Glenn Beck Reveals His Goals, Predicts the Future of Television — And Opens Up About His Big Struggle

CNN's "Reliable Sources" aired the second half of Brian Stelter's wide-ranging interview with Glenn Beck (see the first half here) on Sunday morning, and the talk was all business.

"[Beck] is trying to do what so many other big media personalities have only dreamed of doing: that is to have a cable channel of his own," Stelter said in his intro.

Stelter noted Beck's initial success in gaining subscribers for TheBlaze before citing the difficulties of getting big cable companies to carry his channel.

"We're sitting here in Mercury Studios, this is a 72,000-square foot facility," Stelter said. "What is all this space for?"

"My focus is on culture," Beck responded. "We're working on a few projects that are mainstream television that are rooted in history, so to speak. Scripted. We're working on those, we're working on a movie. Actually we have a couple of them that we're working on."

Image source: CNN via YouTube

Beck added that, while he "hates to speculate," he hopes the first feature film and first scripted television programs could be finished as soon as 2015.

Regarding the fight to get big cable companies to carry TheBlaze, Stelter said cable executives might have concerns about how TheBlaze could function without Beck: "What happens if Beck gets hit by a bus?"

Beck's answer: TheBlaze is bigger than himself.

"That's why we changed it from GBTV, I was against GBTV from the beginning," Beck said. "It's not about me."

Beck said his goal is to grow TheBlaze and that he sees television becoming "more personal, human and authentic" as it evolves in the coming years.

As for working with cable companies, Beck says problems of regulation take center stage.

"When I left Fox, my thought was, 'Can a man still have an idea and a dream and go up against the titans and make it?'" Beck said. "So far the answer is yes, but if you can't crack the cable code without having some big corporation behind you, the answer is no."

—

Follow Zach Noble (@thezachnoble) on Twitter