G4 (also known as G4TV) was an American pay television and former digital network owned by NBCUniversal and later Comcast Spectacor that primarily focused on video games, technology, pop culture, and gaming culture.
The network was originally owned by G4 Media, a joint venture between the NBCUniversal Cable division of NBCUniversal and Dish 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 the Esquire Network, as part of a licensing deal with Hearst Corporation, owner of Esquire magazine. Esquire Network would ultimately replace Style Network instead, on September 23, 2013. G4 announced in November 2014 that it would be closing after several years of decline. 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.
On July 24, 2020, a revival of the G4 brand was announced; the network officially relaunched on November 16, 2021. On October 16, 2022, Comcast announced that the network would immediately cease operations for a second time due to low viewership and inadequate financial performance.
Contents
History
2002–2014: Original
G4 was launched on April 24, 2002, under the ownership of Comcast. The initial concept was to create a service similar to rival TechTV but targeted at 12-to-34-year-olds, an elusive demographic. The channel was soft launched with a week-long series of Pong matches. It was initially available to three million Comcast subscribers, and offered 13 half-hour programs.
G4 was created and originally led by Charles Hirschhorn, a former president of Walt Disney Television and Television Animation. 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. 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 a part of the program. 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 show Pulse.
On March 25, 2004, Vulcan Inc. announced that G4 Media would acquire TechTV and merge the two networks. The combined network was rebranded as G4techTV. On February 15, 2005, less than a year after the merger, the "TechTV" brand was removed from the channel's name. A Canadian version of TechTV, originally launched on September 7, 2001, would also be relaunched under the "G4techTV" branding and would retain the brand until 2009.
In September 2005, Neal Tiles replaced Hirschhorn as the channel's president. Tiles had previously been a senior marketing executive at DirecTV, Fox Sports and ESPN. He announced in May 2006 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".
Comcast announced on October 12, 2006, that it would consolidate its west coast entertainment operations, including G4, E! and Style Network into a new group headed by Ted 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. Harbert gave his opinion at the time that the focus of the channel on "gaming has been demonstrated as being too narrow."
2012–2014: Post-NBCUniversal/Comcast merger, decline and closure
On January 5, 2012, Neal Tiles resigned as CEO. He was replaced by former NBCUniversal marketing chief Adam Stotsky. Long-time employees Adam Sessler and Kevin Pereira both departed the network during the first half of 2012.
On October 26, 2012, it was announced that X-Play and Attack of the Show! would be cancelled by the end of the year. 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 and Attack of the Show! aired their final original episodes (taped a month earlier) on January 23, 2013.
In December 2012, NBCUniversal signed a brand licensing deal with the Hearst Corporation, owner of Esquire magazine, to relaunch G4 into Esquire Network which would air shows aimed at a metrosexual audience about travel, cooking, fashion and non-sports related male programming, including the addition of acquired and archive NBCU content such as Party Down, Parks and Recreation, and week-delayed episodes of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The rebranding was scheduled to take place on April 22, 2013, 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 of American Ninja Warrior would air on the network in the summer. In May 2013, the launch date was pushed to September 23, 2013, with its first program being an 80th anniversary special for Esquire.
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". The last active production of the network, G4 Media's American Ninja Warrior, became a full production of its existing production companies and NBCUniversal 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.
2020–2022: Revival
On July 24, 2020, G4's Twitter accounts for Attack of The Show and X-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 of San Diego Comic-Con. G4's website was reopened with a playable game of Pong 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. Comcast would transfer operations of G4 from NBCUniversal to its Spectacor division (former owners of the now-defunct PRISM regional premium cable television channel).
On August 12, 2020, Olivia Munn, the former co-host of Attack of the Show!, was reportedly in final talks for a multi-year deal with G4.
On September 4, 2020, the official G4 YouTube channel uploaded a video featuring former X-Play host Adam 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 the hashtag, #G4NeedsTalent.
On November 16, 2020, G4 announced A Very Special G4 Holiday Reunion Special, a scripted special hosted by Ron Funches featuring interviews with Kevin Pereira, Olivia Munn, Adam Sessler, Morgan Webb, Kristin Adams, and Blair Herter. The special premiered on November 24 on Twitch and YouTube; Syfy would also air the special on November 27. At the special's end, wrestler Xavier "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. On the same day of the special's premiere, G4 launched Gravython, a charity drive that would be raising funds for a variety of community partners.
On January 28, 2021, G4 announced that both Attack of the Show! and X-Play would be revived due to high demand from fans. They also gave a tentative date of mid-2021 for the network's relaunch. The following day, the company launched the B4G4 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. On February 12, 2021, the B4G4 iterations of Attack of the Show! and X-Play began, with Kevin Pereira and Adam Sessler returning to host their respective series; these involved humorous sketches for AOTS and Let's Plays with other gaming-based streamers and YouTubers alongside Sessler for X-Play. On the same day, it was announced that Esports shoutcasters Indiana "Froskurinn" Black and Ovilee May would be the network's new hosts, along with the series The Bleep Esports Show, a satirical program focusing on current gaming-related news. 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.
Programming
In addition to video game culture, G4's programming encompassed geek, fandom, genre, and general audience shows aimed at young adults. The network primarily livestreamed its original programming on their Twitch and YouTube channels. These livestreams were edited to air on the linear television channel and video on demand platforms the next day. The television channel's programming featured reruns of older G4 shows, as well as other acquired programs. 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 of The Screen Savers (later Attack of the Show), though eventually those duties were taken over by the editorial staff of X-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, 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. The website was relaunched on July 24, 2020, coinciding with the announcement of the network's revival.
Hosts/correspondents
Second run (2021–2022)
Kevin Pereira - co-host of Attack of the Show!
Adam Sessler - co-host of Xplay
Austin Creed - co-host of Attack of the Show! and WWE x G4's Arena
Indiana "Froskurinn" Black - co-host of Boosted, Xplay, and G4 Gameday LCS
Corey "The Black Hokage" Smallwood - co-host of Xplay
Kassem "Kassem G" Gharaibeh - co-host of Attack of the Show!and Fresh Ink!
CodeMiko / The Technician - Attack of The Show!
Gina Darling - co-host of Attack of the Show! and WWE x G4's Arena
Jirard "Dragonrider / The Completionist" Khalil - Co-host of Xplay
Will Neff - co-host of Attack of the Show! and Name Your Price, Host of Hey, Donna!
Fiona Nova - co-host of Attack of the Show!, anchor of The Feedback
Kitboga - greenlit show based on his livestreams on Twitch (never materialized)
AustinShow - co-host of Name Your Price
Sam "Kobe" Hartman-Kenzler - co-host of G4 Gameday LCS