Gore Rallies 7,000 for Current TV

Former Vice President Al Gore put a little oomph in his quest to get Comcast to carry his Current TV network with a Philadelphia rally that drew 7,000 people.

Gore threw in an incentive to lure the crowd to Dilworth Plaza Thursday night, within eyesight of the 35th floor office of Comcast Corp. Chairman Brian L. Roberts, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Several bands including the popular Roots entertained for what Gore and his Current TV partner Joel Hyatt called a Take Back TV rally.

Gore has been negotiating with Comcast to carry his youth oriented network on all of its cable systems nationwide.

Because Current took over a network already carried by Comcast, it is currently available in half of its markets, but Philadelphia is not among them, the Inquirer said.

Gore told the Inquirer his talks aimed at getting Comcast to keep carrying his network and expand it to more cities have been quite pleasant.

Current TV is carried on DirecTV and some Time Warner Cable systems.