FIRST LOOK! Promo clip of the Current TV channel on TopTV.

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Current TV (TopTV 406) is launching today, Saturday, May 1, as one of the TV channels on the new TopTV satellite TV subscription service in South Africa. I can exclusively show you this one minute promo clip of Current TV, which give you a bit of an idea what Current TV on the TopTV platform will be about.

This clip was show to TV critics and writers at a press conference yesterday with Al Gore, chairman of Current TV, who spoke about his news channel. Current TV is the fastest growing satellite TV news channel in the world, making use of, and broadcasting, user content generated news.

Current TV's Al Gore: ''We're encouraging South African content creators to tell their stories.''

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Current TV (TopTV 406) is launching tomorrow on the new TopTV pay TV service in South Africa. TopTV's feed of Current TV will be coming from America through Britain, but Current TV wants South African stories. ''We're encouraging young creators of content here in South Africa to make videos and to tell their stories and to connect with a global audience,'' says Current TV chairman Al Gore. ''Join the global conversation through the very powerful medium of television''.

''Our content is being made by young people all over the world and now Current TV is, thanks to TopTV, available here in South Africa,'' said Al Gore at a press conference I attended this morning in Johannesburg. ''You can contact us by going to www.current.com and upload videos that we then broadcast. The heart of Current TV is citizen journalism and investigative journalism. I need not say how important it is for our global civilization and for democracies like South Africa to have vigorous investigative journalism.''

''What is unique about Current TV is that content creators in South Africa can join the conversation of democracy by the means of the medium of television. I look forward to the day when young citizen journalists and investigative journalists in South Africa will be regularly connecting with a global audience and a large audience in South Africa and telling stories that no-one else is telling.''

BREAKING. ''Even one day before TopTV launched, the former monopoly was forced to lower their prices.'' - Al Gore

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''We're very proud to be a part of the TopTV family. TopTV is now introducing a form of competition to the pay TV market which hasn't been present in South Africa before.'' So said Al Gore, the former American vice president and chairman of Current TV (TopTV 406) at a press conference this morning for Current TV in Johannesburg that I attended.

''What you will find as a result, is the lowering of prices for consumers.'' As Al Gore said this, at the very same time MultiChoice was making THIS announcement about starting a brand new cheaper DStv Lite bouquet at R99. 

''The effective monopoly in pay TV in South Africa – and I'm not criticizing them at all, it's just the way they pursued their business plan – illustrates why competition is good for consumers,'' said Al Gore. ''When there is no competition, prices are artificially high. Even in anticipation of competition – even one day before TopTV launched, the former monopoly was forced to lower their prices. I predict that you will see prices being forced to come down more.''

BREAKING. TV special, Captive in North Korea, to air in May on TopTV's Current TV.

Current TV (TopTV 406) - one of the news and information channels that will be included on the TopTV satellite service of On Digital Media (ODM) that launches commercially on Saturday - will broadcast an arresting documentary special on 19 May, entitled Captive in North Korea.

TopTV's launch is just in time for South Africans who, with Captive in North Korea, will be able to watch the story of Current TV journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee who were held captive by the North Koreans for more than four months early last year. They were filming an episode for the fourth season of the Current TV documentary show Vanguard that South Africans will now also be be able to see. Both were sentenced to 12 years of hard labour before the former American president Bill Clinton negotiated their release.

Current TV was started by the former American vice president Al Gore who will be in South Africa on Thursday evening for the official TopTV launch party. I will be there too and I have a press conference with Al Gore on Friday morning after I broke the news of his upcoming attendance RIGHT HERE.

BREAKING. Al Gore will attend On Digital Media's TopTV launch party.

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I can exclusively first reveal that Al Gore, the former American vice president and Nobel Peace Prize winner, will be in South Africa next week on Thursday for the launch of On Digital Media's TopTV launch party - already heralded as the TV event, and party event of the year.

Nobody knows this but I can tell you that Al Gore will definitely be in South Africa and make his way to the TopTV lanch event which is shaping up to be the to-be party of 2010. I can also reveal that more than 600 people are going to attend this massive event - and attendance is by VIP invite only. Diginitaries, politicians - I can even tell you that the minister of communications will be there - as well as a bevy of local celebrities, people from all over the TV world locally and abroad, the major players in the local TV industry, as well as distributors, TV channel heads and network executives from across the globe.

ALSO READ: TopTV going to ''war'' at it's massive pay TV launch party.