Bravo Launches Gay Broadband Site

Bravo will team with gay-targeted media/entertainment company PlanetOut Inc. to launch a broadband site for gay and lesbian online viewers.

The site, OutzoneTV.com, will launch in March as part of a suite of ad-supported broadband sites Bravo says it is rolling out in 2006.

PlanetOut, whose web sites include Gay.com, PlanetOut.com, and Keptomaniac.com, will provide OutzoneTV with promotional, editorial and ad services support. Bravo will host and program the site, whose name comes from “The OUTzone,” a gay-targeted programming block on Bravo’s sister channel Trio, which launched in January as a broadband site TRIOtv.com after dying on linear cable.

OutzoneTV.com will program to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. Initial programming will include gay-themed reality dating series Boy Meets Boy, which originally ran on Bravo in 2003, and Gay Weddings, a show about four gay couples planning their dream weddings, which ran on Bravo in 2002.

At TCA, the network said it was refreshing its main online hub, BravoTV.com to house several individual broadband sites, including TrioTV.com, a planned broadband version of the former cable network, and BrilliantButCancelled.com, a spin-off from the Trio series of the same name that featured programming from shows cancelled early in their runs.