Say what you will about G4, it has been a long-standing oasis of cable coverage of the video games world and plenty of things that fall under the 'geek' banner. Its coverage of ComicCon is well-known, and "Attack of the Show" is a long-running hit. Variety is now reporting, however, that G4-owner NBC Universal will begin to focus the channel with less gaming and "geeky" content, instead zeroing in on "the modern male," in a direction "more reminiscent of GQ." Viewers of G4 from way back, however, would note that the channel has undergone several similar "mainstreaming" experiments since its launch in 2002 by Comcast as a competitor to TechTV, so the move is not surprising, nor has G4 as an entity served an actually "geeky" demographic in quite some time.

Now, who knows where or who this mythical "modern male" is but it's true that G4 has been less successful at positioning itself than its peers, such as Spike TV, as well as Discovery and the History Channel, whose audiences also skew male. From the sounds of the Variety report, this relaunch will also include a full rebranding treatment, but there is no word on the fate of specific programming, such as G4's most famous brand, AOTS, which lost popular host Olivia Munn in January of 2011 and Kevin Pereira in May of this year.

We have reached out to G4 for comment and will update this article as we get more information.