G4 Dropped from DIRECTV

EL SEGUNDO: DIRECTV has given the boot to the Comcast-owned channel G4, which caters to young men, claiming that interest in the network is too small to justify carriage.

In September, DIRECTV warned Comcast that it was going to drop the channel when their current contract expired at the end of the month. Comcast was able to persuade the provider to extend the contract through October, in hopes of reaching a new agreement.

DIRECTV’s new chief executive, Mike White, has indicated that he wants to find ways to cut programming costs, leading the satellite broadcaster to reevaluate what channels are essential and which can be dropped (G4 being among the latter). Comcast, however, claims that G4’s ratings have been on the rise, and has offered DIRECTV the same deal it has had to carry the network over he last few years.