G4 MEDIA

G4 Media Incorporation

G4 Media Incorporation

Introduction

G4 Media, Inc. is the parent company of G4, a 24-hour cable and satellite channel originally dedicated to video games. NBC Universal holds a controlling interest in G4 Media, with Dish Network holding a minority interest of approximately 12%. Prior to the Comcast NBC merger, Comcast owned the network. In early 2004, G4 Media announced the purchase of a controlling interest in TechTV. On May 28, 2004, G4 and TechTV merged into a hybrid network called G4techTV. EchoStar (which held a minority interest in TechTV and owned Dish Network) retained partial ownership of the combined entity. The new network leaned more toward the gaming programming that was featured on G4 than the technology side that was featured on TechTV, prompting petitions and complaints from disaffected TechTV fans. The network is currently called G4, and now focuses on general male interest programming. G4 Media, Inc used to hold a 33.3% minority interest in G4 Canada, G4's Canadian counterpart (Parsons, 2007).

Discussion and Analysis

G4 Media, a 24-hour cable and satellite channel originally dedicated to video games. G4 Media launched the first service to take advantage of satellite distribution of unique, film-based programming to local cable franchises nationwide. Leasing a commercial satellite transponder and using it to beam its signal across the satellite footprint, G4 Media was only the first of cable's rapidly expanding specialized services that began to find a niche. Simultaneously, fiber-optic technology— sending data through bundled glass fibers in place of the old copper wire—allowed cable systems to expand their channel capacity exponentially. These developments depended on the vital technology of the geostationary satellite. The first satellites used for communication purposes were launched in the early 1960s by U.S. telecommunications companies such as AT&T, Hughes, and RCA. COMSAT (the Communications Satellite Corporation) was formed in the United States in 1962 with the encouragement and participation of the U.S. government, much as RCA had been formed earlier at the outset of radio, to coordinate American satellite development, investment, and use (Streeter, 2003).

National Broadcasting Company (NBC) holds a controlling interest in G4 Media, with Dish Network holding a minority interest of approximately 12%. Dish network could be set to receive the continuous signal of one satellite in one particular place in the sky and never be moved. This made distribution and reception of satellite signals much more regular and reliable. Early satellites transmitted back to Earth on the C-band, between 4 and 6 gigahertz (GHz), and required enormous, bulky dishes for reception; more recent ones operate on the higher frequency Ku-band, between 11 and 14 GHz, and enable the use of tiny, pizza-size receiving dishes. Most satellites contain 24 transponders, or individual channel transmitters, though today's technology allows each transponder to be split to handle two or more separate signals. NBC quickly became the major player, exerting a strong oligopolistic control over radio broadcasting in the United States (Parsons, 2007).

Prior to the Comcast NBC merger, Comcast owned the ...