ZDTV

ZDTV
Personal Information
Years Active	1998-2014
BattleBots Information
Seasons	Long Beach 1999 (Webcast)

ZDTV, later known as TechTV and briefly, G4techTV was an American cable network which platformed a live webcast of the 1999 Long Beach event on their website. This was the first competition to take place under the BattleBots name, and the first of two which preceded Season 1.0 on Comedy Central.

The webcast covered both days of the event, spanning 12-4pm ET on August 14 and 6-10pm on August 15, 1999. The cable network A 30-second commercial launched to promote the webcast, advertising live chat functionality and featuring footage from US Robot Wars events held in years prior, held in San Francisco by Marc Thorpe.

The network would not pick up BattleBots after this event, however, with the 1999 Las Vegas event being on pay-per-view and five future seasons airing on Comedy Central.

Outside BattleBots

ZDTV was launched in May 1998 as a cable television channel focused primarily on technology. Originally owned by Ziff Davis Inc., hence the initials 'ZD' in its name, early programming included call-in computer help show Call for Help, financial advisory show The Money Machine and website review show Internet Tonight.

ZDTV was sold in August 2000 to Vulcan Ventures, owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who changed its name to TechTV. Under this name, the channel aired a live programming block known as TechLive and began airing internationally. In September 2001, TechTV Canada premiered. Among its new wave of programs, which included Thunderbirds, Future Fighting Machines and Max Headroom, the network picked up the British robotics show Techno Games. TechTV began airing episodes of the British show Robot Wars in 2003. This came after the cancelation of TNN's American spin-off, Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors, a year earlier. TechTV would also acquire the rights to show a selection of science-fiction films.

The network changed hands again in 2004, merging with the Comcast-owned G4 Media and becoming G4techTV. This merger would not last long, with the 'TechTV' name being phrased out by 2005 as G4 looked to target a younger audience and honing in on gaming rather than technology in general.

Replacing TechTV entirely, G4 would continue until they announced plans to cease operations from December 31, 2014. The channel was briefly relaunched in November 2021, but dissolved again just a year later in November 2022.

See Also

• TechTV (Robot Wars)