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Inside TechTV/G4
An anonymous reader writes "Former G4TechTV employee, Dan Huard, blows the whistle on G4. In the last half of his article, he states that TSS manufactured questions and used 'ringers' to ask their questions on the show."
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What next? Professional wrestling is scripted?
I'm not surprised one bit. G4 is finally realizing that they messed up. Nobody is watching because they've completely done a Hitler move and fired off all of the good TechTV people. All that's left is good-looking, young hosts who don't know jack about what they are talking about. It's quite sad how fast they turned one of the best networks into the worst.
It was so blatantly obvious that this was going on, that I don't see how anyone who has seen the show recently could have thought otherwise.
TechTV was aquired by Comcast's G4 Media and that's how the two networks got fused together to make G4TechTV.
Leo was the only person giving TSS any semblance of watchability. When he left the whole thing spiraled down the toilet fairly quickly. Even before then, a lot of the unique tech content that made TSS cool at the beginning had started to be replaced with useless fluff.
Next.
AT&ROFLMAO
It didn't go off the air.
Short version:
The Techtv properties and licences were bought
out by COMCAST to be merged with their G4 gaming
network. Both networks were to become one
digital cable channel after the merger.
Around the same time, the international broadcast rights expired for TechTV, and
for whatever reasons G4 did not renew them.
As G4TechTV emerged with a new game-oriented
focus, some cable affiliates either dropped the
network from thier lineup, or moved it into a
different category than previously held.
So, those are some reasons you may not be seeing
the channel in your local cable or sattelite
market.
I haven't watched TechTV since it was bought out by G4, and, to be honest, I don't intend to start. It was excellent before the takeover, but afterwards, the focus changed, and it became clear that the new management didn't want the "geeks" that watched TechTV. So be it. But don't expect me to watch G4/TechTV anymore.
TechTV started going downhill when they let go of Leo Laporte. I used to be a huge fan of The Screen Savers, and when he left it went down, then when Pat left, it went down more, then with the latest generation it's total crap. So I have cancelled my Comcast Digital Cable which is the only reason I had it... to watch The Screen Savers
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MTV has no music and now G4/TTV has no tech. G4 is dropping the TTV half of the name and going solely to a "lifestyle" and gaming network. What a crying shame.
To the geeks here I say, "Boycott G4 and their sponsers. Write letters to the sponsers. Boycott their lame message boards. Spread the word far and wide."
The Screensavers message board is being ruled by mods who only recently became mods. I suspect that they're G4 fans and/or employees. They immediately lock any thread that criticizes the show and they'll ban you in a hearbeat if you persist. Don't even bother posting there.
The show looks like it's being run by some old fart who used to be in radio.
Seriously though, I agree with the other comments; mistakes have been made and now consequenes must be suffered...kudos to Dan!!
So I happened to turn on G4TechTVwhatever the other day, and I was appauled. "The Screen Savers" is little more than the old name on a new, much campier, much less useful show. I mean, I never liked everyone on TSS, but those idiots on the air now seem to be up on tech less than most Best Buy employees (no offense to any Best Buy employees on here, just needed a good, recognizable generalization of people who know little about tech but because they work for a tech giant fool the general public into buying whatever the advertisers want).
I think that's the most disappointing thing (see the parenthetical comment above): Leo and Patrick used to tell people not to buy this or that, seemed to be big fans of open source, security, etc. (of course in Leo's case it was a Mac-addiction, but that's ok), and even though they knew most of their audience was PC-based and had to cover them the most, tried to spread things out, give everyone a taste of everything, and if something sucked, would let everyone know about it. I remember them even going against IE before it was popular, and Paul Allen was their boss then. Now we just hear about the campy mainstream this thing is cool marketing drivel.
Ah, but those were the days. Let's hope this isn't a precedent. What's next, Slashdot brought to you by Dell...*shutters*
The purpose of a media company is to make money selling product and promoting the owner's point of view. This, in turn, means that viewer share is paramount, and that if you have to "fix" the content to get more viewer share, so be it.
Viewers do not want reality. They get enough of it from work, raising children, the tax man, and the world in general. They want to associate, identify, and forget the crummy world they had to endure most of the day. The masses want Disney, okay?
You should always remember a media business truism: "The public are morons". Media types will never say this out where you can hear them, but I have sat through enough conference room discussions to know where these folks land. The reason for this is simple. In the great statistical average of the world, it's true. As much as you would have it otherwise.
It is said that only one person out of thirty creates art, literature, science, or policy. Skip media. Hang around those folks instead. Become one of them. We need all we can get.
Yes, I consider the Internet to be media now...
*whup* "Get along, little electrons. Heeyah!"
Or so I've heard.
I don't think people are shocked that it happened, but I do think it's good to get the straight scoop about how the situation evolved.
As a moderately geeky business major, I see this as a management failure, so having this story helps me understand how not to screw up something good. If some geeky broadcast majors read this article, maybe they can help prevent some other geeky goodness from failing later.
Just my two cents worth.
If there is no longer a channel that appeals to geeks, why not create one? I'm see a huge market potential for it. There'd be millions watching it. Probably all the real geeks from TechTV would fly over, giving the channel some talent.
Slashdot Channel anyone?
G4 is a network aimed at the video game (console and PC) markets.
They were merged with TechTV to take advantage of the greater audience
availability that channel had gained.
TSS is an acronym for The ScreenSavers. An end-user oriented Tech News,
commentary, tips, call-in and variety show that was the flagship program
for the defunct network.
We cared because back in the day, while TSS did reflect much of the Windows-centric
viewpoint of much of the computer industry, they were also a positive and active source
of news and information about OSS, Linux, Windows Alternatives, Windows Security and
functional issues; and keeping an open mind about users choices in use (and abuse)
of technology.
It's because comcast is evil.
Before they bought out TechTV and it was doing so well they kept bumping it up to only be included on the more expensive plans. One day I changed to tech TV and all I got was "not authorized" until I agreed to pay more money. I only fell for for that once and then the next time I told them to screw it.
After they killed TechTV by buying it up and merging it with their crap clone G4 they left in on the more expensive plan expecting people would still want it that much. WRONG!
But G4 bought them out. The ONLY thing they have done right (in my opinion) is keep X-Play running (new episodes and they don't seem to have changed it much if at all). TSS is terrible. As far as I can tell (and my TiVo) there are no new episodes of Invent This!, Fresh Gear, or a few other shows since G4 took over. The G4 content (the only one I've ever really watched is Filter) seems amaturish (like a high budget public access cable show) and like marketing smothered it with "love". The host is an idiot, it's full of "cool stuff" (acording to marketing) and the show is just terrible. The show would be MUCH better if they would just drop the host. I've found nothing else on G4 that I like (with the exception of the occational episode of Icons).
So for me, G4 has become the X-Play channel. Becuase they don't seem to want to make new episodes of the shows that they said they would keep (see above), that's the only thing I watch on the channel. When I first got satellite TV (DirecTV), one of the big reasons was so I could watch ZDTV. I got to watch The Screen Savers and all sorts of other interesting stuff (remember the show that would show computer animations made by people? That's how I discovered Animusic). Over the years, the channel has deciled (as TechTV although that wasn't SO bad) to being about as high on my list of "good" as SpikeTV (I used to think the constant banner on the bottom of TNN was bad, how I wish for those days).
All they have to do is mess up X-Play to lose me forever. Put someone with a BRAIN who is in touch with the AUDIENCE in charge of the channel, huh? Give it to Leo or SOMEONE. Because marketing is about to market me OUT of their audience.
RIP G4/TechTV, it's been a long, sad decline.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
I really have a problem with how G4 claimes to have merged Techtv with G4 to make G4techTV.
I didn't have G4 here (Adelphia didn't carry it) But I had TechTV. In fact I remember when ZDNet owned it and it was called ZDTV. Frankly when it bacame TechTV it changed a little for the worst, but thats a different story.
Anyhow, A friend of mine, lived in OH and had Time Warner, Which had G4. Him and his roommate which were both avid gamers couldn't stand G4 but I decided to at least see what was on it and agreed with them in 3 hours that basicially all they would show was...
1) games running in demos against techno music
2) rehashed gaming related shows (GameproTV, Some old Arcade game show I cant remember the name of, ETC)
3) Other original shows that were either boring, stupid or both.
I'll admit. I wasn't a big fan of TechTV. I didn't like or watch The Screen Savers, Call for help seemed like I was watching my Job on TV, ETC, but generally I knew what was on it and I knew that what they were broadcasting was much better than anything on G4 and was helpful to the people that would watch their shows.
When G4 took it over, it almost immediatly went into the crapper. I never once considered it a Merger between TechTV and G4, more like G4 lost it's broadcast license and aquired TechTV's to stay on the air. Basicially TechTV became G4 almost overnight. All of it's garbage programming took the place of the decent TechTV lineup. The shows that TechTV did keep so that it didn't look like a complete takeover of G4 were butchered to the point that they were practially a G4 show, or cancelled to put on CinemaTech or some other Brain Dead Show of the day G4 could come up with.
Basicially, G4TechTV is a lesson in how to make a quasi-hostile takeover look like a merger.
In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
"Fused" implied some aspects of TechTV survived.
I'd say a more accurate description of things would be:
Comcast was having trouble with their G4 network, which was not popular (especially not in their target market, where they were generally reviled) and was only available in a small number of areas due to a widespread lack of demand. So they bought TechTV-- which was available on far, far, far more cable networks than G4 due to the many years spent building up a reputation-- with the intent of simply replacing TechTV with G4 and thus getting all of TechTV's market penetration without having to work for it. So they bought TechTV, announced G4 and TechTV were "merging", gave TechTV's former screen personalities token jobs for a short period before firing them or driving them all off, and are currently settling into a situation where G4, in pretty much the exact form it was in before the merger, is now showing on those channels where TechTV was previously available.
G4's name does still have that vestigial "TechTV" appended to the end, but one recent G4 press release I saw referred to the network simply as "G4"; either this was a typo or that final superficial "TechTV" will be disappearing from the name before long.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
" TSS was steadily going downhill long before G4 got ahold of them. Once Leo Lapporte [leoville.com] it was all Patrick could do to stay afloat."
Leo left because his contract permitted him to do so. The others would have left, but theirs did not.
But you won't be there forever. When you move on, the next person will most likely pillage your audience for the maximum profit/lowest cost.
I think that's what was shown in the original article. While the show was under control of TechTV, it was good. After the buyout/merger, it sucked.
the Screen Savers were the only show on TV that would come close to taking about technology. Where else on TV would you hear Linux mentioned as well as a live install (as Megan did on a show) They would often mention programs that I had never heard of and I would go download them. The first time I heard of Knoppix was on The Screensavers. Hell, they even had Taco in for an interview. (The last good thing they did after the merger)
I once loved watching the show but now I can't. The new hosts are all about gaming, gaming, gaming.
I can't say I'm entirely surprised. As a journalism student I've seen that there's an inherent "fakeness" in broadcasting.
It was worse for TV, but even in my radio class we "greened" our live interviews by pre-interviewing them off air and writing up questions. So the interviewee pretty much knew what to expect. A print reporter wouldn't typically do that.
You know that back-and-forth the host sometimes does with a reporter (CBC radio uses this a fair bit)? It's all scripted ahead of time, the reporter just has to learn to sound conversational.
But as I said, TV is worse. Ever notice a TV interview will go between the interviewee speaking and the interviewer nodding? There aren't two cameras there, the latter is called a reverse shot, and it's usually taken before the interview even starts. The interview audio is then dubbed over top. A reverse shot is a clue that the reporter is cutting something out, avoiding a "jump cut" between two different parts.
Now I look at TV news a lot more critically, because they emphasize the appearance of "smoothness" and "continuity" over honesty.
I think it is pretty clear that Comcast wanted to make use the TechTV trademark (because it's popularity was growing) to promote G4.
Furthermore, I think it's cleat that Comcast has intentionally alienated hardcore TechTV viewers.
I have had people who work in TV tell me that nobody tries to alienate any viewers, but I think it is more than clear that G4 wants TechTV viewers out and replace them with an MTV crowd.
Want evidence of this? Look at the commercials. Gone are the cadillac commercials. Insert the goofy video game commercials, and some really stupid (dumbed down) computer hardware commercials. I saw an nViDiA commercial that actually explained what a GPU was!
I figured such a commercial was more non-tech channel worthy, but when you consider G4 is driving out tech-oriented viewers for MTV gamers, these "dumb" commericals are quite appropo.
I'm fairly certain the comment was a self-deprecating one, and he was appreciative that she put up with him as he dealt with the huge learning curve that is Broadcast TV.
I like microcars
Every time I hear G4/TechTV I get depressed. They combined an awesome channel with a sucky one to get a semi-sucky one. They fired all the good people on TechTV (We miss Leo!), replaced them with G4 people that are obsessive Mac-hating gamers (the new guy on the Screen Savers dislike Macs and is an obsessive gamer. Nothing like Leo, who had some actual intelligence and gave GREAT tips), and completely ruined the shows. And they removed a lot of the good stuff (Call for Help for example) and rarely air some of the surviving good shows.
:'(
We miss Tech TV...
You didn't watch enough. That was probably one
of the theme episodes they occasionally did even
when it was on TechTV.
X-Play is one of the few things that seems to
have improved (with opinions and critisism intact) since the merger.
Step 1) Pick up the old TSS staff for peanuts
Step 2) Go back to the old formula: Interesting news, honest reviews, no shameless plugs
Step 3) Profit.
Well remember people, Leo Laporte is NOT gone. He's up in canada. And I suggest you all get your bit torrent clients read and start downloading episodes which are located at http://derekrodgers.uni.cc/callforhelp/ server is having a little trouble lately tho but check us out in chat, maybe someone has the .torrents ...its really the only thing left of the old tech tv.
I've checked Kevin and Sarah's blogs often, and they never say anything negative about working at G4.
Kevin did once. Right after the TSS purge, he linked to Dan's post on what had happened and commented, "Just shows what people will do for a company they love. On an unrelated note, I'm calling in sick Monday." At the end of the entry, he added a "quote of the day": "Every time Chi-lan takes a live call, God kills a kitten."
I don't blame you for not seeing it, though, it was only on Kevin's site for about two hours before he removed it without comment.
Les Miserables Volume 1 now up with my reading of
Just so it's clear, this is never something I would have countenanced when I was managing editor of The Screen Savers. And I know that my successor, Patrick Norton, would have brained anyone who suggested such a thing.
We did sometimes pre-book calls - and I do it now on the Canadian version of Call for Help - for production reasons. But I always hated even doing that. I never do it on my radio show. But far worse is using "actors" to ask canned questions. That's just plain lying.
Unfortunately, it doesn't surprise me.
Leo Laporte - Chief TWiT, TWiT.tv
Who cares? Any outrage about this is completely missing the point: Screen Savers is a lost cause.
I remember religously watching Computer Chronicles with Stewart Cheifet when I was younger. I also used to watch TSS regularly; I even upgraded my cable package to one that included ZDTV just for the show. It was (although at times a bit basic) funny, informative, etc.
I lost track of the show when they moved to L.A. and got rid of Pat and Leo. I turned it on a week or so ago just to see what was going on these days...just in time for an insightful discussion about the word "scrotum", complete with snorting and giggling from the new adolescent "hosts"...and a new set that looks like something that a 7 year old would come up with if you asked them to imagine their dream playroom.
Thanks, Comcast...thanks for not only failing to recognize quality TV, but apparently actively setting out to flush it down the toilet.
I know there are a lot of people interested in what some of the former TechTV employees are doing now. Most of them have webpages but Patrick Norton does not. For those wondering Patrick is currently doing freelance writing. Recent articles have appeared on ExtremeTech, CNet and PC-World amongst others.
Again, Patrick does NOT have a website or blog but I do try to post links to articles he's writen on my blog as I run across them and as time allows.
I used to be a big fan of TechTV, up until May 7. That was effectively the end of TechTV to me. G4 basically took over the channel and replaced everybody with young, slightly more good-looking hosts.
Message to G4 types: young, good-looking hosts don't make a show. People that know what they're talking about do.
So now, G4TechTV sucks. It can't even be considered TechTV anymore- they completely revamped TSS into one of the most disgusting shows I have ever seen. The only good host is Keven Rose - is he still even with them? I haven't watched it since about September. And X-Play. It's the only show I *will* watch on there. At least Adam and Morgan got to stay. I dunno how they didn't get their personalities butchered.
ROMANES EUNT DOMUS