Originally Posted to Revision3 Forums, it’s on the sponsorship of Diggnation by upcoming G4 series “Two Months, Two Million”. (Quick history, in 2004 G4 Media [a subsidiary of Comcast] purchased cult technology network TechTV, and subsequently gutted the network).
The following is my post:
I find this more ironic than upsetting.
To those who are still upset about G4 killing TechTV we must at some point get over it. TechTV unfortunately died, but in a way it was for the best. Without TechTV going away there is a strong likelihood that TWiT, Systm, Buzz Out Loud, and other quality tech podcasts would not exist. Leo, Kevin and the others from TechTV brought a massive amount of credibility to a new medium. Without G4 moving all operations to LA we wouldn’t have Alex Albrecht and the Totally Rad Show or a Diggnation.
In the end TechTV likely would have collapsed anyway. They were chewing through millions of dollars every year, they basically had nothing new on weekends (and often showed series like “The Thunderbirds” to fill time). Most of their daytime coverage was just news until “Call for Help” (thanks Paul Allen, who basically wanted CNBC of tech and a show about Macs). And, lets face it we were not the best group to advertise to (a tech oriented viewer base on the digital basic tier).
However TechTV when destroyed reconstituted into Revision3, Cnet, and for Leo, TWiT. Because of that we are getting more quality tech content every day, and because it does not need to distributed through a cable network it is cheaper to produce and more sustainable.
G4 has become better. With content that is better than MTV and Spike. Attack of the Show (while is worse then initial incarnation) is still a good show (Kevin and Olivia work well together). They have also done a great job with acquiring foreign series (Ninja Warrior, Braniac: Science Abuse, and The Chasers War On Everything).
In the end we got a better deal with TechTV alums getting in on this at the start and rebuilding TechTV and adding credibility early rather then entering later and having to fight upstream.
TechTV is Dead. Long Live TechTV,
A TechTV and it’s offspring fan.
