G4

who remembers G4? Back when G4 was at its prime in the 2000s before YouTube took over. Launched in 2002, G4 was an American pay television and 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, it was announced that Comcast would soon be shutting down the network again. The revived network closed on November 18, 2022. 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. On March 4, 2007, it was announced that the G4 Studios in Santa 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 by Chelsea Lately and After Lately until their October 2012 move to Universal 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. It was announced during Comic-Con 2010 that G4 would be the exclusive North American broadcaster of Marvel Anime, which made its television debut in 2011. During the week of July 26-August 1, 2010, G4 temporarily changed its logo to 4G as a promotion for Sprint Nextel's next generation wireless internet service. 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 operations of the G4 network. On July 24, 2020, G4's Twitter accounts were reactivated to post a teaser video announcing a revival of the network slated for 2021. The teaser was released during 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. On October 12, 2021, it was announced that G4's cable network would officially relaunch on November 16, 2021. In November 2021, it was announced that airings of select episodes of the web series Scott the Woz would air on G4 in one-hour blocks. The show was scheduled to debut on December 7, 2021, at 6:30 pm EST but due to technical difficulties involving Amazon Web Services, it did not air in that timeslot. The show would officially debut at 10:30 pm EST. The network officially relaunched on November 16 at 6 a.m. EST, with a marathon of the original Ninja Warrior, occasionally featuring reruns of the Very Special G4 Holiday Reunion Special from the previous year. The Catastrophic Launch Special was broadcast on the network's Twitch and YouTube channels that same evening, before airing on the cable network on the next day. On March 7, 2022, G4 launched a FAST channel on Pluto 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. The channel was later added to Vizio's WatchFree platform on June 16, 2022.