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Comcast Fires TechTV Staff
Bocaj writes "Looks like it's curtains for TechTV staff. A Leo Laporte article says that Comcast has let the entire staff go. 'Per the WARN Act (governing plant closings) all the employees of TechTV have been given 60 days notice. The San Francisco operation will be shuttered by July. 100 of the existing jobs will be posted for those willing to relocate to LA.' No word on what will happen to all the shows or the channel."
That they fire the employees, and not cancel the show. The show has potential, and could be better spent than running tech support for beginner users. Think of a tv show, that was somewhat equivalent to slashdot, a discussion of new ideas, and even some conflict. The show could even be hosted by a F/OSS and a MS person.
je suis parce que j'aime
It really makes you believe in the old saying: 1,000 channels and there's nothing on.
what does this accomplish?
were they paid to much money for Compost's liking?
the Screen Savers will still have kevin Rose and David foo foo since they are single geeks who have nothing better to do but to relocate to LA. does comcast even what to keep the same format? or are they going to try to keep it to a low number of shows and jut have tech live in between documentary type programs like invent this and body hits?
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
But, indeed, the merged network's headquarters will be in LA, where G4 has been headquartered. No surprise there.
Still, does anyone think that Comcast is so stupid as to spend all this money on a network, and then get rid of everything that makes people watch it?
SCO on the other hand seems to be making meritless accusations in court, is sueing its best clientel, and is betting everything on getting money from IP that they really don't own. This is not common buisness practices. Among the suits who approve of the comcast-style layoffs, the types of things SCO is doing would classify them as scum. No, comcast hasn't gone lower than SCO, they haven't come close.
Little Brother, watching the watchers
I hope they don't dump Tech Live. Slashdot is great for instant coverage, but they did some nice stories on Tech Live; stuff that either wasn't important enough for Slashdot or something like that. It also came on at that perfect "i should do homework but i don't want to" time.
Yup, and thus it was due to failure :-/
...in bed
Unfortunately, he screwed up step 1.
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
As far as I'm concerned, the flagship show on TechTV was The Screen Savers. When the show had Leo, Martin, and Morgan still, it was the best show on television.
I understand the desire to move successful people to their own shows, but after Leo moved off of TSS and they were left with Patrick (who is so-so), and then Kevin Rose with his elitist attitude and his little girlfriend (can't even remember her name since she is so annoying) that knows jack nothing about computers, well, I can barely stand to watch the show.
Frankly, I don't really watch it more than once a week. I used to watch it daily. That is impressive simply because I don't watch TV. Last year I didn't watch television at all for six months, after that I only watched it to see international perspective of the War in Iraq.
As such, the only reason I have for cable is TechTV. If they kill it (which they already pretty much have) then I will get rid of my cable TV in a heartbeat. Comcast is insane.
Then again, I can hope that someone else will see the potential it had, and do a TSS style show the way it was meant to be done.
Leo, Martin, and Morgan all act like people I hang out with (I'm more in Morgan/Martin's age group, but I know people in Leo's age group that I talk with about technology all the time). Kevin Rose acts like someone I'd never speak with about anything in person. I don't know the guy personally or anything, but I really feel that TSS is ruined without Leo there, and that it was even better than that before they broke up the staff.
The question is: did Comcast kill TechTV, or with it's flagship show in tatters, was it already dead?
Makes you wonder why they bought it, if they were just going to fold the channel, fire most of the employees and dump almost all of the content. I could understand if G4 and Tech were competitors-- but neither draws much of an audience and a combined channel will still be largely ignored.
A lot of comments here seem to be bashing Comcast for getting rid of TechTV with various sinister reasons behind the show's demise, but I also a significant number of "haven't watched it in 5 months, if ever" type of comments too. Could it be that TechTV had really low ratings and wasn't cost-effective to keep going? Naa...
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
The thing that boggles my mind is that they are taking a (relatively) diverse channel and merging it with one (G4) that has such an even smaller niche audience that it only comprised 1 show in techTV's lineup. The various articles around the web make it seem almost egotistical as if comcast would think their video game channel is on par or even better than techTV. Don't get me wrong I think more gaming shows are a Good Thing(TM), it's just that this seems like bad business to me. Why not try and turn the business around if it's not making money?
meep
why did they vandalize it?
and how can you call it vandalism when you let anonymous people make changes to the document.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
Discovery
The Discovery channel has already been eliminated as a source of "high brow crap". At least, I can't stand to watch it as I usually feel my intelligence is being insulted, only unlike the pap on, say, CBS, the Discovery channel has the audacity to think it's teaching me something.
TLC, Discovery, and Animal Planet have already been mostly toasted. (Who the hell would have guessed that the Animal Planet could tune into the Most Extreme meme? Or, perhaps more accurately, tried to tune in.) That leaves only PBS, the History channel, and Biography (I think; I don't actually watch that last one so I could be wrong).
Adam and X-Play are the only reason I really watch much anymore... I do like tech live from time to time.
If the channel quality degrades much, it might be the opportunity I needed to move to Voom - as the lack of TechTV was holding me back.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Moving to LA? Feh. Thanks for ruining the only foothold San Francisco had in TV land, Comcast.
"UP NEXT: the link between breast implants and computer chips! We'll explain right after this."
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
I had G4 when it first came out. Hell, I got a cable box to watch it I was so excited. I can't even describe how many problems they had, from lack of programming, to robot hosts who obviously could give less than 2 shits about gaming, to just insanely pointless programming (That MMORPG show with the HAL9000 voice over). I mean, 8 hours of programming cycled a week. How many times can you watch the same bad show a week? Technically 21. Pathetic.
Want to merge G4 and TechTV? Fine. Kill G4 and take the maybe 2 hours of programming, fix it, and bring it to TechTV, the better channel.
Instead, they do the opposite. They kill the wrong channel and basically put the staff that makes TechTV in a position to not want to migrate.
Comcast should be brown-nosing Morgan Webb and Leo LaPorte like they have gold stuck up their asses. Leo is a pretty smart tech guy that is very personable, easy to understand, and loves his job (none of which are very common in the tech field lately).
Morgan has a rabid army of unsexed fanboys that would pay an extra 10 bucks a month just to see her for 10 minutes a week. Sad, but true.
Are we over-reacting? No.
Because the deal hasn't even went through and Comcast already did the exact opposite of what they SHOULD have done.
I agree with your general point. However, I think you're a little off on this particular part. Comcast hadn't been running TechTV. Comcast bought TechTV and then announced layoffs shortly after. Whether TechTV was doing well or not may not be the issue (although they did take quite a hit during the dot-bomb).
But otherwise... right now. This is no SCO-ism.
No Unscrewed? Martin? Swisher? Noooooooooooo
Unfortunately, that press release list is worthless because it starts with "such as" so shows named on that list might not survive, and shows not on that list might make it.
There's really no clue as to which shows are in or out yet...
Everybody wins :D
Why isn't this right? I mean, I see your point in that it sucks for all involved, but lately I keep getting the general vibe that people think companies exist to provide jobs, when really jobs are investments needed to make money. Heck, jobs are a cost center. If the work being done isn't getting done with your investments you get rid of the investments that aren't returning. That's business, and heck that's life.
Hey we're all about switching from Windows to Linux right? For $180 XP doesn't do what I want it to do, Linux does it all, for free. Will we say that this massive job loss is bad if/when the Linux desktop revolution happens and Microsoft has to layoff a bunch of workers on the OS side?
I don't know... The thing that impressed me the most about Leo is he comes across as the "teacher" type of person. He presents things well, and almost always has a quick, informed response when questions are thrown at him. He may not be quite as "technical" as some people, but most "very technical" people aren't so skilled at communicating their knowledge so others can understand them (especially when they have a small time window to do it in).
I think Patrick does a good job too, and agree that he "belongs on the show". To be honest though, I'm not sure it's possible to please "the masses" with any type of computer-centric program. It's the same problem you have if you try to get women to sit down with you and enjoy some show about hot-rodding cars. The majority of them are going to complain and ask you to change channels.
I suspect the women (Morgan, Cat, etc.) were brought in to try to cancel some of this effect out. Sort of a "Hey, look - here are women who actually LIKE this stuff. See girls, you should give it a chance!" But that's shallow and people generally see right through it.
Albuquerque PC
Just to let you know, Nielsen is one of the better scams of the universe. It produces next to random, unverifiable numbers and gets to charge kings ransom, plus it gets to decide direction of American TV. No competition. No credible verification. No regulation. No oversight. Ever growing stream of money and undeserved "prestige" (oh, just so fitting the race-to-the-intellectual-bottom enterntainment and the politco-propagandistic info-tainment industries).
What a racket!
Actually, Family Guy's revival was largely attributable to phenomenal DVD sales.
Merging TechTV into G4 assumes all geeks are gamers. For me, TechTv was ScreenSavers, Tech Live and Call for Help and afew other non-gaming shows.
Perhaps it's just harder to find the demographics for geeks vs gamers, and thus made it easier at the boardroom to pitch a gaming show vs a tech show, but it seems to me that the silent majority has once again been shafted.
I would like to be proven wrong (with stats) that the tech crowd was a larger pool than the pure gamers; it'd give meaning to this madness.
Do you really think those were "real" callers? Didn't you know everything on TV is scripted and made up? Why introduce unknown variables to your formula when you can script more interesting in concept and solution?
Did you ever actually watch Call for Help or TSS? Things went awry all the time and, atleast when I was watching it, Leo would get stumped from time to time. Hell, if it wasn't for Patrick and Google a lot of questions would have gone unanswered on TSS. I don't think the calls were scripted.
"DRM is like violence: if it doesn't work, use more."
Tech TV was about the same as /. in a lot of regards to technology.
You have Leo Laporte - about the only bearable personality and pretty much the lone Mac/Linux/P2P advocate in every situation
You have Patrick (Screensaver) - this guy was anti everything - and honestly contributes little to any show - his interview skills were only good if he had them decently written on a notecard
Morgan Webb - I never saw what Xplay itself claimed - that she was a goddess that got tons of fanmail - she looks kind of mongoloid - has a great body though
Cat Schwartz - this chick is the female version of Patrick and after seeing her Howard Stern interview only confirmed she is a real bitch in everyday life - she also was a bandwagoner - what ever was cool - she wanted it it or had it
Then there was the couple that liked each other on the screensavers. Sarah Lane was genuinely funny and Kevin Rose was genuinely knowledgeable - although a Mac hater in most regards
Originally you had the gay announcer that I think still produced and directed - I was personally aware of his live coverage of MacWorld Expo 2001 and that it WAS DEMANDED by Apple that he was fired
Then you have Fresh Gear - what happed to Sumi Daas? She was awesome - had a true platform agnostic computer bias and was actually pretty good in her reviews. She was replaced by a girl with an annorexia problem and a guy that does infomercials (really, Chris Leary does several)
Chris Parillo (former host of Call For Help) was the most annoying geek to ever be on TV and just about every show would say how much he hated the Mac platform and Linux. Although he was very knowledgeable
I'd also like to point out that the former owners were a company owned by Paul Allen. When the show Microsoft Insider popped up I knew it was a downward spiral. This wasn't a show, it was a pro Microsoft Windows propoganda. (An infomercial without the warnings)
I thought Invent This was the best show I have seen on TV in a while and I hope it either stays or finds The Discovery Channel.
I also liked Eye Drops (computer animation showcase) - yet I never understood why they didn't do more episodes after it won an emmy.
I really liked Megan Morrone and the girl that moved on to CNN - they both were knowledgeable and palettable.
I got tired of Leo constantly promoting himself like a God. I think all of this will be a good change. If the "cast" is good enough, they will find other work.
Everyone except Adam Sessler (Xplay) - that guy is honestly retarded.
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
I'm not much for government interference in the market place, but the WARN Act certainly seems to be a good thing to me. Had it not been for that legislation, these guys very likely would not have found out about being fired until they came to work one morning and found their door code didn't work any longer.
I was involved in a large company that scanned and converted military documents into a SGML format. Had it not been for the WARN Act, I'm sure those SOBs would have never told us a word about them going under...until the day it happened. And I really think it pained them to have to tell us. Not because they felt sorry for us, but that they didn't want anyone to know until our freaking door codes no longer worked!
Usurper_ii
Ron Paul
The funny thing is that she's better than you are going to get in your entire pathetic life.
Thank you for publicly proclaiming your moral illness.
The fact that you think there's something seriously immoral about nudity strikes me as a form of moral illness itself.
Thank goodness that weenie is getting booted. My God, there's a reason they don't usually stick a dude and his girlfriend on the same show... don't they know relationships make geeks uncomfortable?
Combine that with the "I'm a haxor and so much cooler than you even though I don't know much of anything" attitude and you got a real tool on TV show. I'm telling you, he was the -1 Troll of TV land. I can't believe Sarah, who seems to have an ounce of coolness is going out with this putz.
Leo, Patrick, Morgan, Adam, Cat, hell even that british dude that hosts the retarded 'bot wrestling' show... ya'll will be missed. Kevin... you will not.
LilMikey.com... I'll stop doing it when you sto
I mean seriously - I'm glad my mail client has the option to supress the loading of remote images. I've had spam that makes my eyes burn :-(
Yes, loading images automatically sucks and also could mean that a person's box suddenly has a cached copy of illegal imagry on their computer. Try to defend having kiddy-porn on a box by saying 'outlook did it, not me, really!'.
PSA: A lot of people are unaware of the fact that if they don't suppress the loading of those images, the remote web server automagically marks them as a person to send more spam to.
This is not a dream, not a dream...we are transmitting from the year 1-9-9-9.
Wil did warn you that G4 sucked.
So now, they dicked a whole bunch of other nice people. Is this a news flash?