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<blockquote data-quote="Abstruse" data-source="post: 8267563" data-attributes="member: 6669048"><p>It happens more often than you think. Or happened, at least. I'm not sure how it works now, but for a long time, there was a long process to get your own channel, even if it's just a cable channel. Regulatory hoops and making deals with all the different cable and satellite providers to carry your channel and buying the equipment to broadcast...and that's just for a channel that's just airing material, not even producing it. That requires studio space, camera/lighting/sound equipment, editing and post-production facilities...</p><p></p><p>...or you can just buy an already-existing channel that's not doing too well in the ratings and rebrand them. </p><p></p><p>G4 was already considered a "lifestyle" channel because of its focus on geek/nerd culture, and wasn't doing great at the time (this was just before geek culture stuff really started taking over mainstream media, the MCU was just ramping up, big shows like Game of Thrones and Walking Dead had just started and hadn't started building their audiences, and so on. There was a segment of mainstream entertainment people who thought the whole "geek" thing peaked with Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter and expected it to start tapering off. Plus, as you get with nerds, there was a vocal minority of people who hated G4 because they replaced The Screen Savers with Attack of the Show as their primary variety talk show. The former focused more on technology news while the latter focused more on culture stuff like movies, TV, and games.</p><p></p><p>So you've got a lifestyle channel that the owners think is doing poorly and will only get worse and Esquire steps in wanting to pivot the lifestyle network covered from "geek/nerd" to (this is their words not mine) "metrosexual". To the owners, licensing the channel seemed like a good deal. So G4 was stuck in a "holding pattern" with all new content suspended so they became a venue for Cops re-runs airing during the day and wall-to-wall infomercials at night. Except the Cops re-runs got pretty decent ratings. And NBCUniversal (who owned the network) decided "Hey...we already have a channel that covers fashion stuff...it's called Style...are we going to be competing with ourselves?" And the Esquire rebrand went to that instead, and G4 was left in its holding pattern for a couple of years before they just killed it.</p><p></p><p>Some other examples off the top of my head are:</p><p></p><p>Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network getting purchased by Fox to become Fox Family which was purchased by ABC to become ABC Family which they pivoted to Freeform.</p><p></p><p>The Nashville Network (which focused on country music and southern culture variety shows) getting purchased by Viacom and changing to The National Network, signing a deal with WWE and becoming SpikeTV and pivoting to "The First Network for Men" then pivoting again to The Paramount Network.</p><p></p><p>A less extreme example, CourtTV originally launched as showing a bunch of video footage from actual courtroom trials. You'd turn it on and see grainy consumer-level cameras in fixed positions as lawyers droned on with overdubbed commentary. Time-Warner bought the network out from NBC (they had been partners since both tried to launch "courtroom footage networks" at the same time and decided to partner instead of compete) and pivoted to truTV to focus on more general documentaries and dramas about true crime.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Abstruse, post: 8267563, member: 6669048"] It happens more often than you think. Or happened, at least. I'm not sure how it works now, but for a long time, there was a long process to get your own channel, even if it's just a cable channel. Regulatory hoops and making deals with all the different cable and satellite providers to carry your channel and buying the equipment to broadcast...and that's just for a channel that's just airing material, not even producing it. That requires studio space, camera/lighting/sound equipment, editing and post-production facilities... ...or you can just buy an already-existing channel that's not doing too well in the ratings and rebrand them. G4 was already considered a "lifestyle" channel because of its focus on geek/nerd culture, and wasn't doing great at the time (this was just before geek culture stuff really started taking over mainstream media, the MCU was just ramping up, big shows like Game of Thrones and Walking Dead had just started and hadn't started building their audiences, and so on. There was a segment of mainstream entertainment people who thought the whole "geek" thing peaked with Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter and expected it to start tapering off. Plus, as you get with nerds, there was a vocal minority of people who hated G4 because they replaced The Screen Savers with Attack of the Show as their primary variety talk show. The former focused more on technology news while the latter focused more on culture stuff like movies, TV, and games. So you've got a lifestyle channel that the owners think is doing poorly and will only get worse and Esquire steps in wanting to pivot the lifestyle network covered from "geek/nerd" to (this is their words not mine) "metrosexual". To the owners, licensing the channel seemed like a good deal. So G4 was stuck in a "holding pattern" with all new content suspended so they became a venue for Cops re-runs airing during the day and wall-to-wall infomercials at night. Except the Cops re-runs got pretty decent ratings. And NBCUniversal (who owned the network) decided "Hey...we already have a channel that covers fashion stuff...it's called Style...are we going to be competing with ourselves?" And the Esquire rebrand went to that instead, and G4 was left in its holding pattern for a couple of years before they just killed it. Some other examples off the top of my head are: Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network getting purchased by Fox to become Fox Family which was purchased by ABC to become ABC Family which they pivoted to Freeform. The Nashville Network (which focused on country music and southern culture variety shows) getting purchased by Viacom and changing to The National Network, signing a deal with WWE and becoming SpikeTV and pivoting to "The First Network for Men" then pivoting again to The Paramount Network. A less extreme example, CourtTV originally launched as showing a bunch of video footage from actual courtroom trials. You'd turn it on and see grainy consumer-level cameras in fixed positions as lawyers droned on with overdubbed commentary. Time-Warner bought the network out from NBC (they had been partners since both tried to launch "courtroom footage networks" at the same time and decided to partner instead of compete) and pivoted to truTV to focus on more general documentaries and dramas about true crime. [/QUOTE]
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