Film production company Participant Media will shutter its Pivot cable network after just three years on the air. Variety first broke the story, attributing the swift demise of the millennial-focused channel to its launch during a period in which its youthful target audience was turning to streaming services and on-demand viewing. “Looking at the environment, we asked ourselves, ‘Can we compete in this market as a standalone cable television network?’” said Pivot CEO David Linde to Variety. “The answer was that we would not have been sufficiently competitive to achieve our larger ambition.”
Participant failed to find a buyer for Pivot, which was launched after Participant purchased the faltering networks Documentary Channel and Halogen TV for an undisclosed amount. The production company also had trouble attracting a strategic partner, with such companies as Discovery Communications, A+E Networks, and 21st Century Fox passing on the opportunity.
Participant’s decision to turn away from Pivot means the end of its original series, which included Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s crowd-sourced variety show HitRecord On TV. The company was mum on the future of its critically-acclaimed foreign acquisitions, including twee comedy Please Like Me and Arctic murder mystery Fortitude, which now have no American home for their respective fourth and second seasons.
Pivot will stop broadcasting on an undisclosed date this fall.