Games-centric TV and streaming broadcaster G4TV has reportedly laid off between 20 and 30 members of staff this week.
That’s according to Kotaku, citing three sources familiar with the matter who say the redundancies came by surprise; some staff had even shown up on set to begin filming before being told their programming had been cancelled.
Affected staff are said to have been given between 16 weeks and six month severance pay, based on how long they’ve worked for G4TV parent company Comcast.
G4TV was originally launched in 2002, but shut down in 2014 as consumers and the industry shifted more towards online video content. It was relaunched in November 2021, with a mix of Twitch channels and cable TV programming.
The impact of this week’s layoffs, which come less than a year after network’s revival, is unclear, although one source told Kotaku they “can not imagine the company continuing to produce our slate of content without the people we lost today.”
Sources also tell the site that G4TV has been struggling financially, with managers told to find ways to cut costs.
Earlier this year, G4 president Russell Arons left the company and was replaced by Joe March, CEO of Comcast Spectator.
G4TV is not the only editorial outfit to be hit by layoffs in recent months. This morning, we reported Future has dismissed an unknown number of staff, and back in July, both GameByte parent Social Chain and Polygon owner Vox Media made redundancies.
