TechTV was a 24-hour cable and satellite channel based in San Francisco featuring news and shows about computers, technology, and the Internet. In 2004, it merged with the G4 gaming channel which ultimately dissolved TechTV programming. At the height of its six-year run, TechTV was broadcast in 70 countries, reached 43 million households, and claimed 1.9 million unique visitors monthly to its website.[1] A focus on personality-driven product reviews and technical support made it a cultural hub for technology information worldwide, still existing today online through its former hosts' webcasts, most notably the TWiT Network.
The offices were located at 650 Townsend Street, 94103,[2] and the studios, of which there were two, were located at 535 York Street, 94110.[3]
History
Origins
On August 20, 1994, computer magazine publisher Ziff Davis entered the television industry with the premiere of The Personal Computing Show, a program that aired on Saturday mornings on CNBC, America's Talking and the Jones Computing Network. The Personal Computing Show, co-hosted by Jim Louderback and Gina Smith, targeted a growing demographic of personal computer owners and demonstrated how to purchase, install, maintain and repair personal computers and peripheral devices such as printers. Shortly after The Personal Computing Show's premiere, Ziff Davis revealed plans to produce a second show in October 1994 named PC Update, a half-hour Sunday morning news program hosted by Leo Laporte and focusing on the computer industry.[4][5] According to Ziff Davis spokesman Gregory Jarboe, The Personal Computing Show was unsuccessful due to its relegation to odd channels and timeslots.[6] When Ziff Davis' sale to investment firm Forstmann Little & Company was announced in October 1994, a small Foster City-based television operation named "ZD-TV" was listed as a company asset.[7]
In April 1996, Ziff Davis announced the establishment of ZDTV as a San Francisco-based unit specializing in the production of television and internet broadcasts, which would allow the publisher to showcase its products. Its first project was to develop The Site, a daily hour-long prime time news show co-hosted by Soledad O'Brien about the increasing social and economic effects of technology. The program aired on the cable news network MSNBC, which launched on July 15, 1996.[8][9] It was the third San Francisco-based television program specializing in technology after CNET Central and Cyberlife.[10] According to Ziff Davis chief executive Larry Wangberg,[6] San Francisco was chosen as ZDTV's headquarters for its proximity to Silicon Valley and easy access to Multimedia Gulch-based talent.[11]
On May 6, 1997, Ziff Davis announced its plan to launch ZDTV as a 24-hour interactive cable network specializing in computers and the Internet. The publisher put $100 million behind the project and planned to debut the ZDTV channel in early 1998. Projected programming for the channel included talk shows on the impact of technology, business-oriented shows evaluating investments in high-tech stocks, and reviews of software and hardware.[12] Children's programming was also planned for the weekends.[13] The channel had 11 initial charter advertisers, including IBM, Gateway 2000, Microsoft, and Charles Schwab.[12] Ziff Davis chairman and CEO Eric Hippeau cited the increasing presence of computers in cable television homes and workspaces as motivation for filling the niche of programming about computers, saying "This is a huge audience and it will only get bigger".[13] Wangberg, who would be made the network's CEO, proclaimed Ziff Davis' ambition of ZDTV becoming "to computing what CNN is to news, what ESPN is to sports".[11] Although Ziff Davis intended to continue producing The Site for MSNBC following ZDTV's launch,[14] the show was canceled in September 1997 as a result of the network's shift toward an all-news format.[6][15] In December 1997, Ziff Davis revealed at the Western Cable Trade Show in Anaheim that it had secured agreements with four cable operators to carry the network: Prime Cable in Las Vegas, Harron Communications in Detroit, Televue in Georgia, and Prestige Cable in Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland.[6]
ZDTV
ZDTV logo
ZDTV was initially set to launch at the end of 1998's first quarter, but was delayed by Ziff Davis' initial public offering, which was announced on February 18.[11] The network launched on Monday May 11, 1998, on cable systems in Las Vegas, Detroit, parts of Georgia near Atlanta and parts of Maine.[16] An early adopter of ZDTV was Paul Allen's Charter Communications, which began carrying the channel in Newnan, Georgia in July 1998.[17] On August 1, 1998, ZDTV was broadcast in its native San Francisco when the channel struck a deal with DirecTV to become available on Channel 273 via the providers' satellite dishes.[18] In November 1998, Allen's holding company Vulcan Ventures invested $54 million in ZDTV, granting it a 33 percent stake in the network.[19]
Although ZDTV was critically acclaimed, it struggled to gain a foothold in AT&T/TCI cable lineups,[20] and was deemed unprofitable. In an effort to sell company assets to reduce debt and boost its share price,[21] Ziff Davis put ZDTV up for sale on July 16, 1999. In November 1999, Vulcan purchased the remaining two-thirds in a transaction that was completed on January 21, 2000. The deal (which permitted the network to retain its name) was worth $204.8 million.[20][22] On August 21, 2000, ZDTV announced that it would be changing its name to TechTV the following month, and would simultaneously be added to AT&T and Time Warner Cable's digital cable lineups.[23][24]
TechTV
On September 18, 2000, ZDTV was renamed TechTV, and a new on-air strategy was announced along with several new series including the music-technology series, AudioFile. Soon, TechTV made a huge commitment to enter into live broadcasting when it launched a nine-hour experimental news program called TechLive in April 2001. The show, which catered to day traders and business types, never caught on with TechTV's audience. In November 2001, following a massive round of layoffs, TechLive was divided into three one-hour shows. In the spring of 2002, TechLive was cut further into just one thirty-minute daily news magazine show, with a focus less on tech news and more on how technology changed people's lives.
Beginning March 15, 2001, TechTV experienced repeated layoffs.[25] In 2002, Silicon Spin (an opinion forum hosted by PC Magazine editor John C. Dvorak from the original ZDTV launched in May 1998) and AudioFile (a show for digital music enthusiasts launched in August 2000) were canceled, with its hosts being absorbed onto other network programs. 2003 saw the introduction of several new shows (such as Performance, Robot Wars, and Unscrewed with Martin Sargent).
In late 2001 and early 2002, many Comcast cable systems dropped TechTV from their channel lineups. At the time, some viewers speculated that this was done to eliminate a competitor to the Comcast-owned G4. When Comcast's G4 Media acquired TechTV and merged it with G4 in 2004, a second theory emerged, which suggested that Comcast's actual motive was to lower TechTV's value, and ultimately its asking price.
TechTV was also broadcast over the air on KTQW in Wichita, Kansas until the TechTV name was dropped during the G4 merger.[26]
International distribution
A Canadian version of TechTV launched on September 7, 2001, as a joint venture of TechTV, Rogers Media, and Shaw Communications. The channel would later become G4techTV Canada to coincide with the American merger of TechTV and G4. The channel would change its name once again in mid-2009 to G4 Canada. In 2004, TechTV launched on Foxtel Digital in Australia. After the merger with G4, TechTV (then called G4techTV) left Australia lineups as its international feed ceased. On Malaysia's ASTRO platform, repeats of the international feed was run for some time after the international feed ceased before starting to import G4TV programming and retransmitting them locally on the same channel as the public educational service TV Pendidikan from 2002 to 2006. In Japan, Sony's So-net channel aired several TechTV programs until the fall of 2005 (they aired reruns after May 2004). In New Zealand, TechTV aired on Saturn Communications's channel 34 until May 2004. In addition to those countries, TechTV was broadcast internationally in the United Kingdom.
Merger and consolidation
On March 25, 2004, Comcast'sG4 gaming channel announced a merger with TechTV. This move became hugely controversial among loyal fans of TechTV and Leo Laporte, who, because of a contract dispute with Vulcan, left the channel. Shows with Laporte, including The Screen Savers and Call for Help, continued on with remaining staff taking over his hosting duties.
Around May 6, 2004, G4 announced the termination of 250 employees from the San Francisco office by July 16, 2004, allowing approximately 80 to 100 employees to transition to G4's main office in Los Angeles if they agreed to relocate there.[27] Shows from TechTV that were not redundant to G4's offerings continued on until July, when the closing of the TechTV Offices would close the respective stages for these shows in turn.
On May 10, 2004, G4 Media completed the acquisition of TechTV from Vulcan. G4techTV was launched in the U.S. on May 28, 2004. This led to the cancellation of many of the TechTV channels throughout carriers across the world (e.g.: systems with both channels active, systems limiting Comcast's number of channels on their lineup, etc.) On January 3, 2005, TechTV International began airing select programs from G4techTV. After the closure deadline passed on July 16, 2004, only Los Angeles produced shows would air on the new channel. The final production originating at TechTV in San Francisco was the September 2, 2004, episode of The Screen Savers (which was taped on July 16, 2004).
On February 15, 2005, the TechTV brand was dropped from the United States G4techTV feed, leaving the network name as G4 – Video Game Television which also echoed the changes in programming made to the channel due to the merger for both G4's original offering and the greatly diminished TechTV originated shows (exceptions noted below); after that, G4 went through a rebranding and changed most of its programming to position itself as a male-oriented network.
TechTV shows and personalities who survived the merger
The Screen Savers survived somewhat in Attack of the Show!, remaining an open-format hosted talk show. On March 17, 2005, the staff made an announcement that they intended to reformat The Screen Savers to better fit the network, including the change of its name (a computer term for a program to protect a monitor from burned-in imagery, which no longer fit when The Screen Savers stopped covering computer self-help and DIY programming). It changed to Attack of the Show (a reference to the Star Wars prequel "Attack of the Clones"), and while still covering technology to a lesser extent, it also covers autos, sports, movies, new products and pop culture. Kevin Rose, Sarah Lane, and Brendan Moran stayed on after the transition to Attack of the Show for a short time, but Rose left on May 27, 2005, and both Lane and Moran left after their marriage on April 6, 2006, marking the final TechTV on-camera staff's exit from the program.
Six TechTV personalities, Kevin Rose, Sarah Lane, Morgan Webb, Adam Sessler, Chi-Lan Lieu and Brendan Moran relocated to Los Angeles to join G4. Only two TechTV shows, Anime Unleashed and X-Play, survived the merger without any major changes. Anime Unleashed (and in turn, all of the anime series which aired on the block) was canceled in March 2006. X-Play was the last TechTV-created show in production under G4 until it was announced in late 2012 that it and Attack of the Show would both be cancelled in December 2012.
In April 2012, Sessler was let go from G4.[28][29] A proper reason was not given, however there have been rumors of a contractual dispute.[30] Sessler was the last of the original hosts from the initial launch of ZDTV in 1998. When the network withdrew all their live programming in December 2012, Blair Butler and Webb were the only remaining TechTV personalities working at G4.
Programs
The following is a partial list of programs aired by TechTV.
Original programming
AudioFile – a weekly program focusing on technology's increasing role in the music industry.[31]
Big Thinkers – a weekly interactive program that conducts interviews with the technology industry's visionaries.[31][32][33][34]
Call for Help – a prime-time interactive program in which viewers can call, email or netcam for assistance in solving computer problems.[31][32][33][34]
Computer Shopper – a weekly program that provides information about computer hardware and software products and how to buy them intelligently.[32]
CyberCrime – a weekly program that investigates dangers to computer users such as fraud, hacking, viruses, cybersex crimes, and invasions of privacy.[31][33][34][35]
Digital Avenue – a prime-time program in which manufacturers present in-depth demonstrations of their latest products.[32]
Eye Drops – a weekly showcase of computer-animated shorts.[36]
Internet Tonight – a prime-time program showcasing people and personalities who specialize in the Internet.[31][32][33]
Invent This! – a weekly prime-time program showcasing inventors.[34]
Microsoft Insider Live – a pair of special live events that aired on October 5 and November 2, 2002. Each event was an interactive broadcast that showcased five new products from Microsoft. The event offered product demos, giveaways and an insider look at Microsoft Research & Development.[37]
The Money Machine – a daytime program that gives expert financial advice concerning computers and the Internet.[32][33]
Nerd Nation – a weekly prime-time program focused on nerd sub-cultures.[38]
Performance – a weekly program covering technology's role in the world of sports.[39]
The Screen Savers – a prime-time program that covers the latest computing products and demonstrates their effective use at home and the workplace.[31][32][33][34]
Secret, Strange & True – a weekly program focusing on bio-technology.[40]
Silicon Spin – an interactive prime-time program in which computing industry leaders discuss current technology events and features viewer commentary through email, chat, and videophone.[31][32][33]
The Tech of: – a weekly prime-time program focusing on the workings of technology used in everyday life.[36]
TechLive – formerly ZDTV News (1998–2000) and TechTV News (2000–2001); a bi-daily news program covering current events of the technology industry.[31][32][33][34]
The Technotainment Zone – a weekly morning program in which Best Buy customers discuss the convergence of the technology and entertainment industries and how Best Buy can help get them the most that both industries have to offer.[40]
Titans of Tech – a weekly series of biographies profiling figures in the technology industry.[41]
Unscrewed with Martin Sargent – a daily showcase of "the darker, funnier, sexier world of technology and the Internet".[39]
Wired for Sex – a weekly prime-time program focusing on technology's role in human sexuality.[39]
Working the Web – a weekly program that provides information, advice, and resources for entrepreneurs and emerging companies to set up businesses on the Internet.[33][42]
X-Play – formerly GameSpot TV (1998–2001) and Extended Play (2001–2003); a weekly program that provides reviews, tips and tricks, and previews for contemporary video games.[31][32][33][39]
You Made It – a program that showcases homemade netcam videos.[33][43]
Zip File – an abridged selection of ZDTV's other programs hosted by animated characters Dash and Tilde.[44]
Acquired programming
Anime Unleashed – a programming block of science fiction anime.[45]
ZDTV's original executive lineup consisted primarily of television veterans; CEO Larry Wangberg was previously CEO of Times Mirror Cable Television, senior vice president of programming Greg Drebin previously served the same position at MTV, and news director Harry Fuller previously worked for KPIX-TV and KGO-TV.[54]
Many former hosts of TechTV programs have gone on to create new programs distributed online: Leo Laporte's This Week in Tech, Chris Pirillo's live.pirillo.com, Systm, thebroken, From The Shadows, commandN, Diggnation, Infected with Martin Sargent, DL.TV, CrankyGeeks, InDigital, East Meets West, and Weezy and the Swish are some of the shows produced by alumni.
Leo Laporte hosted Call for Help which aired until April 6, 2007. It was revamped and renamed The Lab with Leo Laporte and was shown on G4techTV Canada and the Australian HOW TO Channel. The show was filmed in HD and Laporte hoped to have it picked up by an American network. The series has since been cancelled due to poor ratings.
Kevin Rose, who worked on "The Screen Savers" and "Unscrewed with Martin Sargent", co-founded Digg which he featured on "The Screen Savers" in 2004,[55] was hired by Google in March 2012, along with many of the employees at Rose's mobile app incubator called Milk.[56]
Becky Worley, tech contributor for ABC's Good Morning America
Liam Mayclem, Formerly Correspondent Internet Tonight Host Audiofile NOW KCBS FOODIE CHAP KCBS RADIO
Tammy Cavadias, Community Production Manager
Virtual characters
Many of the founding staff of ZDTV had previously worked on MSNBC's The Site, which featured Dev Null, a virtual animated character voiced by Leo Laporte who interacted with host Soledad O'Brien. Improving on the technology used for Dev Null, ZDTV created two animated virtual characters who appeared as hosts for the network. Dash (voiced first by Paul McKinney and later by Patrick Flick and Chris Manners, with body performance by Jessa Brie Moreno and Slater Penney) and Tilde (voiced by Kate Botello and later by Laura LeBleu, with body performance by Jessa Brie Moreno and Slater Penney, in some support chat appearances Tilde was played by Theresa Quinn, Asst Production Manager) appeared in on-air and online promos for the network. Dash also appeared as a virtual correspondent on the show Internet Tonight in a segment called "The Homepage Hall of Fame" and briefly as the host of "Dash's Animation House."[57]
Reunion
A possible TechTV reunion was announced by Leo Laporte in his blog[58] on July 21, 2006. Further details were also announced by Chris Pirillo on his blog.[59] Nothing further has been mentioned about a reunion of TechTV staff since 2006. Laporte and Patrick Norton, however, did team up for a final skit on the series finale of Attack of the Show.
CNET TV, TechTV's primary competition until the 2004 merger with G4. CNET TV once aired syndicated on USA Network and the Sci-Fi Channel (SyFy); it now runs as an online video network and through on-demand service with cable and satellite.
Related Research Articles
The Screen Savers is an American TV show that aired on TechTV from 1998 to 2005. The show launched concurrently with the channel ZDTV on May 11, 1998. The Screen Savers originally centered on computers, new technologies, and their adaptations in the world. However, after it was taken over by G4, the show became more general-interest oriented and focused somewhat less on technology. The final episode of The Screen Savers aired on March 18, 2005. Repeat episodes continued to air until March 25, 2005 when its replacement program Attack of the Show! began 3 days later on March 28, 2005. Two spiritual successors to The Screen Savers, This Week in Tech on the TWiT Network with Leo Laporte and Tekzilla on Revision3 with Patrick Norton, were started after the original show concluded. On April 19, 2015, Leo Laporte announced The New Screen Savers, which began airing on TWiT network May 2, 2015.
Morgan Ailis Webb is a former co-host and senior segment producer of the G4 show X-Play. She was previously the host of the podcast WebbAlert and a monthly columnist for the United States edition of FHM, where she contributed a monthly video game column titled "Tips from the Gaming Goddess". She began working at independent game studio Bonfire Studios in March 2017 in a production role.
Martin Sargent is an American television personality and was co-host of the This WEEK in FUN podcast with Sarah Lane. He is most well known from his time as a Segment Producer on TechTV's The Screen Savers and later as the host of his own late night talk show Unscrewed with Martin Sargent.
John C. Dvorak is an American columnist and broadcaster in the areas of technology and computing. His writing extends back to the 1980s, when he was a regular columnist in a variety of magazines. He was vice president of Mevio, and has been a host on TechTV and TWiT.tv. He is currently a co-host of the No Agenda podcast.
Catherine Michelle Schwartz is an American television presenter. She was formerly a co-host on the TechTV television program Call for Help with Chris Pirillo and Leo Laporte.
Xplay was a TV program about video games. The program, known for its reviews and comedy skits, aired on G4 in the United States and had aired on G4 Canada in Canada, FUEL TV in Australia, Ego in Israel, GXT in Italy, MTV Russia & Rambler TV in Russia, NET 25 & Solar Sports in the Philippines, and Adult Swim and MuchMusic in Latin America.
Leo Laporte is the former host of The Tech Guy weekly radio show and founder of TWiT.tv, an Internet podcast network focusing on technology. He is also a former TechTV technology host (1998–2008) and a technology author. On November 19, 2022, actor, writer, musician, and comedian Steve Martin called into Laporte's radio show to announce Leo's retirement from The Tech Guy radio show. Laporte's last new radio show was December 18, 2022 with reruns for the remainder of the year. Rich DeMuro later appeared on the show to announce that he will be taking over in January with a weekly show, recorded on Saturdays, called "Rich On Tech."
Adam Sessler is an American video game journalist, television personality and consultant. He is best known as the host for the video game review series Xplay and the editor-in-chief for G4's video game section. Upon his departure from G4 in April 2012, Sessler was its longest-tenured television personality, having originally been hired by its predecessor ZDTV in 1998.
G4 was an American pay television and digital network owned by NBCUniversal and later Comcast Spectacor that primarily focused on video games.
G4techTV was an American cable and satellite channel resulting from a merger between Comcast-owned G4 and TechTV. The network officially launched on May 28, 2004.
Fresh Gear is a television program on ZDTV then known as TechTV that showcased the latest in personal technology. It was hosted by Stephanie Siemiller and Chris Leary. The original hosts were Jim Louderback and Sumi Das.
Amber Dawn MacArthur is a Canadian television and netcasting personality, bestselling author of two books, and keynote speaker. MacArthur is the former co-host of BNN's App Central and Bloomberg Brink, G4TechTV's Call for Help, and TWiT's The Social Hour. She was the most followed Canadian television personality on Twitter in 2008. In 2018, she was named DMZ's 30 inspirational women making a difference in tech.
Kate Botello is a former American television personality best known for her work on the San Francisco, California-based ZDTV.
G4 Media, LLC is an in-name only unit of NBCUniversal Television and Streaming which maintains the programming of G4, a defunct 24-hour cable and satellite channel dedicated to video games, along with its former competitor, TechTV/ZDTV. NBCUniversal holds a controlling interest in G4 Media, with Dish Network holding a minority interest of approximately 12% because its former parent company held a minority interest in TechTV and owned Dish Network. Prior to the Comcast/NBCUniversal merger, Comcast owned the network, previously named G4 Media, Inc.
Internet Tonight was a television program on the cable network ZDTV. The show combined the "effervescent moxie" of Michaela Pereira with the "dry wit" of Scott Herriott, to bring the viewers the latest in Internet trends, humor, and news. Due to the production value it was called the "absolute slickest show [TechTV] had" but was canceled when "Paul [Allen] took a dislike to the show ... and just killed it"
The Site is an hour-long TV program devoted to the Internet revolution. It debuted in July 1996 with MSNBC's launch, and aired Monday through Saturday, reaching 35 million homes. Soledad O'Brien hosted The Site, along with her animated co-host Dev Null, voiced by Leo Laporte.
David Lawrence Prager is one of the co-founders and Vice President of Special Projects for Revision3. He has also worked for ZDTV, TechTV, and G4.
Alex Ben Lindsay is an American computer graphics and video production specialist. He is also the founder of the Pixel Corps and dvGarage which were both companies involved with computer graphics, computer animation and video production.
James Louderback is the CEO of VidCon, and was previously the CEO of Revision3. He has had numerous jobs in media companies involved in technology, most notably with TechTV and editor-in-chief of PC Magazine. He is also well known as the television host of TechTV's Fresh Gear for three years from 1998 to 2000.
The Tech Guy was a widely syndicated US radio show hosted by Leo Laporte, formerly of TechTV and later with TWiT.tv. The show, which was first exclusively broadcast on KFI 640 AM in Los Angeles, was picked up for syndication by Premiere Networks in February 2007. Laporte streamed video of his side of the show on TWiT Live, including caller audio. The show was available live on Saturdays and Sundays at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time.
G4 Canada websiteArchived November 22, 2018, at the Wayback Machine , which identified as G4techTV until June 2009. Continued to host Leo Laporte's TV shows (Call for Help, The Lab) until cancelled in 2008 after sale to Rogers Comm., and shares programming from American-produced shows from Comcast, Turner Broadcasting and other networks. Owned by Rogers Communications.
DigitalLife TV – Targeted to replace the former TechTV network with the original concept, ownership, and hosts. The network went offline in 2009, with all hosts now employed on Revision3.
Revision3 – An online video network co-founded by Kevin Rose covering technology. Features Tekzilla with Patrick Norton formerly of The Screen Savers, and diggnation.
TWiT.TV (This Week in Tech) –Leo Laporte's podcast and online video network aimed at filling the void left by TechTV. Also hosted This Week in Fun with Sarah Lane and Martin Sargent, until it was put on indefinite hiatus in January 2010.
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