Following legal pressure from another public media outlet, Twin Cities Public Television is rebranding its younger-viewer outreach initiative five months after its initial launch.
Andi McDaniel, manager of TPT’s Open Air project, announced Oct. 15 on the project blog that the network would be changing the name, citing “the fact that there are other public media brethren entities using the name” as one of the reasons behind the change. In July, Colorado Public Radio filed a trademark infringement and violation suit against TPT in federal court over use of “Open Air,” which is also the name of a Denver-area Triple-A music station that CPR has operated since 2011.
McDaniel also wrote that the Open Air name became less useful for the brand “as our work progressed and we gained focus,” and that TPT began brainstorming a new name in August.
TPT will announce the new name for its initiative Oct. 25. On the blog, McDaniel listed all the branding ideas the staff batted around, and announced a contest to accurately predict the initiative’s new name. One randomly selected winner will win a bag of pubTV goodies.