Comcast Shutting Down Significant Portion Of Its Business?
Due to lower viewership and a failure to generate profit, Comcast has elected to shut down its G4 gaming channel.
This article is more than 2 years old
After a relaunch attempt, G4 Comcast is officially shutting down. Just one short year after efforts to connect with gamers, the channel was facing low views and financial hardship. This information was leaked on the internet before the official document made it to the employees who worked for the company.
G4 Comcast is, or should I say was, a television channel that was focused on gaming content. It was not only a television destination but an online destination too. The gaming content on the channel was created to be inspiring and entertaining.
The channel, G4, owned by the Philadelphia-based company, Comcast, was launched in the early 2000s. Nearly ten years after the original launch of the gaming channel, it shut down due to low viewership. With a spike in the popularity of gaming, Comcast’s gaming division decided that it was a good time for a relaunch of the gaming channel, G4.
Comcast officially relaunched G4 in November of 2021. Coming up on one year since the relaunch, the channel was abruptly cut for one of the same reasons as before. Low viewership is the cause for the disbanding of the channel.
As a result of the low channel views, the Comcast-owned channel was not able to generate a profit to make the company sustainable. This comes as a disappointing blow for all of those involved with the relaunch of the gaming channel. The decision to shut down the G4 sector comes abruptly as the company decided to immediately enforce the shutdown.
The news of Comcast-owned, G4, being cut came as a shock to most of the employees that worked for the company. The official memo, detailing the shutdown of the channel, was leaked on the social media platform, Twitter before it actually made it to the employees of the company. This was certainly not the way the company intended any of its employees to find out about the shutdown.
Deadline was the one who gained access to the memo from Comcast chairman and CEO, Dave Scott and originally put the information out. Some of the employees who found out via Twitter about the shutdown were said to be in active contract negotiations with the network to continue work on G4. This news was a total blindside and left employees in a position to begin looking for work elsewhere.
The memo that was released detailed the reason for the shutdown and explained that the relaunch efforts had simply not been effective to continue running the gaming channel. In the memo, Comcast’s chairman went on to offer support to the employees affected. Scott mentioned that the human resource team would be available to offer support in the transition and additionally be available to answer any questions and discuss possible opportunities that were available.
The abrupt shutdown of G4 has left a few dozen Comcast employees now unemployed and on the search for other employment opportunities. Though disappointing and shocking, when one door closes, another is sure to open. The universe has certainly pushed the former G4 out of their comfort zones with this shutdown but will no doubt provide something bigger and better.
