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NBCUniversal may bring in a partner in the upcoming revamp of struggling cable channel G4. I hear that NBCU is in talks with Hearst about partnering on the channel. What’s more, I hear the two sides are exploring a rebranding of the channel tied to the Heast-owned men’s magazine Esquire, possibly as Esquire Channel. Associating G4 with a brand like Esquire would make sense since NBCU had been looking to keep the male-centric nature of the channel but make it more upscale and sophisticated, which is what Esquire is about. NBCU declined comment.
NBCU decided to go with an upscale makeover for G4 after overtures from the likes of UFC and WWE to take a controlling stake in the channel last year fell through. A deal for G4 would reunite NBCU and Hearst, which were co-owners of A+E Networks until NBCU cashed its stake in July. Hearst’s cable holdings include stakes in A+E’s A&E, Lifetime and History, as well as ESPN. As part of G4′s evolution from a gaming/tech channel (as part of Comcast, it was merged with TechTV in 2004) to a more upscale, sophisticated network, G4 announced in October that it is cancelling long-running series Attack Of The Show! and X-Play.
Rebranding G4 would fit into the strategy of NBCU cable maven Bonnie Hammer, who added control of E! and G4 after the Comcast-NBC Universal merger. E! has already changed its look and logo and is undergoing a makeover towards more sophisticated programming, including adding scripted series. Hammer’s first major move at G4 was the hire of former NBC marketing chief Adam Stotsky as general manger in January.
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About time…
I will mourn the loss of all the on-air talent from G4. And Matt Mira was just getting the exposure he deserved!
I like Matt, but Sara and Candice are what I’ll miss about AOTS.
Wait…they are just NOW in talks?! I thought in January the network was to be rebranded?
This article states that they’re talking with Hearst. So the Hearst development is recent, but the rebranding news is still a little older.
Sorry but I have to take one more dig at Esquire: “How to Be a Man,” by a magazine publication staffed overwhelmingly with women. Ridiculous.
makes sense to me unless you are a gay man.
This is a complete joke, because the Esquire brand has been thoroughly trashed. The magazine is just a tinny parody of what it was in the great old days, when Harold Hayes ran it and Tom Wolfe/Gay Talese/et al wrote for it. That magazine had bravado and slashing wit. It’s was the first to tell you cool stuff. Today’s Esquire is a tremulous, witless voice of me-too social posing. This is one of those deals that make great press releases and pathetic TV.
In the great old days? What a great way to sound like an out-dated cynic. I think I read something about you recently, in the third paragraph of this link: http://www.esquire.com/features/thousand-words-on-culture/writing-careers-1212
Once you get done finding yourself within its lines, read through the rest of the article and come back and lament the never ceasing “social posing” the magazine does. And good luck making an argument that doesn’t fall through.
I love the “How to be a Man” title on the top of the Esquire cover!
Bonnie Hammer and Adam Stotsky developing a channel for men…. that’s not going to work.
Uhh.. This is Bonnie Hammer you are talking about. You ever heard of a network called USA? The most profitable part of NBC Universal? Yeah! Uhm… She is responsable for its success. Never write her off she knows her stuff.
It’s my opinion that if she were truly committed to making the Esquire Channel work she would have found a high-experienced highly-successful executive to run the network. I don’t think she’s going to give the amount of money that it would take to make the Esquire Channel work to someone without a proven track record (Adam Stotsky). How could she justify gambling, and potentially losing, that amount money to the big wigs in Philly?
You say a woman made the USA network. We all know it was Vince McMahon.
Yes, a Woman made USA. Vince McMahon and the WWE was a big part of the networks early growth. But when WWE left the network in 2000 to go to TNN / SpikeTV, it was Hammer that took the network from the place you went to to see LeFem Nakita, Silk Stockings or Up All Night, into the Network that produces cool shows that appeal to a large audence like Burne Notice. WWE was gone for almost 6 years, and when they returned they were a cog in a much larger and much more succesful network. I’m not saying she is perfect but her track record has proven not only with USA but the rebranding of SciFi to SyFy that she is willing to think outside the box and create propertys that appeal to main streem audence.
Yes, Mr. Stotsky dosn’t have any proven trackrecord but this is how executives get experence, start by rebranding a small network and then see where it goes from there. Mr. Stotsky had as much if not more experence then Neil Ties had. When you have a company like DirecTV drop G4 not because they were asking for to much money, but because they were just not good they can’t do much worse.
Argh!! Candace! She’s great. What’s next?
The fact that they still don’t have a concept in place with less than a month before the end of the year means that viewers can look forward to a lot of crap while they sort it out. Enjoy even longer blocks of Cheaters, Cops, and Knight Rider. Obviously, the problem at G4 is that the programming from 6:30 pm to 8:00pm isn’t sophisticated enough.
They should turn G4 over to Chris Hardwick and Felicia Day and get the hell out of their way.
Instead of developing the market that gave them what little marketshare they have, its time to chase a different, hopefully larger market. Because all I hear young men talking about is wishing there was a channel that spoke to their fashion and style needs, not video games, movies, and technology.
Tech, games, and movies… shame they don’t buy commercial time.
G4 was really a failure to market to advertisers, not to the audience. Instead they want a new channel where they can rerun Top Chef and pretend it hits the target audience.
I think Esquire can ad a nice element of style and grooming. Besides, don’t women want their man to get a bit more into grooming and dressing up? Let’s wait and see.
NBCUniversal will re-brand G4 as the Esquire channel Attack of the Show host will now wear suits
The real problem is that G4 didn’t appeal to anybody. It was too stupid and immature to appeal to a ‘geek’ audience, yet too geeky to appeal to a broad audience, and it aired whatever cheap crap they could lay their hands on.
That said, I think this is a step in the wrong direction, since Esquire is culturally irrelevant and “geekiness” is increasingly mainstream. Instead, G4 should have retained its “geeky” focus but modernised and repositioned themselves to be more upscale and smart.
Comic-Con, E3 and CES are all increasingly mainstream events that could do with professional coverage and commentary. There’s a massive hole for The Talking Dead-esque talk show covering TV, tech, politics, games and even sport in a mature way that doesn’t make you cringe like AotS/X-Play did.
Will they run shows about clothes no one can afford to buy?
Probably, did you see the new “revamped” Xplay Christmas Shopping Guide show they had recently? All it was, was Morgan Webb and an infinitely unwatchable Blair Herter spout talk about items that even a millionaire would not purchase as a gift.
I agree with the person who said that they should have given the channel to the guys at the Nerdist/Geek@Sundry. Their content is geeky but intelligent but more often than not fun and not embarassing like AOTS and XPlay had become. Hell… just bring back Tech TV and give us The Screensavers and Call for Help back. At least those shows were informative and hosted by people who actually were “experts” in their fields.
Yeah, there goes NBCU/Comcast, running *away* from the pop-cultural zeitgeist by trying to convert G4 into another Spike. They’d might as well shut G4 down entirely instead of converting it into the type of channel that even *fewer* people watch.
And they should just port Attack of the Show over to SyFy.
They made the mistake in not alining G4 closer with SyFy.
Stotsky ran worldwide brand strategy and marketing at SCIFI/Syfy for Hammer for 8 years and then NBC. Think Discovery before that. He’s got a track record as a visionary leader and great manager.
I don’t think that Adam Stotsky is highly experienced or highly successful at developing programming – and is in over his head in production circles. Just my opinion. It won’t take very long to find out.
You clearly have no clue what you’re writing about. Matt Hanna runs programming development and production. Came from Endemol, BermanBraun, VH1. You’re just bummed he didn’t buy your show.
We may as welk say screw it and launch MAXIM TV.
G4 was a mess, having only Attack Of The Show but it was crippled beyond saving after getting dropped by DirecTV. Something drastic had to be done. That said, getting partnering with a magazine – ANY magazine seems silly now.
As they say on AOTS, Fail it!
I hear they’re going to be running a show about obese men who lose weight by cross-country jumping. Any truth to this?
It’s silly that they are trying to be more “sophisticated”, so they cancel AOTS and X-Play but keep the ultra-scummy Cops and Cheaters playing non-stop. Obviously they are just cheaping out and are going to rerun shows from Bravo and Style on this new channel, pretending it appeals to a new demographic. Then UniversalComcast will have three channels of the same thing.
I find it absolutely shameful that someone would take a channel made by nerds, for nerds, and rebrand it for the sake of being “hip”. I’m just disgusted.
“I will mourn the loss of all the on-air talent from G4.”
G4 had on-air talent?