Citing a need to court a more sophisticated, educated male consumer, NBCUniversal will rebrand its videogame-focused G4 network. This isn’t all that surprising; gamers only have so much money and sophistication, and both of those things usually wind up decimated by new games.
What is surprising is that the broadcasting company has tapped Heart’s Esquire magazine to help G4 make the transition. Though it’s proven to be innovative amongst its print peers — moving to tablet and mobile much more athletically than other men’s mags in the space — this will mark the glossy’s first foray into television. If all goes according to plan, you’ll soon see the Esquire Network in your channel guide, and it’ll be “an upscale Bravo for men”.
That second bit confuses us a bit, because Bravo is pretty classy already, but we guess the bigwigs at NBC have their sights set even higher than cocktail-tossing competitions.
So what do you think: big moves for Esquire, or big mistake to cosign this new channel?
Read more of the story over at The New York Times, and get ready to tune in on April 22nd when the network will launch.
photo: Robert Caplin for the New York Times
