TechTV

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TechTV (Last Used Name)
TypeCable network
Country
United States
AvailabilityInternational
OwnerZiff Davis/Vulcan Ventures/G4 Media
Official website
http://www.zdtv.com/ (Now Defunct), http://www.techtv.com/ (Now Defunct), http://www.g4tv.com (Current Website)
TechTV is also the name of a closed-circuit television network based in Ruston, Louisiana

TechTV (May 11, 1998 – May 28, 2004) was a 24-hour cable and satellite channel based in San Francisco, California featuring news and shows about computers, technology, and the Internet. It originally was called ZDTV by its founder, Ziff-Davis, when it debuted on May 11, 1998. It later was owned by Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures. Vulcan Ventures sold TechTV to G4 Media (owned primarily by Comcast), which merged it with the video game channel G4 in May 2004 to form G4techTV. In February 2005, the name was changed back to G4, eliminating TechTV from the name completely.

A few of the personalities and hosts that were featured on TechTV programming included Leo Laporte, Patrick Norton, Chris Pirillo, John C. Dvorak, Adam Sessler, Kevin Rose, Sarah Lane, Megan Morrone, Jessica Corbin, Catherine Schwartz, Kris Kosach, Bill Rafferty, Morgan Webb, Jim Louderback, Martin Sargent, Michaela Pereira, Erica Hill, Victoria Recaño, Sumi Das, Chi-Lan Lieu, Chris Leary, Dan Huard, Brendan Moran, Stephanie Siemillar, Lauren Fielder, Robert Heron, and Kate Botello.

Many former hosts of TechTV programs have gone on to create new programs distributed online. This Week in Tech, Systm, thebroken, From The Shadows, commandN, Diggnation, Hak.5, Infected with Martin Sargent, DL.TV, CrankyGeeks and InDigital are some of the current shows being produced.

History

File:ZDTVlogo.gif
ZDTV logo.

Vulcan Ventures first invested in ZDTV in November 1998, acquiring a one-third interest from Ziff-Davis. In November 1999, Vulcan purchased the remaining two-thirds in a transaction that was completed on January 21, 2000. The deal (which permitted Vulcan to temporarily continue using the "ZD" initials and "red diamond" logo) was worth approximately $204.8 million.

In July 2000, it was announced that ZDNet would be acquired by CNET, placing ZDTV in the awkward position of using the initials and logo of a company that soon would belong to its main TV programming rival. However, a new name was already being worked on. On August 21, 2000, ZDTV was renamed TechTV, and a new on-air strategy was announced along with a slew of new series.

Soon, TechTV made a huge commitment to live broadcasting when it launched a nine-hour experimental news program called TechLive in April 2001. The show, which catered to daytraders and business types, never caught on with TechTV's geeky audience. In November 2001, following a massive round of layoffs, TechLive was divided into three one-hour shows. In the spring of 2002, TechLive was cut further into just one thirty-minute daily news magazine show, with a focus less on tech news and more on how technology changed people's lives.

Beginning in 1999, TechTV experienced repeated layoffs. In 2002, Silicon Spin (which launched in May 1998) and AudioFile (launched in August 2000) were canceled, but 2003 saw the introduction of several new shows (such as Performance, Robot Wars, and Unscrewed with Martin Sargent). Although another show, "Internet Tonight" was said to be the first ZDTV program caneled when Vulcan took full control of the channel.

In late 2001 and early 2002, many Comcast cable systems dropped TechTV from their channel lineups. At the time, some viewers speculated that this was done to eliminate a competitor to the Comcast-owned G4. When Comcast's G4 Media acquired TechTV and merged it with G4 in 2004, a second theory (suggesting that Comcast's actual motive was to lower TechTV's value, and ultimately its asking price) emerged.

TechTV Canada (now G4techTV Canada) launched on September 7, 2001 as a joint venture of TechTV, Rogers Media, and Shaw Communications.

In 2004 TechTV was introduced to the New Foxtel Digital format in Australia. After the merger with G4, TechTV (then called G4techTV) left Australia lineups as it's international feed ceased, the channel TechTV occupied was replaced by a new Australian Network, the Crime & Investigation Network. On Malaysia's ASTRO network, repeats of the international feed was run for some time after the international feed ceased before starting to import G4TV programming and retransmitting them locally. In addition to those countries, TechTV had existence in Russia, and Great Britain. In Japan, Sony's So-net channel aired several TechTV programs until the fall of 2005 (They aired reruns after May 2004).

Merger

On March 25, 2004, Comcast's G4 gaming channel announced a merger with TechTV. This move became hugely controversial among loyal fans of TechTV and Leo Laporte, because of a contract dispute with Vulcan that caused Laporte to leave the channel. Around May 6, G4 announced the termination of 250 employees from the San Francisco office by July 10, 2004, allowing approximately 80 to 100 employees to transition to G4's main office in Los Angeles, California if they agreed to relocate there. [1]

On May 10, 2004, G4 Media completed the acquisition of TechTV from Vulcan. G4techTV was launched in the U.S. and Canada on May 28, 2004. This led to the cancellation of many of the TechTV channels throughout carriers across the world. On January 3, 2005, TechTV International began airing select programs from G4techTV.

On February 15, 2005, the TechTV brand was dropped from the United States G4techTV feed, leaving the network name as G4—video game television. For the time being, the Canadian feed has retained the G4techTV name due to a majority ownership.

Only six TechTV personalities, Kevin Rose, Sarah Lane, Morgan Webb, Adam Sessler, Chi-Lan Lieu, and Brendan Moran, survived the merger. As of July 2006, Adam and Morgan are the only remaining TechTV personalities working at G4.

In addition, only two TechTV shows, Anime Unleashed and X-Play, survived the merger without any major changes. As of March 2006 Anime Unleashed was removed from the G4 schedule--for how long is unknown--leaving X-Play the only remaining TechTV show in existence in the United States. X-Play was, appropriately, TechTV's videogaming show.

The Screen Savers survives somewhat in Attack of the Show. Once it changed to Attack of the Show, there were several changes, such as no studio audience, and instead of focusing exclusively on technology, it broadened its base to cover things like sports, movies, and even sex. The only original TechTV personalities to survive the transition to Attack of the Show were Kevin Rose, Sarah Lane, and Brendan Moran. Kevin left on May 27, 2005, and Sarah left with Brendan on April 6, 2006. Today's Attack of the Show bears little resemblance to The Screen Savers.

Reunion

A possible TechTV reunion was announced by Leo Laporte in his blog on July 21, 2006. Further details were also announced by Chris Pirillo on his blog.

Programs

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=TechTV&oldid=69085167"