Learning from the deaths of G4 and VENN: TV on Twitch is not working
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Over the weekend, news leaked that Comcast is canceling G4TV less than a year after its relaunch. Former television network from the early 2000s, known for shows like Xplay and Attack of the Show. — failed to win back millennial audience Comcast searched on Twitch and pay TV providers.
my time in VENN competitor competitors it was enough to know that G4TV was living on borrowed time. While G4TV made its fair share of mistakes, the underlying problem was the format itself.
Both VENN and G4TV brought premium TV-style content to platforms like Twitch and YouTube Gaming. This, in theory, sounds like a recipe for success. However, this style of content creates a number of problems for the companies that support them.
Financial consequences of formatting
Let’s start with the money. in a filtered statement To G4TV staff, Dave Scott, president and CEO of Comcast Spectacor, admitted that G4TV’s “audience is low and the network has not achieved sustainable financial results.”
results.” The overhead to operate a traditional television network — the sets, production crews, talent, and sales and support staff — is monumental. VENN spent more than $40 million in 18 months trying this.
These rising costs likely pushed executives to look for ways to better monetize their product. Both VENN and G4TV chose to sign deals with pay TV distribution companies (Roku Channel, Xumo, DistroTV and more for VENN and Verizon FiOS, Cox, Xfinity TV and Philo for G4TV) to accomplish this.
However, these agreements created a number of problems. That is, commercial breaks. While Twitch has recently pushed for streamers post more adsTwitch viewers often complain that commercials ruin the experience. After all, Twitch has acclimated its user base to only watching pre-roll ads for years. When VENN and G4TV tried to run traditional eight-minute ad breaks per hour on a platform like Twitch, they lost viewers.
Both networks attempted to appeal to a new generation of viewers with a linear TV format presented on a streaming platform it was not designed for.
About him last 90 days, G4TV averaged just over 2,000 viewers on Twitch, firmly placing the company in the top 1% of broadcasters. But compared to the thousands of viewers Nielsen reports for network TV, this seems silly to executives.
However, this could be a failure to see a larger trend. Even studio style shows presented on television are losing audience.
Not finding a fan base
Building a fan base is, of course, incredibly difficult to do. Talent is the primary tool for outreach, so selecting the right people to champion a network is essential.
Both VENN and G4TV booked top talent and guests to appear on the show. But neither of them managed to find personalities that generated the audience they needed.
Both networks chose to work with esports talent, particularly commentators and interviewers/hosts. They believed that hiring talent with a large Twitter following and experience in one or more esports would attract viewers. While this probably helped to some extent, the networks failed to convert as many fans as they hoped.
Unlike streamers who work for years to cultivate a personal following, esports commentators don’t necessarily inspire the same level of connection. This leaves them at a disadvantage when it comes to attracting viewers through the force of their personality.
This becomes even more difficult when you alienate some of the audience you have.
G4TV made headlines in January 2022 when one of his hosts made a fiery speech about sexism in gaming. While sexism in games deserves to be called out, this criticism sadly divides the audience.
Statistically, this segment hurt G4TV’s long-term growth. In the immediate aftermath, G4TV lost thousands of YouTube subscribers and the average views per video never fully recovered. Since the segment aired, G4TV has removed all references to it on its social media and made the video private on YouTube.
VENN featured similar content, especially on its gaming news show as it geared up for the 2020 election. When we tested this content with audiences, most viewers wanted the content to be less political. They wanted the content of the games to be an escape from other problems that they had in their life.
Ultimately, both G4TV and VENN marketed themselves to too narrow an audience and alienated potential viewers.
sign of the times
G4TV and networks like it are becoming relics of the past. Content creators like Ludwig Ahgren can grow a news show: mail tycoon — nearly 1 million subscribers in a year with just a webcam and microphone. This makes it impossible for large producers to compete on the basis of cost.
The public cares about individual creators, not faceless companies. That’s why companies like G4 and VENN paid big-name creators to be the face of their shows. For example, AustinShow, one of the top creators on Twitch, was hired as a game show host on both VENN and G4TV. However, the content wasn’t sticky enough for the content creators’ fans to stick around after their episodes ended.
Big productions on Twitch aren’t dead, they’re evolving to be creator-driven. For example, Felix “xQc” Lengyel’s game show Juiced is produced by Ludwig’s agency Offbrand. The program is still in its infancy, but it is already reaching almost 100K average viewers.
The shortcomings of both G4TV and VENN stem in part from the property not understanding the platform, but it was also a result of not understanding that the playbook that worked in 2008 won’t work in 2022.
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