Creating a Network for Queer Audiences at Logo TV

Abstract

Using Lisa Parks' concepts of “postbroadcasting” and “flexible microcasting,” I examine how Viacom and MTV Networks developed Logo TV as a cable channel catering to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) audiences. Through an examination of the trade press, MTV Networks' and Logo's programming strategies, and the series Noah's Arc and Round Trip Ticket, I argue that Logo's attempts to market itself to a diverse queer audience are undermined by textual choices in specific programs that reinscribe class, race, and national hierarchies in queer cultures. The article begins with an examination of how Logo executives constructed a queer audience in the age of media convergence and then moves to consider the promotional, programming, and scheduling strategies that were developed to target queer audiences. Using Noah's Arc and Round Trip Ticket, I analyze limitations in Logo's programming regarding the channel's representations of gender, race, and nationality.