 | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Nationwide |
| Headquarters | 1840 Victory Boulevard,Glendale,California, U.S. |
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Comcast Spectacor |
| Parent | G4 Media |
| History | |
| Launched | April 24, 2002; 23 years ago (2002-04-24) (original) November 16, 2021; 4 years ago (2021-11-16) (relaunch) |
| Founder | Charles Hirschhorn |
| Replaced | TechTV |
| Closed | December 31, 2014; 10 years ago (2014-12-31) (original) November 18, 2022; 3 years ago (2022-11-18) (relaunch) |
| Former names | G4techTV (2004–2005) |
G4 (also known asG4TV) was an Americanpay television and digital network owned byNBCUniversal and laterComcast Spectacor that primarily focused onvideo games,technology,pop culture, andgaming culture.[1][2]
The network was originally owned byG4 Media, a joint venture between theNBCUniversal Cable division ofNBCUniversal andDish Network by the time of the channel's initial closure, and G4 first launched on April 24, 2002. In late 2012, The network's final studio programming were canceled in preparation for a planned relaunch as theEsquire Network, as part of a licensing deal withHearst Corporation, owner ofEsquire magazine. Esquire Network would ultimately replace Style Network instead, on September 23, 2013.[3] G4 announced in November 2014 that it would be closing after several years of decline.[4][5][6] The original network shut down on December 31, 2014. By August 2013, it was reported that approximately 61,217,000 American households (53.61% of households with television) were receiving the network.[7]
On July 24, 2020, a revival of the G4 brand was announced; the network officially relaunched on November 16, 2021.[8][9][10][11] On October 16, 2022, it was announced[12] that Comcast would soon be shutting down the network again.[13] The revived network closed on November 18, 2022.[14]
G4 was launched on April 24, 2002, under the ownership ofComcast.[15] The initial concept was to create a service similar to rivalTechTV but targeted at 12-to-34-year-olds, an elusive demographic.[16] The channel was soft launched with a week-long series ofPong matches.[17][18] It was initially available to three million Comcast subscribers, and offered 13 half-hour programs.[19]
G4 was created and originally led byCharles Hirschhorn, a former president ofWalt Disney Television andTelevision Animation.[19][20] He expected video game creators themselves to eventually produce programming for the channel. He envisioned that G4 could follow in the footsteps of MTV, which provided music video producers with a venue for non-traditional television programming.[21] Hirschhorn intended G4 to become a vehicle for unconventional advertising. In 2002, G4 offered advertisers wide latitude to place their products on G4's programs, and even allowed their commercials to appear as if they were apart of the program.[22] G4 offered what was called a "2 minute unit", which was an advertising package played as if it were part of a G4 program that was long enough to run an entire movie trailer. G4 offered to sell the right to have a game showcased on the showPulse.[22]
On March 25, 2004,Vulcan Inc. announced that G4 Media would acquire TechTV and merge the two networks.[23] The combined network was rebranded asG4techTV. On February 15, 2005, less than a year after the merger, the "TechTV" brand was removed from the channel's name.[24] ACanadian version of TechTV, originally launched on September 7, 2001,[25] would also be relaunched under the "G4techTV" branding and would retain the brand until 2009.[26][27]
In September 2005, Neal Tiles replaced Hirschhorn as the channel's president.[28] Tiles had previously been a senior marketing executive atDirecTV,Fox Sports andESPN.[29] He announced that G4 would be retooled as a male-oriented channel, stating that "guys like to play games, but not necessarily watch a bunch of shows with games on the screen".[30]
Comcast announced on October 12, 2006, that it would consolidate its west coast entertainment operations, including G4,E! andStyle Network into a new group headed byTed Harbert, who had formerly run E!. It was announced that the upper management of the G4 channel would relocate to E!'s Los Angeles office.[31] Harbert gave his opinion at the time that the focus of the channel on "gaming has been demonstrated as being too narrow."[32][33]
On March 4, 2007, it was announced that the G4 Studios inSanta Monica, California, would close on April 15. Production of G4 programs was relocated to the Comcast Entertainment Group facility, which housed E! and Style Network, in the Wilshire Courtyard complex in the Miracle Mile neighborhood of Los Angeles (G4's original facility remains in use as an E! studio and office facility and was utilized byChelsea Lately andAfter Lately until their October 2012 move toUniversal Studios Hollywood). As a consequence, many G4 employees involved in production were terminated. The sets of G4's original programs were also redesigned to fit within the new smaller spaces allocated to them.
In April 2007, G4, in association with Earth911,[34] launched anelectronic-waste-recycling campaign called Gcycle.[35]
On February 17, 2009, it was reported that G4 intended to cut back its original programming.X-Play would be reduced to three nights a week whileAttack of the Show! would be cut to four nights a week. Consequently, a number of the staff and production crew involved in the shows would be laid off.Layla Kayleigh also left G4 in April 2009 after Neal Tiles announced that her contract would not be renewed.[36][37]
It was announced duringComic-Con 2010 that G4 would be the exclusiveNorth American broadcaster ofMarvel Anime, which made its television debut in 2011.[38] During the week of July 26-August 1, 2010, G4 temporarily changed its logo to 4G as a promotion forSprint Nextel's next generation wireless internet service.[39]
On November 1, 2010, DirecTV announced that it had removed G4 from its channel lineup,[40] citing low interest among their subscriber base and low Nielsen ratings as the primary reason for the satellite service removing the channel.[41][42] DirecTV commented that it was "...unable to reach an agreement to continue carrying the G4 channel and it has been removed from the DirecTV channel lineup."[43]
It was reported that theUFC andWWE were in separate talks to buy G4 in 2011.[44][45] The UFCeventually partnered withFox, while WWE launched itsown network on February 24, 2014.
On January 5, 2012, Neal Tiles resigned as CEO.[46] He was replaced by former NBCUniversal marketing chief Adam Stotsky.[47] Long-time employeesAdam Sessler andKevin Pereira both departed the network during the first half of 2012.[48][49]
On October 26, 2012, it was announced thatX-Play andAttack of the Show! would be cancelled by the end of the year.[50] This would end all of G4's studio programming, leaving it only airing acquired and syndicated programming. Reports of G4 rebranding itself in 2013 into an upscale men's channel appeared previous to the recent programming changes.X-Play andAttack of the Show! aired their final original episodes (taped a month earlier) on January 23, 2013.
In December 2012,NBCUniversal signed abrand licensing deal with theHearst Corporation, owner ofEsquire magazine, to relaunch G4 intoEsquire Network which would air shows aimed at ametrosexual audience about travel, cooking, fashion and non-sports related male programming, including the addition of acquired and archive NBCU content such asParty Down,Parks and Recreation, and week-delayed episodes ofLate Night with Jimmy Fallon.[51][52][53] The rebranding was scheduled to take place on April 22, 2013,[52] but was moved to an unspecified date in the summer on April 15, 2013. Network general manager Adam Stotsky stated the rebranding was pushed back in order to have a broader original series slate to launch with than would have been available for the April launch. Stotsky confirmed that a new season ofAmerican Ninja Warrior would air on the network in the summer.[53] In May 2013, the launch date was pushed to September 23, 2013, with its first program being an 80th anniversary special forEsquire.[54]
On September 9, 2013, it was announced that NBCUniversal would instead replace the Style Network with Esquire Network, leaving G4 "as is for the foreseeable future, though it's highly unlikely the company will invest in more original programming".[3] The last active production of the network, G4 Media'sAmerican Ninja Warrior, became a full production of its existing production companies andNBCUniversal Television Distribution with its sixth season, leaving G4 Media solely as a dormant division of Comcast maintaining the G4 and TechTV program archives and the remaining operations of the G4 network.
Upon the rebranding of Style Network to Esquire Network on September 23, 2013, G4 was removed from several cable providers.Time Warner Cable andBright House Networks (whose carriage contracts were negotiated by Time Warner Cable) were the first to remove G4, citing the network's low viewership as "(not a) good value for our customers".[55]Verizon FiOS discontinued the channel on October 1, 2013, andCablevision did so on October 10, 2013, pursuant to a filing with theConnecticut Department of Public Utility Control (that state's utility service regulator) a month prior, that NBCUniversal had plans to discontinue G4's operations as of the October 10 date, though only the discontinuation of carriage by Cablevision occurred.[56]
Late in October 2013,Charter Communications, which was one of the charter carriers of TechTV when it was a sister of that network under the ownership of Vulcan Ventures, announced its intention to remove G4 on December 17; sister networkCloo replaced G4 on its systems.[57] On November 1, 2013, Dish Network removed it from the lineup with Esquire Network replacing G4,[58] ending all carriage of the network fromdirect broadcast satellite services.Cox discontinued carriage of G4 in all markets on December 31, 2013.[59]
NBCUniversal's parent company, Comcast, removed G4 from its Xfinity systems nationwide on January 6, 2014.[60] Comcast did not state outright that the network would shut down on that date.[61] G4 continued to be carried on other cable systems nationwide despite being largely absent from the top 10 media markets (Time Warner Cable, Cablevision, or Comcast, or some combination thereof, is the dominant cable operator in all of the top 10 Nielsen DMAs). G4 still appeared on NBCU's corporate website, but it was no longer present on NBCU's "Media Village" press site.
With G4 slowly decaying, syndication rights toHeroes andLost expired at the end of August 2014, along with the rights toCops, which went to Cloo, leaving G4 to only air repeats of their original series beginning on September 1, 2014.
Certain cable operators reported that the network would close on November 30, 2014,[4][5][6] and the aforementioned providers continued airing the network until the alleged closure date (or when their contracts with G4 were fully exhausted), ending all carriage of the network from cable providers andcable television services.[62] Some providers kept the channel on before its closure, but later replaced with a gray screen with G4's audio feed still being heard before removing G4 from their lineup completely.AT&T U-verse and newly formed television providerGoogle Fiber were among the last services to carry G4, and continued to broadcast the channel until its closure.[63]
G4's last program was the first episode ofX-Play at 11:30 p.m. ET on December 31, 2014. A note on the G4 website's program schedule was added to that particular episode saying "Thanks for watching G4."[64] The network then closed after that episode with a game ofPong on the screen (referencing the network's launch) gradually getting smaller and smaller before becoming just a small dot. A man's voice shouting "I'm at Comic-Con!" was then heard, followed by a "game over" sound from the Atari 2600 version of the gameDonkey Kong and theGame Boy boot-up chime playing over an effect of an analog-era TV turning off, following this, the screen went black before pay TV services that carried the channel at the time of it closure displayed a message informing consumers that it had shut down.[65]
On July 24, 2020, G4'sTwitter accounts forAttack of The Show andX-play, were reactivated to post a teaser video announcing a revival of the network slated for 2021. The teaser was released during "Comic-Con@Home", a virtual streaming edition ofSan Diego Comic-Con. G4's website was reopened with a playable game ofPong which, if won, redirected to a mailing list to sign up for updates and a free shirt promo code. The campaign was in-reference to the network's original launch in 2002 and their shutdown in 2014.[67][68] Comcast would transfer operations of G4 from NBCUniversal to itsSpectacor division (former owners of the now-defunctPRISM regional premium cable television channel).[1]
On August 12, 2020,Olivia Munn, the former co-host ofAttack of the Show!, was reportedly in final talks for a multi-year deal with G4.[69]
On September 4, 2020, the official G4YouTube channel uploaded a video featuring formerX-Play hostAdam Sessler as one of his fictional characters, Crazy Adam, asking for fans to submit applications to become a G4 host or simply nominate their favorite personalities with thehashtag, #G4NeedsTalent.[70]
On November 16, 2020, G4 announcedA Very Special G4 Holiday Reunion Special, a scripted special hosted byRon Funches featuring interviews withKevin Pereira, Olivia Munn, Adam Sessler,Morgan Webb,Kristin Adams, andBlair Herter. The special premiered on November 24 onTwitch andYouTube;Syfy would also air the special on November 27.[71] At the special's end, wrestlerXavier "King" Woods / Austin Creed would be the first newly announced host for G4's relaunch, after beginning a campaign on Twitter to become a G4 personality in August 2020.[72][73] On the same day of the special's premiere, G4 launchedGravython, a charity drive that would be raising funds for a variety of community partners.[74]
On January 28, 2021, G4 announced that bothAttack of the Show! andX-Play would be revived due to high demand from fans. They also gave a tentative date of mid-2021 for the network's relaunch.[9] The following day, the company launched theB4G4 brand, featuring short-form experimental content on YouTube and Twitter created to gain feedback from audiences that would help determine the shows for G4's relaunch.[75] On February 12, 2021, the B4G4 iterations ofAttack of the Show! andX-Play began, with Kevin Pereira and Adam Sessler returning to host their respective series;[76] these involved humorous sketches forAOTS andLet's Plays with other gaming-based streamers and YouTubers alongside Sessler forX-Play. On the same day, it was announced that Esports shoutcastersIndiana "Froskurinn" Black and Ovilee May would be the network's new hosts, along with the seriesThe Bleep Esports Show, a satirical program focusing on current gaming-related news.[77] In March, the network also began livestreaming on both Twitch and YouTube, where its hosts interact with the audience and do watch-alongs to new B4G4 videos.[78]
On April 2, 2021, G4 uploaded a video on their YouTube channel revealing the return of "Epic April", a month dedicated to new announcements. On April 5, G4 revealed the development of a new competitive series hosted by Xavier "King" Woods / Austin Creed in partnership withWWE to air in the fall.[79] On April 11, Esports shoutcaster,The Titan Games commentator and formerAEW commentator Alex "Goldenboy" Mendez was announced to be joining the network as a new host. On April 14, 2021, G4 announced thatNinja Warrior, an English-dubbed version of the Japanese showSASUKE (itself the original Japanese version ofAmerican Ninja Warrior), would be returning to the network with 3 new tournaments and a total of 167 episodes.[80] On April 19, comedian andYouTuberKassem G was announced to be joining the network as a new host.[81] On April 28, Adam Sessler and Kassem G revealed during a livestream that cosplayer Jefferson "Jeffersawrus" Carvey was the network's first #G4NeedsTalent hire.[82] Its final "Epic April" announcement was made on the 30th, whereVirtual YouTuber and livestreamer characterCodeMiko, along with her creator known only as "The Technician", would be joining as a new host.[83]
On May 5, 2021, G4 was announced to be the official broadcaster ofDungeons & Dragons Live, airing on July 16 and 17.[84] On May 14, YouTuber and podcaster Gina Darling was revealed during a livestream with Adam Sessler and Kassem G to be joining as a new host.[85]
On October 12, 2021, it was announced that G4's cable network would officially relaunch on November 16, 2021.[11]
In November 2021, it was announced that airings of select episodes of theweb seriesScott the Woz would air on G4 in one-hour blocks.[86] The show was scheduled to debut on December 7, 2021, at 6:30 pmEST[87] but due to technical difficulties involvingAmazon Web Services, it did not air in that timeslot. The show would officially debut at 10:30 pmEST.[86]
The network officially relaunched on November 16 at 6 a.m. EST, with a marathon of the originalNinja Warrior, occasionally featuring reruns of theVery Special G4 Holiday Reunion Special from the previous year. TheCatastrophic Launch Special was broadcast on the network'sTwitch andYouTube channels that same evening, before airing on the cable network on the next day.[88]
On March 7, 2022, G4 launched a FAST channel onPluto TV called G4 Select, which carried most of G4's regular programming. As part of an exclusive partnership, the channel would also feature new content catered to free, linear streaming audiences.[89][90] The channel was later added toVizio's WatchFree platform on June 16, 2022.[91][92]
On October 16, 2022, it was announced that G4 would be shutting down after relaunching the previous year.[93][94][95]
Several factors that led to G4's discontinuation ranged from low viewership, a lack of audience strategy, ever-changing and absent leadership, competition with streaming content creators onYouTube andTwitch,cord-cutting, underpromotion, and high expenditures.[96][97][98] G4 Select would be removed from Pluto TV on October 19, 2022, during an episode ofAttack of the Show: Vibe Check, the network fully shutting down on October 21, ending two minutes intoSmosh;[99] G4 Select would later close on Vizio. G4 in itself leftPhilo,YouTube TV,Xfinity, andCox prior to the shutdown, withFios being the last to carry the network until its discontinuation on November 18, 2022, two days after the first anniversary of the relaunch.[citation needed]
A screen reading "THANK YOU FOR WATCHING!" appeared after midnight,[100] however Fios ended their signal of the network just seconds prior to midnight, cutting off in the middle of the sign-off.[101]
In addition tovideo game culture, G4's programming encompassedgeek,fandom,genre, and general audience shows aimed at young adults. The network primarilylivestreamed its original programming on theirTwitch andYouTube channels. These livestreams are edited to air on the linear television channel andvideo on demand platforms the next day. The television channel's programming featured reruns of older G4 shows, as well as other acquired programs.[102]Pulse was a prerecorded weekly news show that focused on the gaming industry that aired on G4. In November 2004, along with other G4techTV programs, the show was cancelled. News segments were merged with revamped version ofThe Screen Savers (laterAttack of the Show), though eventually those duties were taken over by the editorial staff ofX-Play.
G4's website previously featured game trailers and reviews, select video clips of its original shows, and web original programming. The website continued providing entertainment-related news articles until May 31, 2013,[103] with the last article posted on G4's website as a replacement for the site's schedule section, was a notice stating that "NBCUniversal has discontinued all operations for G4" seven days after the network left the air.[104] The website was relaunched on July 24, 2020, coinciding with the announcement of the network's revival.
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