G4 Television is closed on Sunday, October 16. The gaming and esports channel was previously closed but was restarted in 2020 after being off the air for seven years. Comcast Spectacor owned G4 and tried to revive the channel in an effort to expand its range of sports and esports broadcasts. But it seems that the demand for esports and gaming content on network TV has decreased significantly. The decision comes after the studio and network have consistently failed to make a profit. While G4 may have been a bit popular in the early 2000s, most future viewers are now looking for their game content elsewhere.
The shutdown of G4 is another in the series of downfalls that network television is experiencing across the industry. While it’s no secret that streaming services are steadily gaining popularity, it seems that major television companies are starting to feel the impact of this change in a big way. With NBC cutting its primetime television block at 10 p.m., David Nevins is leaving Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery HBO Max expands, this is just one of many events demonstrating a shift from traditional television. G4, while unpopular, targeted a demographic that specifically gets more of its content from streaming platforms.
G4’s (final) shut down
G4 was first launched in 2002 by NBCUniversal. The channel ran for years with popular programs such as Attack of the show! and X-Play. It even had its own broadcast studio intended to host professional esports events. But after it declined in popularity, NBCUniversal shut down G4 in 2013. When Comcast Spectacor officially brought it back on November 16, 2021, the group revived many of its old series’ shows on television. They even hired former channel employees such as Brian Terwilliger and Brian Herter. But now, a year later, G4 is shutting down again, resulting in the layoff of 45 employees.
Comcast Spectacor tried to make G4 relevant through talent from YouTube, Twitch, and recognizable esports personalities like Alex “Goldenboy” Mendez (The Titan games), Ovilee May and Froskurinn. Names from YouTube included Kassem G, Jirard “The Completionist” Khalil and Gina Darling. And G4 even brought in Twitch streamers Fiona Nova and Will Neff, as well as some not-so-human live streamers like CodeMiko and the degenerate rat puppet, Ratty. So the effort to bring the channel back was not effortless or ignorant of TV’s changing cultural environment.
Deadline received a company-wide memo in which Dave Scott, CEO and chairman of Comcast Spectacor, said:
“We have worked hard over the past few months to generate that interest in G4, but the viewership is low and the network has not achieved sustainable financial results. This is certainly not what we had hoped for and as a result we have made the very difficult decision to end G4’s operations with immediate effect. I know this is disappointing news, and I am disappointed too. I want to thank you and everyone on the G4 team for the hard work and dedication to the network.”
Spectacor’s programming efforts have always focused on more traditional sports broadcasting, with the company owning the Philadelphia Flyers. G4 seemed more like a light foray into the esports world, which Spectacor couldn’t keep or even barely invest.
Is traditional TV changing?
G4 was never an important part of broadcast television. In any case, it was a network’s first attempt to adapt to a new form of entertainment. If anything, there would be a much bigger sign of change: Comedy Central loses Trevor Noah as host of The daily show and wondering whether late night talk shows will remain relevant on streaming platforms. But G4 has that strange place in TV where networks try to bridge the gap between mainstream television and events that are more commonly shown on the Internet.
G4’s focus on esports puts it in competition with major streaming websites such as Twitch, which is certainly the largest venue for esports events. G4 was meant to entertain a crowd of viewers who mostly got their content from the internet, so their programming reflected the kind of content you’d normally see from YouTube sketch comedy groups and people producing machinima.
The end of G4 was somewhat announced by the company president, Russell Arons, who left just two months earlier. This can give people a break who have recently seen Paramount executives leave the company. G4 was TV’s attempt to extend into the new era of entertainment. With more traditional TV shows losing traction, you may wonder if television as we know it today will still exist in ten years’ time. With streaming platforms poised to replace long-standing television networks, the question is not if television broadcasting will collapse, but when.