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Whatever Pivot TV was, it no longer is

Whatever Pivot TV was, it no longer is

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The 'disruptive' cable network for millennials is shutting down

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Even Joseph Gordon-Levitt's charm can't keep a struggling media business afloat. Three years after it launched, the millennial-focused Pivot TV cable network — home to little-watched shows like Gordon-Levitt's crowd-sourced HitRecord on TV — is shutting down. The news was first reported by The Wrap, with Pivot's owner, Participant Media, confirming the move.

Commenting on the closure, Participant Media's CEO David Linde said: "As the media landscape changes, we have been evaluating how we fulfill our mission to entertain and inspire social action around the world’s most pressing issues. That process has led us to the decision to move away from owning and operating a cable network." Production will shut down some time between now and the end of the year.

Pivot TV's aim was to "entertain and inspire social action"

Participant Media's press release notes that the landscape for cable networks has become "significantly more challenging" since the cable network launched in 2013. The company cites changes including the consolidation of cable TV distributors (most likely a reference to the recent $4.4 billion acquisition of Starz by Liongate), and the continuing shift of consumer attention to other mediums. Pivot may have tried to attract younger viewers with its mission to "entertain and inspire social action" (as well as its reruns of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Friday Night Lights), but that wasn't enough to prevail against 2016's turbulent media landscape. Millennials, you've claimed another scalp.