ranging from queerness in ancient Egypt to the lesbian and gay Mardi Gras in Australia set Qt apart from other shows in the market, but have also resulted in accusations that the show is aimed at straights. Not so, says both Manji and Martin. They're dedicated to a show that appeals to all sorts of queers.

"I try not to think in 'ghettoised' terms," says Martin. "Everything around us is of interest to all of us, hence the idea of balancing it out with all sorts of stories."

Manji says she's particularly proud of the story about John Rocker, the Atlanta Braves pitcher who insulted numerous minorities in the media. "We've approached it with the attitude that queers aren't just interested in who's dissing them," she says. "Queers are interested in baseball too."

Though the broad range of stories with a not-so-gay focus may be what's causing some of the criticism of the show, the women take it in a stride. "I actually wear it as a badge of honour that people would consider a program as much as for straight people as for gay people," says Manji. "What we're interested in doing is piercing the membrane, the mental barrier between these categories," she adds.

QT tries to point out that dividing into categories only means we'll fail to see the bigger world around us. "I think there are some critics that suffer from that mentality," Manji says. "People outside the Church-Wellesley corridor are grateful, interested, engaged, and thoughtful about their response to the program." In these places, where people don't have the same options as downtown queers, QT is staple viewing.

Martin's upbeat attitude is contagious. "There's always going to be criticism, there's always going to be praise," she adds. "I think the best you can do is look through it and take what you want from it."

"What does truly matter to me is that they're not indifferent to the show," says Manji. The pioneering nature of QT both inspires and incites, she says.

Never a network to conform to convention, Citytv and QT have linked with PlanetOut.com, allowing people to watch the show over the Internet. Last year, PlanetOut approached The Q Files to collaborate on Toronto Pride coverage.

Manji recalls the reaction of Tom Rielly, the founder of PlanetOut. "They enjoyed the experience so much, the very next day Tom came back and said "We must sit down, we have bigger things to talk about.'" Over the course of the season, Manji continued talking with PlanetOut about bigger projects. "In this case, it was really gratifying that in this case an emerging US power came to us, not the other way around," she says.

QT is the only program at Citytv to have a full-time staff person for the Internet, and the result is a visually stunning web site. "It's a cornerstone of the show," says Martin. QT takes viewer interaction seriously, with an e-mailing list, comment section, video segments, and a live chat room. "What a tribute to both Moses [Znaimer] and Marcia that they would see fit to give the queer show the kind of profile that allows it to have this kind of pioneer element to it,' says Manji.

Big plans are in the works for QT with a proposal for a 24-hour queer television channel that would include numerous spin-offs of QT. With the limitless vision the two women share, along with the endless flood of positive e-mails and opportunities opening over the Internet, Canadians of all types will be seeing a lot more of QT in the near future.

"Insider conversations plateau in relevance very quickly," says Manji. "We're not interested in plateauing, we're interested in growing."

DARREN COONEY

Back to the index

The Montreal Gazette - March 4, 2000

QueerTelevision hits the air
New series on Toronto's Citytv features gay and lesbian culture

After years in the closet of local cable access, the gay and lesbian community is about to get its first highly polished TV magazine show.

QT-QueerTelevision debuts tomorrow night on Toronto's Citytv, but within days will be video-streamed to the world thanks to a collaboration with PlanetOut (www.planetout.com), a San Francisco-based gay Internet site.

"On the level of civil rights, it's the right thing to do," says TV guru Moses Znaimer, Citytv founder and executive producer of the show.

"It's an enormously creative community, so there are personalities galore and there are creators and performers and tremendous wits."

The ponytailed Znaimer says gays are also highly focused, well-to-do and know how to use their disposable income to make an economic impact. So sponsors won't be a problem.

In fact, at QueerTelevision's launch Thursday night, Znaimer floated the idea of using the show as an incubator for a possible specialty channel or even pay-cable outlet.

"A gay channel with horny movies," is how he described it, tongue-in-cheek. He's already accomplished such a spinoff with Startv, the new show-biz channel.

And Znaimer was not surprised that in all of North America, perhaps the world, no one else has initiated such a high-quality show.

"We're at the leading edge. That's what we do."

QueerTelevision's energetic producer, Irshad Manji, concedes it won't be an easy show to export, since not even in San Francisco, with its huge gay-lesbian population, is there anything like it beyond community cable.

"Queer lifestyle is not something that a lot of countries around the world will readily accept on their airwaves," Manji says, adding though, that they've already had a syndication inquiry from New Zealand.

"We'll soon learn what the level of courage is in other parts of the world," adds Znaimer.

As for the decision to put the word "queer" in front, Manji says it's not like the was blacks have appropriated the "n-word" for themselves.

She concedes the word has derogatory connotations similar to "faggot," but that younger gays see it as simply an umbrella term for those who are happily different, who believe in non-conformity with a purpose.

"I have no problem with the word queer," Manji declares, insisting she would not consider it an insult, although she admits to having received death threats.

"I flirted with the idea of wearing a bullet-proof vest during our gay pride parade coverage. All it takes is one nut."

Still, she doesn't see Toronto as a city in which she feels prone to gay bashing.

Tom Rielly, founder and chairman of PlanetOut.com, is also delighted with Toronto, and with Znaimer's courage.

Rielly says when he first saw a sampling of Citytv's style five years ago, he was determined to work with Znaimer and the CHUMCity people.

"That's what's great about Canada and the environment here because people are so much less uptight," Rielly declares.

"Most other TV stations wouldn't have the chutzpah - which Moses has in spades _ to put this on the air."

Rielly sees the series only on pay-cable tiers or extended satellite services for now.

"I don't really want it on mainstream television anyway, because … people will be too worried to talk openly and honestly about their lives."

The premiere episode - screened for invited quests - was fast-paced, stylish and witty win true Znaimer fashion. Segments included a profile of an "outed" Toronto jail guard, a cross-dresser from Dusseldorf on holiday in Canada and a look at the new Madonna-Rupert Everett movie The Next Best Thing.

Manji also sees a potential audience in enlightened straights willing to question their own identities.

"Our growth market is in the 'burbs and beyond, where people live middle-class conventional lives, but are hungry to express themselves without danger," she says.

"This is about exploring the qualities we need in our lives to be honest, and messily human."

JOHN McKAY

Back to the index

Xtra Magazine - March 2000

This queer TV is for straights

First the good news. QT-QueerTelevision is better than its predecessor, The Q Files, if only because it's faster, shorter and less abrasive. Host and producer Irshad Manji appears to have calmed her nerves and confined them to the end of the show, where she contributes an over-inflected editorial.

Now the bad news. After watching two episodes of this would-be-groovy show, with its skittish editing and dramatic soundtrack, I still don't know what or even who it's for. Gay TV for straights, maybe?

Who else needs to be told that gayness is distressingly, indeed, boringly, normal? At this point in gay lib, the most radical thing any gay show could do would be to show interesting people doing interesting things with a light but persistent emphasis on their gayness --unless it had something to do with their politics or art. Instead, QT seems determined to drill us in the obvious.

The first lesson drilled in is that straights can be wacky, too. So we get a segment on a straight guy who likes to wear women's clothes. He flies in from Germany for the big event, reclines in a large chair, has make-up applied, and poses for his girlfriend. This is about as exciting as picking lint.

Another is that gayness is natural. So we get a regular weekly feature on same-sex shenanigans among our animal friends. (Cute, but I prefer human porn.)

QT works best when it's simply reporting on local events, like the launch of a new magazine for gay Asians, Dragun, or the effect of PFLAG's current subway poster campaign.

Whenever it tries to put a fresh spin on an old story it winds up looking either outdated or unfeeling.

Instead of simply plugging the new Madonna movie - always a good choice for non-nutritious entertainment - it spun the flick as part of the "fag hag" phenomenon. Now, aside from the fact that "fag hag" is out-and-out offensive to both straight women and gay men, it's anachronistic. Robert Rodi used the term as the title of his 1992 novel. Otherwise, I can't remember the last time I heard it.

Much more troubling, though, WAS A PIECE ON ABUSE IN QUEER RELATIONSHIPS. It started out promisingly enough with a strong first-person account of same-sex abuse, but swerved midway through into either comedy or simply bad advice - I'm still not sure which. If I'd stumbled on it by accident, I'd have thought it was an out-take from Saturday Night Live. In search of solutions, the producers canvassed various self-help gurus like Barbara De Angelis about self-esteem.

In a different context, comparison shopping for cheesy advice might have been funny. Here, it just seems insulting and irresponsible. Exiting an abusive relationship can be wrenching. Blaming the abused partner's "low self-esteem" doesn't make it any easier.

BRENT LEDGER

Back to the index

Philadelphia Gay News

Web, TV converge to bring QueerTelevision

When Irshad Manji, producer and host of PlanetOut's new TV/Web program "QueerTelevision," talks about "convergence" and "interactivity," it's a good thing.

These buzz words, according to Manji, are key elements of the 30-minute newsmagazine, which promises to break new ground in the realm of gay and lesbian TV programming. Set to launch March 5, the show - developed and produced for PlanetOut by Toronto's Citytv - will air in both broadcast and Web versions.

The Web is where the so-called convergence and interactivity come into play: A special chat session will follow each Webcast, and feedback from each week's chat and relevant bulletin board postings will be integrated into the following week's episode.

"If any group of people is poised to appreciate the power of convergence and interactivity, it is gays and lesbians," Manji said. "At rock bottom, you don't have to be out to appreciate the 'Net. We hope that a lot of people will be inspired enough to come out in their own pace and in their own time. That's really the beauty of doing this on the 'Net and not just on television."

Like "In The Life," a monthly newsmagazine which is broadcast on public television, QueerTelevision will present news segments on a range of topics, including health, entertainment, politics and trends. But the show aims to be more cutting edge - along the lines of Citytv's other programs, which include "FashionTelevision" and "Sextv."

"Ours will have a snappier take," Manji said. "We're not looking to be validated. We're looking to create daring dialogue. Our approach will be more attitude-laden. We'll have lots of fun and lots of cheek."

The lineup of pieces includes a profile of an openly gay prison guard - who is also the leader of a correction officers' union - in a maximum-security facility in Toronto; a look at the upcoming Madonna-Rupert Everett feature film "The Next Best Thing," with a "light-hearted riff on the fag-hag phenomenon," according to Manji; and a visit to a bed and breakfast, also in Toronto, dubbed Take A Walk on the Wild Side, which offers packages for men, who are mostly straight, to live out their drag fantasies.

The last segment highlights what might seem unusual from a gay-themed broadcast: Manji intends frequently to examine the intersections between the gay and straight worlds.

"I always like probing the overlap of the straight and gay worlds to find the really compelling thing that happened," she explained. "We're not interested in insider conversations. We have a higher mandate, to explore the cultures of open minded straights - not just gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people."

Another key feature will be a 30-second spotlight on queerness in the animal world. "There is not just homosexuality, but bisexuality in the animal world," Manji said. "Anybody who claims it's unnatural need only look at the animal kingdom."

The final section of the show will feature feedback from the previous episode and a brief editorial from Manji. "We want people to walk away from the show thinking debate is OK," Manji said. "We don't always have to agree. In fact, it's better if you don't. That's where the real growth is ... We're looking to thoughtfully provoke people."

QueerTelevision is intended as the first of many interactive, television and film programs from PlanetOut, according to Megan Smith, the Web site's chief executive officer. Among the projects slated are several relating to the site's Popcorn Q Cinema. These include trailers of classic gay films, short films and novelty archived items, including a 1970s TV commercial for Twinkies featuring a young Jodie Foster. "PlanetOut's vision, because the Internet lets us got to so many gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, is to continue our tradition of [providing] media with interactive properties," Smith said.

Another plus to the Web/TV projects is that, on the Internet, there is no problem finding a slot on the schedule, as there can be with broadcast and cable television. Both Smith and Manji say there is plenty of room on the Web for competition, including rival Gay.com, which recently began posting video clips from "In the Life."

"It's so amazing that the Internet can bring media to people who have never before had access to it, and in a way that's convenient to them," Smith said. "It's almost like we're the permanent VCR."