Esquire Network
Coming this summer, the G4 network will be rebranded the Esquire Network, the only television network aimed at the full, multi-faceted lives of today’s modern men. Esquire Network will expand on G4’s foundation of games, gear and gadgets to reflect the broad range of interests, passions and aspirations that define men today. Esquire Network’s programming will capture the classic voice, impeccable style and unmistakable wit that have come to define Esquire, the original men’s magazine and premier authority on contemporary man. Diverse program categories and genres will feature not only gaming and technology, but also entertainment, food, fashion, women, humor, travel, competition, danger and more.
The network will feature a blend of unscripted and scripted series, and movies and specials that appeal to today’s man. Partnering with the industry’s top producers and talent, the Esquire Network team is developing a slate of engaging all-new original series such as Knife Fight, a passionate celebration of food, executive produced by Drew Barrymore, Flower Films and Authentic Entertainment. Hosted by “Top Chef” winner Ilan Hall, Knife Fight is an underground, after-hours cooking competition where talented chefs go head to head in front of a rowdy crowd of celebrities, critics and die-hard foodies. Another original series, The Getaway, is executive produced by Anthony Bourdain and Zero Point Zero and features travel-loving, well known personalities – people deservedly famous for excellence in their fields – who take viewers to their favorite city on the planet, giving the insiders’ track on their top spots to eat, drink, shop and hang out.
Fan favorite competition series American Ninja Warrior will return for its fifth season, to air this summer on Esquire Network and NBC. Additionally, Esquire Network will complement its slate of original programming with ambitious and witty scripted series that include NBC’s Emmy-nominated comedy, Parks and Recreation, and the critically acclaimed series from STARZ, Party Down. Additional programming announcements will be made in the coming weeks.
Esquire Network will offer a full web and mobile experience, linked to the popular men’s destination website Esquire.com. The network’s new website will feature original web series that integrate with the network’s brand and programming, dedicated mobile apps that provide enhanced digital experiences for original programs, and a substantial social presence in support of the new network. Full episodes will be available via the TV Everywhere initiative and Video On Demand.
Executives:
http://www.nbcumv.com/
· Bonnie Hammer, Chairman, NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment Group
· Catherine Dunleavy, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment and Cable Studios
· James Lichtman, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, NBCUniversal Television Entertainment
· Cory Shields, Executive Vice President, Communications, NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment and Cable Studios
· Jean Guerin, Senior Vice President, Communications, NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment Group
· Adam Stotsky, General Manager, Esquire Network
· Adam Stotsky, General Manager, Esquire Network
· Matt Hanna, Head of Original Programming, Esquire Network
· Matt Monos, Head of Programming and Acquisitions, Esquire Network
· Katherine Nelson, Head of Communications, Esquire Network
· Lorenzo de Guttadauro, SVP, Brand and Creative, Esquire Network
IN THE MEDIA:
· New York Times
In Makeover, a Channel Takes Its Cue From Esquire (2/10/2013)
Esquire, the magazine that has relied on the printed page for the last 80 years, is about to make a move into television.
On Monday, NBCUniversal will announce that it has concluded a deal with Hearst Magazines to rebrand one of NBC’s existing cable properties, the G4 network, as a new entity, the Esquire Network. The purpose: to refashion a cable channel that has been devoted to video gaming and devices into what NBC’s top cable executive described as “an upscale Bravo for men.”
Only last week, that executive, Bonnie Hammer, added Bravo — the network of “Real Housewives” and other female-centric lifestyle programming — to the portfolio of cable networks she oversees, so the juxtaposition is well timed. The Esquire Network will have its debut on April 22. It will be available in 62 million homes with cable or satellite service.
Neither side would discuss the specific financial arrangements, but said the renamed channel was not a joint venture. “We own G4,” Ms. Hammer said. “There are no ownership issues here.” David Carey, president of Hearst Magazines, the publisher of Esquire, said, “We have a strong interest in this succeeding.”
For viewers of the G4 network, the change will mean a sharp shift from the gaming-centered programming that attracted some men to shows that will draw an audience that NBC executives are persuaded Esquire stands for: “The modern man, what being a man today is all about,” as Adam Stotsky, the general manager of the new network, said.
Specifically, NBC is hoping to capture a more educated, affluent, sophisticated male viewer, who is not being served, as its research concluded, by the male-oriented, nonsports programming on cable channels like Discovery and Spike. “Much of today’s programming targets men in a one-dimensional way,” Mr. Stotsky said, with what he called “down-market shows” about “tattoos or pawn shops or storage lockers or axes or hillbillies.”
The Esquire Network will offer shows aimed at capturing other areas of interest, like cars, politics, world affairs, travel, fashion and cooking. David Granger, Esquire’s editor in chief, said he expected the programming to be “not duplicative of what readers find in the magazine, but in the same wheelhouse.”
Still, he said, there could be some crossovers. For example, “Funny Joke From a Beautiful Woman,” a feature Esquire has included on its Web site, could work as a piece between series, Mr. Granger said.
But Mr. Stotsky said his development staff would generate the program ideas. One of the network’s first original series is “Knife Fight,” a reality competition about “after-hours cook-offs” among young chefs.
The other original series is a travel show featuring celebrities called “The Getaway.”
Neither of those ideas originated in an editorial meeting at Esquire, but as Mr. Carey said, “This is not the magazine on TV; that would not work. The idea is to capture the essence of the magazine.”
Ms. Hammer called that the magazine’s brand. She said NBC had been aware of the limits of G4’s programming niche.
“Realistically, guys who are into gaming are not necessarily watching television,” she said. “If this was going to come under my portfolio, I’m a little brand crazy, so I said, let’s create a real brand, define a space, understand who we are programming for.”
Mr. Stotsky was responsible for seeking potential partners, and after some early discussions with Mr. Carey and Mr. Granger, an alliance with Esquire quickly gained traction.
Mr. Carey said that Hearst Magazines was “very focused on partnerships.” He pointed to its success in creating magazines tied to cable channels like the Food Network and HGTV.
Beyond the two original shows to be announced on Monday, the new channel will be filled in the short run with acquired programs — many, Mr. Stotsky said, from the library owned by NBCUniversal.
Two comedies that will appear are in the category of more sophisticated recent comedies, he said. One, “Parks and Recreation,” is owned by NBC and still on the broadcast network. It will get its first cable exposure on the Esquire Network.
The other, “Party Down,” about young caterers, achieved some cult status when it played on the cable network Starz three years ago.
That may mean that the actor Adam Scott, who stars in both shows, is something of the ideal for the Esquire Network. Mr. Stotsky said the channel is hoping to rely on the magazine’s “80 years of insight into what makes men tick.” He added, “When you look at Esquire as a print magazine, it’s really about a point of view, a way of life, telling intelligent witty stories.”
Mr. Granger said the magazine had survived both the media shift from print to digital and the recent recession, even managing to increase its circulation figure, to about 725,000 a month, in December. This was accomplished, he said, by creatively expanding onto digital platforms including Web site and tablet applications. The median age of the magazine’s reader in the last several years falls in the range of 38 to 40 years old, he said.
Mr. Carey said current circulation figures alone should not reflect the brand’s value. “It’s a funny thing about magazines,” he said. “The population of people who know and respect and see a particular magazine brand as an authority is usually much bigger than the audience of the actual magazine. I believe NBC saw the opportunity that the built-in awareness and respect for Esquire was multiples of the actual magazine audience.”
Mr. Carey said he “absolutely saw only an upside” for Esquire. “As we’ve seen from our other ventures, when you have both print and television working together, it clearly lifts all boats.”
· New York Times
A Network and Its Modern, Manly Goals: The Esquire Network Has Manly Goals (2/18/2013)
You can imagine the excitement among modern men when the announcement came last week that finally, more than 65 years into the television age, we are about to get a TV network intended just for us. So surprising was this news that we had not even prepared a suitable celebratory gesture. Chest bump? Too Neanderthalic. Forearm bash? Too steroidal. High five? Too unsophisticated. Fist bump? Too passive aggressive.
But celebrate we did, each in our own modern-manly way, because G4, a network that no one had ever heard of and apparently has something to do with video games, is going to be rebranded the Esquire Network. The new network, its general manager said, will be dedicated to “the modern man, what being a man today is all about.”
Whoo-hoo! Oh, wait; sorry. “Whoo-hoo” is too Cro-Magnon for a modern man. But we’re overjoyed, really we are. Because finally someone is going to explain what a modern man actually is.
The new network, an NBC property that will be a partnership with Esquire magazine, won’t go live until April 22. For now we have to be content with discovering what a modern man isn’t, by scrutinizing last week’s somewhat unspecific executive comments.
Bonnie Hammer, chairwoman of NBC’s cable group, described the new network as “an upscale Bravo for men,” which sounds great until you realize that Bravo is a trashier-than-it-used-to-be network with a female slant. So the comment is roughly like calling the new entity “a nonmusic CMT for Northerners.” Not very enlightening.
The new network’s general manager, Adam Stotsky, was more specific, saying that it will define us modern men as interested in something more than “tattoos or pawn shops or storage lockers or axes or hillbillies.”
Now we’re getting somewhere. The modern man, it appears, does not chop wood, frequent pawn shops or live like or near Jed Clampett. As for the tattoo thing, some of us wish we’d heard Mr. Stotsky’s clarifying remark before we got the “whoomp, there it is” tramp stamp back in 1993.
If we modern men are obsessed with learning what the Esquire Network is going to offer, it is because we have for decades been searching the television landscape in vain for guidance on what exactly it means to be a man in the postwar world.
Television has always broadcast shows geared to men of course. Live boxing was among the earliest types of programming, way back in the 1940s. Then came all sorts of shows — “Combat!” and “Rawhide” and the rest — featuring guys doing things guys do, like herding cattle and fighting. There was the genre known as jiggle TV, with attractive women in bikinis and such, and then in 1979 came ESPN and the sports explosion. Nowadays we have networks like Spike, with shows that include “Car Lot Rescue” — yes, it’s a TV show about car lots — and the recently announced “10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty,” which is just what it sounds like.
We modern men have watched all of this, but guiltily. It’s hard to shake the feeling that this programming is more premodern than modern, an effort to lure us back to the cave rather than into the glorious realm of higher possibilities that awaits us if we can just stop watching basketball, staring at bathing beauties and chasing possibly fictitious creatures through the woods.
Early indications are that the Esquire Network will be using a stealth approach to elevate our subspecies, because what has been announced so far is a type of television that, frankly, sounds an awful lot like the low-aspiration gunk that already exists.
One possible series, executives said, is “Knife Fight,” a cooking competition that seems as if it may be indistinguishable from the zillion other cooking shows already on television. Another is a travel show called “The Getaway,” which would be swell if there weren’t already an entire network called the Travel Channel.
Executives also suggested that a video feature from the magazine’s Web site called “Funny Joke From a Beautiful Woman” might have a place on the network. In the current installment of that feature, Jenna Dewan-Tatum, dressed as provocatively as any Charlie’s Angel ever was, tells a joke about nuns and hot dogs that will not be detailed here.
Presumably the strategy is to lure us modern men to the new network with shows that appeal to the familiar instincts, then gradually upgrade us to “Interesting Philosophical Discussion Point From a Plain-Looking but Extremely Intelligent Woman.” We’ll find out for sure in April. Which means there are only two months left to track down the elusive bigfoot. Hey, $10 million is $10 million.
· TIME
The Esquire Network: At Last, Another TV Channel for Men! (2/12/2013)
Guys! Do you wish you could watch more television, yet feel intimidated by the man-hostile environments of Spike TV, FX, various ESPNs, Fox Sports, Speed and Fuel TV? Well, you’re in luck! NBC Universal is finally creating a channel to target you, alongside all the other channels that target you.
NBC’s announcement on Monday confirmed an idea that had been floating in TV-industry reports for a while: in April, the company will rebrand G4, the gaming channel, into The Esquire Network—Esquire as in the magazine.
No offense to the many women who do far more gaming than I do, but I suspect that males were a not insignificant part of G4′s market to begin with. NBC Universal, however, sees more business potential in rebranding the channel as “an upscale Bravo for men,” which, despite the amount of actual Bravo I watch myself, I will endeavor not to take as an insult.
What’s more interesting here is the specific idea of manhood that NBC is building the channel around, and that it thinks there’s an audience for it. It’s been almost a decade since the old TNN channel was rebranded as Spike TV, which purported to be TV’s original channel for men. As I wrote at the time, Spike was already assuming a young-male identity that postdated classic men’s magazines like Esquire and GQ, with their aspirational, high-fashion and -culture masculinity.
Spike’s sensibility was more along the lines of Maxim–gadgets-and-girls-
NBC Universal says that Esquire won’t be programming shows for the new channel, just contributing the brand and cross-promotion. That’s just as well, since the turn-a-magazine-into-a-TV-
But NBCU must think the Esquire brand has some value to the channel—that a certain breed of upscale male viewer will see it as promising the kind of avuncular man’s-guide-to-life service that the magazine serves up alongside its long news features and the Funny Joke from a Beautiful Woman column. Will there be shows about buying the perfect tux? On mixing Hemingway’s favorite cocktail?
So far, the few announced series include Knife Fight, a competition among young chefs, and a travel show called The Getaway. Cooking, travel—those sound like things that could appeal to a certain breed of demographically attractive, metrosexual men, and things that the rest of the cable universe kind of provides already, no?
Maybe Esquire can discern the exact note of leather-and-bourbon masculinity that will tell men these are shows they’ve been missing in their lives. If not, at least NBC can fall back on the other “upscale Bravo for men” it owns. It’s called Bravo.
· Variety
Esquire TV Network Seems Out of Style (6/7/2013)
A cable channel joining forces with a magazine whose heyday extends beyond the era of “Mad Men?” And launching with a two-hour special in the middle of the fall season premiere frenzy by celebrating that title’s 80 years? (A far cry from when MTV threw up a middle finger at the music biz by debuting with a play of “Video Killed the Radio Star.”)
Now that takes testosterone.
Yes, you can color me skeptical. I mean no disrespect to Esquire, mind you — I’m a loyal subscriber — but I cannot figure out why the nation’s big entertainment congloms continue to launch machismo-tinged TV networks when, one can argue, men already have one. It’s called ESPN.
NBCUniversal is preparing to shut down its G4 cabler, inherited through Comcast’s acquisition of the Peacock, and in its place start a network using Hearst’s Esquire magazine as a “filter,” as Esquire net g.m. Adam Stotsky described it. Clearly, NBCU must feel it can make more hay off fashion-conscious, literary-minded, bourbon-swilling bikini-shot aficionados than it can from tech geeks, comicbook nerds and fans of “Cops” reruns.
Indeed, NBCU research suggested the G4 audience was an ephemeral one, devoted to gadgets and geekery but ready to move on from it in a flash. The Esquire audience still likes that stuff, but has the maturity (and income) to embrace more — and could be more palatable to advertisers seeking “a slightly more upscale, affluent, urban-dwelling guy,” Stotsky said.
Yet the Esquire network path isn’t the surest one. Other dude-TV entries, while sustainable, aren’t necessarily setting the world on fire. Viacom’s Spike has been around for some time, and is, as Variety’s AJ Marechal recently reported, looking to create an audience that is more gender balanced. Discovery’s Velocity, launched in 2011, is still an infant, albeit one that seems to like cars and sports.
You can’t dismiss the thinking behind this venture. NBCU already owns a passel of female-focused cablers: Bravo, Oxygen, Style. Its Syfy likely attracts similar folk as G4. So you put Esquire under the aegis of legendary programmer Bonnie Hammer and Stotsky, a former ad man who climbed aboard Syfy and promoted it in its Battlestar Galactica heyday, mix in deep-pocketed advertisers — Procter & Gamble’s Old Spice and Unilever’s Axe among them — who are spending more time trying to lure men, and see what shakes out.
Success, I’d argue, hinges on what Esquire means to the public at large. As David Granger, the magazine’s longtime editor points out, Esquire grabs “the high normal American man,” someone who’s curious and as interested in high-quality journalism as much as “funny jokes from a beautiful woman.” Granger is impressed by a coming show called “Horse Players” that examines life at the races, and would love to see a comedic program discussing the issues of the day for men and hosted by “a budding Seth Meyers.”
There’s a sizable contingent that sees Esquire’s appeal as broadest among guys who are pretty well worn. “Esquire would not be a typical brand for 18- to 25-year-olds to embrace, and it doesn’t seem they would easily have permission to extend there,” said Denis Riney, a senior partner at branding consultant Brandlogic. “I would guess Esquire TV would appeal to a more serious, contemplative person, one who can appreciate an evening of watching “Book Notes” on C-SPAN while cradling a Glenmorangie.”
And then there’s male remote-control behavior to consider. Guys have always hunted and gathered. If I want to see someone gorge on barbecue, I can find “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.” If I want sports, I’ve got umpteen options. Do I need everything on one network?
TV executives have long maintained viewers want their favorite stuff in a single place, and while that may be true for aficionados of cooking, mysteries or cartoons, it may not be the same for wide slices of demographic. When Viacom announced the launch of Spike in 2003, then-president Albie Hecht told the Wall Street Journal, “Here’s a chance for the modern man to get all of his interests served in one place.” Esquire is presenting that chance again, but I suspect guys grew accustomed to cobbling together their own TV regimen long ago.
