Why did the G4 channel close? Well, it averaged 1,000 viewers

G4, the gaming cable channel owned by Comcast Spectacor, has shut down again.

Dave Scott, president and CEO of Comcast Spectacor, broke the news to G4 staff in a memo released Sunday. (IndieWire got the rating; it's posted below.) Comcast Spectacor is the sports and entertainment-focused subsidiary of Comcast that owns the NHL's Philadelphia Flyers and owned the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers. Forty-five G4 staff immediately lost their jobs as a result of this decision.

The closure comes just under a year after the channel relaunched last November. The channel's relaunch - first announced in July 2020 - followed seven years of inactivity for the gaming channel, which began in 2002. The first version of the network was operated by G4 Media, a joint venture between Comcast and NBC Universal Cable.

The channel ceased its original programming in 2012, when NBC Universal signed a deal with Hearst Publishing to relaunch it as the Esquire Network. Ultimately, the Esquire Network replaced the Style Network instead, but no new programming for G4 was created, and several cable companies removed it from their lineup. The channel finally officially ceased operations on New Year's Eve 2014.

Related Related

So what went wrong this time? Among some 120 cable channels ranked in the third quarter, G4 currently ranks last. According to Nielsen, it only draws 1,000 total viewers (on average) both during prime time (8-11 p.m.) and all day (6-6 a.m.). We haven't missed a zero: 1,000 viewers.

How bad is it? Black News Channel averages double that in prime time; Comedy.TV and beIN Sports average 4x the overall primetime viewership of G4; and beIN Sports en Español is 6x better. From a viewership perspective, this is all still terrible - but at least you might have heard of G4.

Operating from a studio in Burbank, CA, G4 aired gaming-related programming, with a particular focus on esports gameplay. Much of the channel's programming is streamed live on its Twitch and YouTube channels before being edited for linear television. The relaunch brought back two of the channel's flagship series, "Attack of the Show!" (hosted by Kevin Pereira, Austin Creed, Kassem Gharaibeh, Gina Darling, Will Neff and Fiona Nova) and "XPlay" (hosted by Adam Sessler, Indiana Black, Jirard Khalil and Corey Smallwood). G4 launched the career of Olivia Munn, who was expected to return when the channel returned in 2021. She didn't.

At the end of the day, a thousand viewers = Game Over. Below is the memo Scott sent to staff on Sunday.

Team:As you know, G4 was reintroduced last year to capitalize on the popularity of the games. We invested to create the new G4 as an online and TV destination for fans to be entertained, inspired and connect to gaming content.

Over the past few months, we've worked hard to generate this interest in G4, but viewership is low and the network hasn't delivered sustainable financial results. This is certainly not what we hoped for and therefore we have made the very difficult decision to shut down G4 operations, effective immediately.

I know this is disappointing news, and I'm also disappointed. I want to thank you and everyone on the G4 team for the hard work and commitment to the network.

Our Human Resources team will contact you to provide support, discuss other opportunities that may be available, and answer any questions you may have.

Thanks again for all your hard work for G4.

Regards,

Dave ScottPresident and CEOComcast Spectacor

Sign Up: Stay up to date with the latest film and TV news! Sign up for our email newsletters here.