The Southern California network -- which is available to 3 million cable subscribers in several cities, including San Francisco -- has not paid some of its workers, has laid off others and is being sued by a San Francisco lesbian magazine for not paying its advertising bills over a six-month period.
The Q Television Network launched in markets across the country in 2004, and was followed by MTV-backed Logo last summer. The first gay network, here, began broadcasting in 2002.
The chief administrators and board of directors of Q Television Network informed the staff Monday in an e-mail obtained by The Chronicle that an investor and his family with a large amount of money in the network "are no longer in a position to continue their financial commitment to Q Television."
"We know you are concerned about payroll," the e-mail began. It later stated that Q Television Network was "working with (backup investors) today to push this through as quickly as possible so that payroll can be completed." The e-mail was signed by the head of the company, Frank Olsen, along with Rene Schenk and Marion Sherman -- top officers -- and the "board of directors of QTN."
The network confirmed to the Web site Out.com that all contract workers had been laid off.
The network also has stopped filming new shows and instead is broadcasting recorded programs. Company officials declined to speak about the network's situation, but a company spokesman said the network expects to resume programming on Monday.
In early January, Girlfriends Magazine in San Francisco filed a lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court claiming breach of contract. The network ran a series of full-page advertisements over six months in the monthly magazine but has yet to pay for any of them, said Jennifer Hagan, the magazine's attorney.
Editor Heather Findlay said the ads cost in the tens of thousands of dollars, although she would not say exactly how much.
The network is a major sponsor of the Gay Games and bought the broadcasting rights to air them for $1.7 million. So far, it has paid about 75 percent of that, said Kevin Boyer, co-vice chairman of the games that will be held in Chicago in July.
"They have told us that (the suspension of new programming) is a normal, planned production hiatus to plan for the Gay Games," Boyer said. The network has planned to broadcast several hours of the games each day, some of it live, he said. That has never been done before.
"They have been a good partner with us, and we will believe them till we have reason to believe otherwise," he said.
Meanwhile, stock in Q Television is trading at one-100th of a cent.
from The San Francisco Chronicle
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