Interview with Lance Fougere of TV Polari

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Gay Television
Lance Fougere of gay television network TV Polari filming in Andorra

Lance Fougere of gay television network TV Polari filming in Andorra
TV Polari Gay Television Network
TV Polari has entertaining and original content

TV Polari has entertaining and original content

TV Polari is the exciting gay television network with a big personality all of its own. Still very young in television terms, TV Polari is gay television that has developed real teeth in its infancy with dynamic channels like Gabbi World (featuring the hilarious ‘Gabbi’), Lifestyle, PlanitGay Travel, and the very popular TLA movie channel.

Mothership Blog spoke to Lance Fougere (just love how that name rolls off the tongue!) who is one of TV Polari’s owners.


How did the TV Polari gay television network come about?

Gabbi of Gabbi World - next week she wears a ski suit to the beach...

Gabbi of Gabbi World - next week she wears a ski suit to the beach...

I have a background in TV, and also in the ‘Gay World’, and I helped develop a new television channel on Sky called TV Travel Shop which was revolutionary in the way it presented holidays. I was also instrumental in opening Village Soho for the first time - which was the very first gay bar with clear windows! I knew Jim Deans who is the owner of the broadcasting company Global Digital Broadcast, and he was looking for a business partner for a new gay television network and I fitted the bill.

Who owns TV Polari?

50% Global Digital Broadcast (GDB), 25% me and 25% Adrian Doughty who is a colleague I met through setting up a charity. The 50% ownership by GDB is great because we get the support of the ‘mother’ company, whilst being small enough to move faster than our rivals. Others supporters include our Business Director James Duffy, and Justin Beavis.

Why the name TV Polari?

I didn’t want a name that had the word ‘gay’ in it, so having been a supporter of LGBT history month I was familiar with the word ‘polari’ comes from the italian word polare ‘to talk’. Polari was a form of language between gay men who were oppressed and dates right back to the 19th Century.

How do you watch TV Polari?

You can TV Polari at TVpolari.com or, if you have the right set top box on Something TV. We’ll be reaching out to a larger cable audience soon.

When did TV Polari launch?

2007

Is running a gay TV network different to what you expected?

Gay TV is more of a challenge than I thought it would be, but I enjoy a challenge so I’m very happy with that. I am also surprised that I’m working in the gay business world again, as I’ve done that for so long but the laws of attraction drew me back into it!

What has been your best moment?

TV Polari gay television network

TV Polari gay television network

Every week has its good moments, but the best by far was when we had content up on our gay television network for the first time. I had been given a channel and then told to go out and make it happen. Well with the excitement I thought “no problem”, but what I did not know was that content costs money and it costs a lot. So when we went on the beg and borrow route and managed to get 100 hours of content in, That was my best moment, seeing it all up there on a screen and more importantly on a TV screen.

What has been your worst moment?

The worst moment was in the early days when we went to our first customer with our set top box and our TV to do a demonstration and GDB who run the Distribution network had decided to do maintenance and not tell us. So we were at the clients and had nothing to show, so we had to show them another Channel instead. But hey, these things happen. We are on the brink of a new way we watch TV and content so you have to accept it.

What’s your favourite part of running a gay television network?

Erm, it’s when I see people get as excited as I do about gay television, and see the bigger picture. When we get new clients on board is great, and now we have a production company, I love going on location and trying something new.

What do you find most difficult and why?

Technology and explaining it to people as it’s new and hard to understand so to tell them they can watch TV Polari on their TV via the internet is difficult.

What are your dreams for TV Polari?

I would like TV Polari to be like the BBC for gay consumers, and get other exciting ideas onboard so we can open it up as the gay people’s television network that offers different content for everyone.

What have you got coming up on your gay TV network?

Films like Another Gay Movie on the TLA Movie Channel on TV Polari

Films like Another Gay Movie on the TLA Movie Channel on TV Polari

Ah well we have just launched the TLA movie channel and that is going great, and in the next few weeks we will have a new Civil partnership channel called Together TV, which will be much better than Wedding TV as we have lots more to offer and not just Gay weddings on that channel. We also have a lot of new shows on the way from Screamers starring Ray Jordan, and Destinations - a new gay Travel show, and of course the New Gay Travel Channel Planitgay TV, bit like sky travel but for LGBT bods.

Lance Fougere spoke to David Abrehart

Watch TV Polari at TVPolari.com

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