TechTV's Decline: Why did it happen?

[Mr. SmartyPants]

I've just been curious as to how TechTV declined (by merging with G4) and ultimately became G4. How and why did it happen? Many of the TechTV programs where honest and Tecky and entertaining. Now G4 is all about lame programs and overglorifying certain things. It's also become a lot dirtier. Has G4's ratings been going up or down? It certaintly amazes me how TechTV ended up dying.

[creed4]

I liked Tech TV myself, but can't get into G4

[Link Antilles]

Seriously, this is a sad topic for me. In my personal opinion, back in the day, Techtv was the best channel there was. Sure, there was some bad show during it's final days, but overall there was a good number great *informative* (hah, unlike the rest of TV) shows.

So, why did this unholy disaster happen? Money. Apparently, the leadership at Comcast was looking for more cash to fill their pockets and good 'ol Techtv wasn't doing it. So, they "thought' that booting most of the people from Techtv and then merging with a crappy-MTV-like Video Game channel would do that. Did that work? Heck no. They got a big backlash from Techtv fans. I'm not sure what their ratings are now, but thery are probably still as terrible as right after the merging.

Now, everything time I flip it over to G4 just to see what's going on now... It makes me sick. I mean, what was the Man Show doing on there? Seriously, this channel is now like the trash can for TV shows.

At any rate… I have finally found my replacements for the murdered Techtv… on the internet (and free). Check ‘em out:

Digital Life
http://dl.tv/blogs/digitallifetv/default.aspx

Gamespot’s On the Spot:
http://dl.tv/blogs/digitallifetv/default.aspx


And Leo Laporte’s Podcasts:
http://www.leoville.tv/radio/pmwiki.php
http://thisweekintech.com/ ßThanks to mechana2015 for pointing out this one

[Rogie]

Yeah, I miss good ole Leo. Although I despise G4, I do like Icons. Honestly, it's the only show worth watching on G4 now, simply because it's basically an A&E Biography about video games, and it's informative and somewhat mature. Pretty sad that the channel only has one show going for it, eh?

[tripperdan99]

At any rate… I have finally found my replacements for the murdered Techtv… on the internet (and free). Check ‘em out:

Digital Life
http://dl.tv/blogs/digitallifetv/default.aspx

Gamespot’s On the Spot:
http://dl.tv/blogs/digitallifetv/default.aspx


And Leo Laporte’s Podcasts:
http://www.leoville.tv/radio/pmwiki.php
http://thisweekintech.com/ ßThanks to mechana2015 for pointing out this one

Thanks for the Alernate shows. I was a total TechTV fan, even back when C|Net owned them. It's not worth wasting the effort to tune in G4, besides the garbage talk on the old TechTV shows (i.e. X-play, etc) and the total crap of other shows. They do have Star Trek: NG but I just can't stomach watching it on G4, the commercials are enough to make me turn the channel. I'm patiently waiting for it to die. I hope they loose a lot of money for the holding company, not to wish ill on anyone but just to teach 'em a lesson.

td99

[Solid Ronin]

I actually didn't like Tech TV back when! Though I must say that recently it's getting bad.

What does The Man Show have to do with Gaming!?

And Even Attack of The Show justs keeps talking about more and more non tech based things.

Luckly X-play keps running Thier out course...Though that can use some work.

[TrigunX89]

X-Play is the only show I still like. Oh, and Brainiac's not so bad all the time.

Revision3 has a bunch of different tech shows hosted by Kevin Rose, formerly of the Screen Savers. Of course, not all of the shows are completely clean.

[glitch1501]

techtv was amazing, they had the best hosts, the screensavers was awesome with leo and patrick

[Radical Dreamer]

See, I was always the other way around. I loved G4, but didn't really like TechTV. G4 and TTV both got really dirty after the merge, though, so I stopped watching. Pity, I really did like G4 quite a bit. :/

[Link Antilles]

See, I was always the other way around. I loved G4, but didn't really like TechTV. G4 and TTV both got really dirty after the merge, though, so I stopped watching. Pity, I really did like G4 quite a bit. :/

Now that is interesting.... I actually never watched G4 (or heard much of G4) before the merger. Sad to hear they were good too, before it. :/

Did any G4 people get booted after the merger?

[Radical Dreamer]

Did any G4 people get booted after the merger?

Ack, yes. From the show G4TV.com, Scot Reuben got booted, and was replaced with some other guy (I forget his name). Ronilyn Reiley was booted from Pulse, the gaming news show. I forget who else was booted, or if anyone else was, but I was sad to see some of my favorite people go. Also, G-Phoria, the award show for games, was pretty clean in its first year, but in the second year (after the merge), it was full to the brim with scantily clad girls and sexual jokes. I was really dissapointed after the quality of the channels declined, and I haven't watched either since. Such a sad thing, it is.

[Peanut]

I must admit this is truly sad. When Tech TV and G4 fused, I acutally thought it was a good idea, it didn't seem like a bad move. But then they started to get rid of the older Tech TV shows and even the G4 shows and well... now its all a mess. Honestly, I seriously think that the only reason for this merger was to combine G4 with X-play since thats like the only show that they didn't really touch at all. (Plus, with the death of the Tech TV part, Battlbots fans like myself must officially weep the death of that show since Tech TV seemed liek the only probable channel that would actually show the show.) It's also gotten a lot more foul since the merger, which is probably a sign that they aren't doing so well...

[Bobtheduck]

I started my forum usage on the TechTV message boards... (I even had one of my quotes on the anime unleashed main page)

I was really defensive of people saying the anime was ruining TechTV, but now that I think about it, that wasnt it's purpose... It's purpose was to be information about technology... X-play fit, but it was one small part, and nothing was pure entertainment... It was all informative. Now, Anime Unleashed got me into Lain, I admit, and introduced me to the enigmatic genre (Lain, Boogiepop, and movies like Eternal Sunshine, Donnie Darko, Jacob's Ladder, Vanilla Sky aka Abre los Ojos...) but, starting with thunderbirds, the entertainment shows signaled the end of techTV... Then they started all those shows that were totally the dregs of what was a great network: unscrewed, wired for sex, etc... Well, I sorta regret supporting anime unleashed... Halfway... I'm glad they introduced people to anime that were different than what you'd see on Cartoon Network or the Action channel (not so sure if the current shows could be described that way) but it broke the boundaries, and once you start, you keep going and it may have been part of what lead to the merging and eventual obliteration of TechTV...

I miss Call for Help with Chris Perrilo(sp) and the old Screensavers... Attack of the show is crap compared to Screensavers... R.I.P TechTV... I feel like I had a hand in its demise.

[tripperdan99]

TechTV's Anime Unleased was great. When they ran Last Exile I got totally hooked. I considered the anime feature on TechTV to be one of it's strongest elements (as well as BattleBots). The kids and I use to watch TechTV together, there is certainly no such thing with G4.

td99

[righteous_slave]

We just got our satellite turned back on after several months, and I'm looking at the G4 schedule wondering how on earth they got even worse. ST:TNG was a neat show, but why is it on here? I haven't watched ATOS, but based on the direction it was going and everyone's comments, I don't know if I will. They were really moving away from being a neat tech show (like Screen Savers was) and just a bunch of goobers with a TV show.

[mitsuki lover]

I got started watching TechTv when they ran Thunderbirds and Anime Unleashed back to back 10-11 week nights.That's what got me into serious anime.The first anime I saw on AU was Silent Mobius which is why it ranks one above Inuyasha on my list of top ten favorites.(They're 1 and 2 respectively).
I also enjoyed watching bits of The Screen Savers when it was still The Screen Savers.That's when they moved Thunderbirds to Saturday morning and put TSS on before the hour of AU.
Generally it was about the last half hour to five minutes that I'd watch.Leo was really great with the Q and A section when they had people call in on the phone.
I believe part of the problem was that Comcast or whoever decided to move the studio down from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
As far as Star Trek goes,it's so ubiquitous these days that you can catch some version of it somewhere on the tv.For example our local Fox channel airs Enterprise reruns on Sunday nights.
One of the thing that I noticed after G4 took over was that some of the commercials got a bit more and more risque with their content.

[rocklobster]

G4 stinks now that Anime Unleashed isn't on. The fact that Star Trek is on proves how desperate they are (and this is coming from a Trekkie!)

[Bobtheduck]

That's just it... Change the rules to allow something good, those same changes can bring something bad. Actually, that started with thunderbirds and max headroom, in that case... They should have stuck with informational shows (Screensavers, Call For Help, X-Play)

I admit, AU was a mixed bag... It rekindled (I forgot I had seen it before) my interest in Lain, introduced me to Boogiepop, introduced me to Crest of the Stars, and... Well, actually, those were the only shows i really liked on there, but they should have never broken the rules. Changing the purpose of their network was what lead to their demise.

Battlebots was simple stage 3 in it's demise... Well, actually, battlebots was educational in a way. It encouraged people to get involved in robotics. Still, for the most part the "entertainment" shows on TechTV should never have come on...

[glitch1501]

anyone remember freshgear? that show rocked!

[mitsuki lover]

The same thing is happening all over cable if you take a look.Spiketv(at least they had the honesty to change their name)was originally The Nashville Network and did
all country and western,and then they added shows like The Real McCoys and became TNN and finally morphed later on to the current Spiketv and got rid of The
Real McCoys and other comedies and the music shows went over to CMT.
It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that now everyone seems to be showing the same shows.

[Bobtheduck]

I completely forgot spike used to be TNN... Man... That was sorta messed up... Of course, TNN's audience is too old to care, and the current country fans would watch the more modern CMT... I'm guessing, anyhow... But spike TV doesn't know WHAT it's trying to be... It was called the man channel for a while, wasn't it?

And freshgear... I knew I was missing a big one...

[mitsuki lover]

Actually The First Network For Men was the motto that Spiketv chose after it changed it's name and format.
You could build a whole new network with all the shows that were dropped by the changes that have been made to both Spike and G4.

[mitsuki lover]

Interesting note that when the merger between G4 and Techtv occured they had a list of shows from each network that were going to be kept.I wonder what would happen if someone went back and looked at that list and compared it with what is now on G4 just about how many of those shows are still being aired.My bet would be that just about all of them or most all of them have been dropped by now.

[tripperdan99]

I would agree that most are gone except "X-Play" with Morgan Web (oh please give me a break with her coal black hair now).

When you look at the shedule of G4 you mainly see Man Show, ST:TNG, x-play, cheat, and a sprinkling of other shows.

Wish it would just die and go away! LOL

td99

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Betcha 10 bucks that Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb are gonna be booted off later.

X-Play is all that G4 has that's standing. And even that is declining.

I forsee the death of G4 soon.

If G4 died, do you think that would somehow revitalize TechTv?

[jon0]

In my opinion their are only three shows worth watching on that channel

X-play (some times)
Braniac (some times)
Icons

[Omega Amen]

Betcha 10 bucks that Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb are gonna be booted off later.

X-Play is all that G4 has that's standing. And even that is declining.

I forsee the death of G4 soon.

On our second video game podcast preview, our thread discussion at the end dealt with G4, partly inspired by this thread, and partly inspired by this article on Variety, which basically says that G4 execs plan to push the channel further away from gaming.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Yup, you guys discussed it on the radio show

[mitsuki lover]

Then why have it around any more?

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Then why have it around any more?

Perhaps G4 simply has the money to stay alive?