LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Imagine watching a white ball bouncing back and forth across a black TV screen, 24 hours a day, for a full week.

G4, a new cable channel devoted exclusively to video games that went live on Wednesday, plans to broadcast a live game of "Pong" -- widely considered the first consumer video game -- for seven days straight.

G4, backed by a $150 million investment from cable giant Comcast Corp. CMCSK.O , flipped the switch at 3 a.m. EDT with a total of 3 million subscribers on digital cable platforms from Comcast and Midwestern operator Insight.

The channel plans to offer 13 original weekly series, focusing on topics like sports games, gaming reviews, and hints and tricks for winning at popular video games. It is expected to have 350 to 400 hours of original content per year.

"Our mission is to capture all those elements of the video game business," G4 founder and Chief Executive Charles Hirschhorn told Reuters earlier this year.

The launch comes at a time when the video game industry is at the beginning of a multi-year growth cycle, with some analysts estimating the industry will see more than 20 percent growth for at least the next two years.