Esquire has announced that it’s dropping its pay TV channel and will focus entirely on a streaming version that can be seen at Esquire.com, and on an app, this spring

The three-year-old channel, a partnership of NBC and Hearst, targets men with a mixture of programming devoted to lifestyle activities, alcohol and, yes,women.

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However, after AT&T and DIRECTV announced in December it was dropping Esquire, it seemed a matter of time that the network would seek an alternative way to deliver content.

Charter just dropped Esquire as part of its new carriage deal with NBC, and Dish also jettisoned Esquire late last year, which means that the channel lost access to nearly 60 million homes in just a few months.

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Esquire’s departure is the latest blow to the niche TV category which has also seen such channels as Pivot and Al-Jazeera America close their doors in recent months.

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While once highly coveted by pay TV operators, the niche channel is now finding it increasingly difficult to land or maintain spots in pay TV lineups because the operators are looking to cut programming costs.

— Phillip Swann

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