| Channel Four Television |
Channel Four was created by an Act of Parliament and started broadcasting on November 2, 1982. Unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and all programming is financed through its commercial activities, which include advertising.
It is a publicly owned corporation whose board is appointed by OFCOM, in agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport. Like the BBC it is a Public Service Broadcaster and has a public service remit. It also has an obligation to provide schools programming. |
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History |
In 1980 Britain had three television channels: BBC1, BBC2 and ITV. The 1980 Broadcasting Act began the process of adding a fourth, and Channel 4 was formally created by an Act of Parliament in 1982. After some weeks of test broadcasts it began scheduled transmissions on November 2, 1982.
From the very begining, the channel set out to provide an alternative to the existing three channels. In doing so it sometimes, in the eyes of its critics overstepped the boundaries of acceptability, but it has arguably led to a liberalisation of the UK television industry. Programming such as the "red triangle" series, The Tube, and Network 7 often straddled the boundary between being pioneering and being beyond the pale.
Initially, the station was managed by the Independent Broadcasting Authority through subscription from the ITV franchise holders.
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In return, advertising on the channel (and advertising revenue) was handled by the ITV regions, thus overcoming any problems a public service broadcaster might have in attracting commercial advertisers.
The 1990 Broadcasting Act altered the organisation of Channel 4, transforming it into a public corporation with a board partly appointed by the new Independent Television Commission. While its original remit was preserved, the channel now had to manage its own advertising (a potential disaster for a public service broadcaster), with a 'safety net' guaranteed minimum income should the revenue fall too low (which it so far has not). This safety net was funded by large insurance payments which the company had to make to the ITV companies. These premiums were phased out by the government in 1998. |
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| E4 |
E4 is a British digital television channel launched as a pay-tv companion to Channel 4 on 18 January 2001. The "E" stands for entertainment, and the channel is mainly aimed at the lucrative 18 - 35 age group. Programming includes US imports such as Friends, ER, The O.C., The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Desperate Housewives, One Tree Hill, Scrubs and Lost, mostly already on Channel 4, plus lots of home-grown chat and reality shows. Some of the imports are screened on E4 ahead of their Channel 4 broadcasts.
Every year, whilst the Big Brother game show airs, E4 devotes much of its schedule to Big Brother programming such as live coverage from inside the house, interactive features that give access to additional camera angles within the house although this feature has now been discontinued. The channel also allows Big Brother voting options and Big Brother "catch up" shows (i.e., repeats). Big Brother coverage is among the highest rating programming on the channel, and comes at a time when most of the year's American imports have ended. |
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| On 16 December 2004, Channel 4 announced that it would move the subscription channel to digital terrestrial television. It was a part of the Top Up TV subscription scheme until 27 May 2005, when the channel joined Freeview and became free-to-air. This decision was made in the hope of attracting a larger audience and increasing advertising revenue. |
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| More4 |
More4 is a digital television channel produced by United Kingdom broadcaster Channel 4 that launched on October 10th 2005. It is on Freeview, and also carried on UK satellite broadcaster Sky Digital (Timeshift has been available on Sky Digital since Monday 17th October 2005) and on UK and Republic of Ireland cable networks.
More4 centres around lifestyle, documentary, and arts programming, and will compete with the BBC's similar offering, BBC4. More4 airs from the late afternoon (starting at 4 pm) until 6 am the following morning. The channel's annual budget is £33 million, of which £20 million is earmarked for original programming. Peter Dale, Channel 4's current head of documentary events and the new channel's chief said it would be "television that restarts the conversation".
Despite initial advertising and official internet communication that it would be free-to-air on satellite television, More4 is encrypted under Sky Digital's pay TV scheme. Channel 4 blame the encryption on BSkyB, Sky Digital's operator, and not themselves. More 4 remains a free-to-air channel on Digital terrestrial television. |
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| Website: More4 |
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| Film Four |
Channel 4 launched a subscription film channel, FilmFour, in November 1998. It is available on analogue and digital satellite television and digital cable.
Companion services, such as FilmFour +1, FilmFour World and FilmFour Extreme were also available on some digital services. In 2003 Extreme and World were discontinued, and replaced with Film Four Weekly. |
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| Channel 4 has had a long record of success in funding the production of films through Channel Four Films, later renamed FilmFour in 1998 to coincide with the launch of its digital channels. Among its biggest successes are The Madness of King George, The Crying Game, and Four Weddings and a Funeral. However, this dedicated film-making wing was effectively closed in 2002 as a cost-cutting measure in the face of substantial losses. |
| Website: Film Four |
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| Programming |
One of the channel's strengths is its comedy. In the early days they screened The Comic Strip Presents, a highly innovative series of hour-long one-off comedies produced by a rotating line-up of alternative comedians such as Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Peter Cook, Peter Richardson, and Alexei Sayle. The Tube and Friday Night Live also launched the careers of a number alternative comedians. Latterly they have aired cutting-edge comedy shows such as Brass Eye, The Mark Thomas Product, Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights, Drop the Dead Donkey, Desmond's and arguably its biggest mainstream hit Father Ted.
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The first voice ever heard on Channel 4 was that of continuity announcer Paul Coia, who intoned, "Good afternoon. It's a pleasure to be able to say to you: Welcome to Channel Four", before heading into a montage of clips from its programmes set to the station's David Dundas-penned signature tune, Fourscore, which would form the basis of the station's jingles for its first decade. The first programme to air on the channel was the teatime game show Countdown, produced by Yorkshire Television and fronted by Richard Whiteley; it is still running as of 2005 and is contracted until 2009.
In contrast to the other terrestrial TV channels, Channel 4 makes few of the programmes it broadcasts, partly as a result of the terms under which it was founded. Its critically acclaimed news service, Channel 4 News, is supplied by ITN, and the channel commissions many of its programmes from independent producers.
The channel has established a tradition of broadcasting Raymond Briggs's animated film The Snowman every Christmas. In 2002, the film was controversially cropped from its original 4:3 picture format to the current widescreen standard of 16:9.
Channel 4 was the first UK broadcaster to use stranded programming with slots such as "4 Mation" showing innovative animation. Under Isaacs the channel also presented serious programmes on contemporary visual art such as "State of the Art".
Channel 4 pioneered the concept of After the Pub Television with series such as "Who Dares Wins", "Tonight with Jonathan Ross", "Friday Night Live" and "The Word" broadcast in the 10 - 11pm slot.
In 1989 the Channel launched a Breakfast Television slot produced by Mentorn Films that was soon replaced by "The Big Breakfast". After the massive failure of "Ri:se" the channel has quit original programming for the breakfast tv slot in favour of repeats.
On November 4, 2003, Channel 4 screened its final episode of Brookside, a soap opera which had run for 21 years, since the channel started.
Channel 4 is also noted for the screening of Big Brother. Based on the original Dutch format, the UK version has attracted massive press attention for each of its five series from 2000 to 2004.
Channel 4 also has a strong reputation for history programmes and real-life documentaries. It has also courted controversy, for example by broadcasting live the first public autopsy to be carried out in the UK for 170 years, carried out by Gunther von Hagens in 2002, or the 2003 one-off stunt Derren Brown Plays Russian Roulette Live. |
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