• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

REBRAND: G4 TO ESQUIRE IN 2013

J

Joe_Capitano

Seems when they canned "Attack of the Show" and "X-Play," the writing was on the wall. Now we have an idea of what G4 will become. (Drat! Looks like all those Japanese games we got to see and laugh at are also toast!)

Spike TV, move over. You've getting company. Esquire Channel - as in the magazine.

Details: Hollywood Reporter
 
Good bye Tech & Gaming channel (This genre needed to be filled & G4 filled the void quite nicely. Now it looks like somebody else will have to carry the torch)

Does anyone care to start the countdown before CBS jumps on this with a launch of a CNET channel on TV (Either as a cable channel or diginet)? We know they've flirted & floated with the idea of launching it as a diginet on their O&Os before

Cheers & 73 :D
 
Pat Cook said:
Does anyone care to start the countdown before CBS jumps on this with a launch of a CNET channel on TV (Either as a cable channel or diginet)? We know they've flirted & floated with the idea of launching it as a diginet on their O&Os before
Click to expand...

Yeah cause we all know how successful CNET Radio was, right? #fail

There was also a weekly CNET TV show too. That didn't last very long either.
 
Sad what G4 has been turned into. Tech TV seemed to be much better until Comcast got hold of it and messed it all up...

-crainbebo
 
MarcB said:
Pat Cook said:
Does anyone care to start the countdown before CBS jumps on this with a launch of a CNET channel on TV (Either as a cable channel or diginet)? We know they've flirted & floated with the idea of launching it as a diginet on their O&Os before
Click to expand...

Yeah cause we all know how successful CNET Radio was, right? #fail

There was also a weekly CNET TV show too. That didn't last very long either.
Click to expand...

I guess I'm the only "antique" in the room who remembers that before G4 there "TechTV" but before that it was actually C|Net TV. Reporters like Richard Hart and Sophie Formica among others would appear on news and other self-produced programs reporting all things tech.

The channel migrated to TechTV with tech notables like Patrick Norton, Chris Parillo and Leo Laporte with a variety of tech shows. By the time it became G4 I lost interest in watching Man Show reruns and Attack of the Show (yawn).
 
Bill DeFelice said:
I guess I'm the only "antique" in the room who remembers that before G4 there "TechTV" but before that it was actually C|Net TV. Reporters like Richard Hart and Sophie Formica among others would appear on news and other self-produced programs reporting all things tech.
Click to expand...
Not really. I remember way back in mid-'99 when ZDTV first came to my cable provider. It was such an odd name for that channel but TechTV was a much better fit imo.

I kinda wish what happen to TNN (The Nashville Network) coming back from the dead would also happen to the TechTV brand. Yes, I know Leo Laporte's TWiT is basically Tech reincarnated. I'm just not a big fan of that name since it does mean "foolish person" or "a state of nervous excitement".
 
@BlueWanderer: I couldn't remember where the ZDTV name came in during the lifetime of the channel, but it must had been awhile after it was on. I remember moving and the cable system had C|Net TV so perhaps it was between that and the TechTV name.

As far as Leporte's network, you have to remember that TWIT is an acronym for This Week In Tech, which I believe was the anchor program during his network's inception.
 
I'm pretty sure there never was a full-time cable network known as C|Net TV. C|Net TV was only a weekly news and reviews program that aired on various cable networks over its lifetime, including SciFi and CNBC.

Now, shortly after ZD sold ZDTV (but before it became TechTV), ZD sold ZDNet.com to C|Net.
 
Oh so i guess nobody here has heard of youtube They have plenty of channels Dedacated to tech
no need for a cable channel
 
Mike said:
Oh so i guess nobody here has heard of youtube They have plenty of channels Dedacated to tech
no need for a cable channel
Click to expand...
Exactly, and lets face it, no one really watched "tech tv" and and previous incarnation of G4, at least accoring to the numbers. G4 hit its peak with Olivia Munn and Attack of the Show and I did enjoy the Japanese wipeout shows and the hybrid texting-during-COPS shows. Goodbye and welcome Esquire!
 
Mike said:
Oh so i guess nobody here has heard of youtube They have plenty of channels Dedacated to tech
no need for a cable channel
Click to expand...
Don't be silly. Of course I've heard of youtube before and go there quite often. I also know it's way too late at this point to have another cable channel devoted solely to tech. My earlier post was hinting at that the TechTV name is being wasted on whoever owns G4/Esquire now. It wasn't actually wanting a tech-oriented channel back on cable. Just clarifying this to the world. ;)
 
I am not a gamer and DirecTV dumped this channel a couple of years ago.
So I can't say as I will miss G4. (other than I do kind of miss the cheesy
retro-bumpers they created for Movies That Don't Suck).

They take me back to TV in the 70's (which kind of made me wonder why a channel devoted
to twenty-something gamers thought to produce them in the first place).
 
Meanwhile, in Canada, The Canadian G4 will stay the same (for now?) due to a CRTC restriction on their current broadcast licence.
I think this means that Canadians will not get to see the new changes.
(G4 in the past was mostly a repeater of the American content)
 
Glad that G4 is gone from Direct TV.

Loved them during their ZDTV/Tech TV days.

The programming was educational and I learned so much from them.

After they became G4, I lost all interest in them.

I won't shed any tears over their recent departure.

It's one channel I don't miss at all.

R.D.P. <><
 
I applaud DirecTV for dropping a useless channel like G4. More providers should do this - dropping channels with low viewership levels and little promise for an increase in the future. Why make your subscribers pay for a channel that a small minority of them watch?
 
According to what I heard in a podcast between Kevin Periera and Sara and Candace that he did last Tuesday, even the launch and closing is going to be botched.

From what everyone knew, X-Play and AOTS were to end by the 21st, but for some godforsaken reason they're having the hosts tape a whole bunch of special compilation shows, including the finales, which won't air until January 23rd, with the compilations just thrown in willy-nilly into the schedule, which makes me think this 'respect' that the network was showing to their top programs was just talk, because by then everyone except those who forget to kill their season passes will have forgotten about the shows. It doesn't make any sense. The ladies also said that the management wanted them to be mean to each other on the air when they're the best of friends to liven things up. And in the last year the new NBC management told them to be less 'off the cuff' and act more like teleprompter readers, thus the show is a lot more tedious to watch.
 
MarcB said:
Pat Cook said:
Does anyone care to start the countdown before CBS jumps on this with a launch of a CNET channel on TV (Either as a cable channel or diginet)? We know they've flirted & floated with the idea of launching it as a diginet on their O&Os before
Click to expand...

Yeah cause we all know how successful CNET Radio was, right? #fail

There was also a weekly CNET TV show too. That didn't last very long either.
Click to expand...
This is exacttly why I think CNET TV would likely be more successful as a diginet carried on the CBS O&Os like LiveWell has been on the ABC O&Os rather than a cable network. This way, CNET TV can be given a low budget & time to evolve just like LiveWell has so far

However apparently CBS isn't as optimistic & isn't willing to go through that expense. Ohh well..... *Shrug*

Cheers & 73 :D
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom