Everything about Channel 4 totally explained
Channel 4 is a
public-service television and
radio broadcaster in the
United Kingdom, centred around a television channel of the same name which began transmissions on
November 2 1982. Although entirely commercially self-funded, it's ultimately publicly owned: Originally a subsidiary of the
Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), the station is now owned and operated by the
Channel Four Television Corporation, a public body established in 1990 for this purpose and which came into operation in 1993, following the abolition of the IBA.
The station was established to provide a fourth television service to the UK that would break the duopoly of the
BBC's two established television services and the single commercial broadcasting network,
ITV, then the only services in the UK. Though having seen new competition through the subsequent availability and growth of cable, satellite and digital terrestrial services, Channel 4 still enjoys almost universal coverage in the UK, coverage in some neighbouring countries and a significant audience share.
Channel 4 was established with, and continues to hold, a remit of public service obligations which it must fulfill. The remit changes periodically, as dictated by various broadcasting and communications acts, and is regulated by the various authorities Channel 4 has been answerable to; originally the IBA, then the
ITC and now
Ofcom.
The preamble of the remit as per the
Communications Act 2003 states that:
"The public service remit for Channel 4 is the provision of a broad range of high quality and diverse programming which, in particular:
- demonstrates innovation, experiment and creativity in the form and content of programmes;
- appeals to the tastes and interests of a culturally diverse society;
- makes a significant contribution to meeting the need for the licensed public service channels to include programmes of an educational nature and other programmes of educative value; and
- exhibits a distinctive character."
The remit also involves an obligation to provide Schools Programming, and a substantial amount of programming produced outside of
Greater London.
Channel Four Television Corporation
As an organisation, Channel 4 is known as the
Channel Four Television Corporation, though this form is more recent than the station itself, having previously been the
Channel Four Television Company, a subsidiary of the
IBA, between 1982 and 1993. which was written onto the statute books by means of the
Broadcasting Act 1990. Significantly, this meant the abolition of the IBA, and hence the Channel Four Television Company. The result led to the creation of a corporation to own and operate the channel, which would have a greater deal of autonomy and would eventually go on establish its other operations. The new corporation, which became operational in 1993, remained publicly owned and was regulated by the new
Independent Television Commission (ITC), created under the same act. The ITC and its duties were later replaced by
Ofcom, which like its predecessor is responsible for appointing the Corporation's board, in agreement with the
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.
The result was that Channel 4 proper would be replaced by "
Sianel Pedwar Cymru" or "Channel 4 Wales". Operated by a specially-created
Welsh Fourth Channel Authority, S4C would air programmes in Welsh as made by HTV, the BBC, or from independent companies. Initially limited frequency space meant that Channel 4 proper couldn't be broadcast alongside S4C, though some English Channel 4 programmes would be aired at less popular times on the Welsh variant, a practice that still carries on to this day on S4C analogue.
Since then, carriage on digital
cable,
satellite and
digital terrestrial television means that Channel 4 is now available to over 70% of Welsh viewers. Following the completion of switchover to digital broadcasting in Wales in 2009, Channel 4 should become available to all Welsh TV viewers, alongside S4C. Consequently "S4C Digidol" doesn't carry Channel 4 programming.
Conception
Before Channel 4 and S4C, Britain had three terrestrial television services:
BBC1,
BBC2, and
ITV. The
Broadcasting Act 1980 began the process of adding a fourth, and Channel 4, along with its
Welsh counterpart, was formally created by an
Act of Parliament in 1982. After some months of test broadcasts, it began scheduled transmissions on
2 November 1982.
The notion of a second commercial broadcaster in the UK had been around since the inception of
ITV in 1954 and its subsequent launch in 1955; the idea of an '
ITV2' was long expected and pushed for. Indeed television sets sold throughout the 1970s and early 1980s had a spare channel called 'ITV/IBA 2'. Throughout
ITV's history and until Channel 4 finally became a reality, a perennial dialogue existed between the
GPO,
the government, the ITV companies and other interested parties, concerning the form such an expansion of commercial broadcasting would take. It was most likely
politics which had the biggest impact in leading to a delay of almost three decades before the second commercial channel became a reality. With what can crudely be summed up as a clash of ideologies between an expansion of ITV's
commercial ethos and a
public service approach more akin to the BBC, it was ultimately somewhat of a compromise that eventually led to the formation of Channel 4 as launched in 1982.
One clear benefit of the 'late arrival' of the channel was that its frequency allocations at each transmitter had already been arranged in the early 1960s, when the launch of ITV2 was highly anticipated.
Channel Four Television Corporation control: 1993 onwards
After control of the station passed from the Channel Four Television Company to the Channel Four Television Corporation in 1993 (see
above) a shift in broadcasting style took place. Instead of aiming for the fringes of society, it began to focus on the edges of the mainstream, and the centre of the mass market itself. It began to show many US programmes in peak viewing time, far more than it had previously done. It premiered such shows as
Friends and
ER.
Latterly, it began broadcasting various reality formats (including
Big Brother) and obtained the rights to broadcast certain popular sporting events such as
cricket and
horse racing (the contract to broadcast Test Match Cricket ceased with the end of the Summer 2005
Ashes series). This new direction increased ratings and revenues.
In addition, the Channel launched a number of new television channels through its new
4Ventures off-shoot, including
Film4,
At The Races,
E4 and
More4 (see
Other Services).
Partially in reaction to its new 'populist' direction, the
Communications Act 2003 directed the channel to demonstrate innovation, experimentation and creativity, appeal to the tastes and interests of a culturally diverse society and to include programmes of an educational nature which exhibit a distinctive character. By July 2006,
Film4 had also become a 'free to air' and re-started broadcasting on Digital Terrestrial.
Venturing into radio broadcasting, 2005 saw Channel 4 purchase a 51 per cent of shares in the
Oneword radio station with UBC Media holding onto the remaining shares. New programmes such as the weekly, half hour
The Morning Report news programme are among some of the new content Channel 4 has provided for the station, with the name
4Radio being used.
On
November 2,
2007, the station celebrated its twenty-fifth birthday. It showed the first episode of
Countdown, an anniversary Countdown special, as well as a special edition of
The Big Fat Quiz and using the original multicoloured 1982-1996 blocks logo on presentation and idents using the
Fourscore jingle throughout the day.
The future
Channel 4 has in recent years raised concerns over how it might finance its public service obligations after digital switch-over. However, some certainty lies in the announcement in April 2006 that Channel 4's digital switch-over costs would be paid for by licence fee revenues.
On
March 28,
2007, Channel 4 announced plans to launch a music channel as a joint venture with UK media company
EMAP which would include carriage on the
Freeview platform. Channel 4 has since acquired a 50% stake in EMAP's TV business for a reported £28 million.
Carriage
Channel 4 was carried from its beginning on analogue terrestrial (except in
Wales), which was practically the only means of television broadcast in the UK at the time. It will continue to be broadcast through these means until the UK's analogue television services are closed down over the course of the next decade. Since 1998, it has been universally available on digital terrestrial, and the
Sky Digital platform (encrypted, though free of charge) as well as having been available from various times in various areas, on analogue and digital cable networks.
Due to its special status as a public service broadcaster with a specific remit, it's afforded free carriage on the terrestrial platforms, in contrast with other broadcasters such as ITV.
Channel 4 is also available overseas: Some viewers in the
Republic of Ireland and parts of the European mainland, have been able to receive terrestrial transmissions from Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and some overseas cable networks, especially in the RoI, have carried the service. From
4 December 2006 Channel 4 was officially available to Sky viewers in the Republic of Ireland; some programmes, mainly imports, are not aired on this channel variant, due to Channel 4 not owning the relevant broadcast rights within the country.
From June 2006 to Early 2008, Channel 4 allowed Internet users in the United Kingdom to watch Channel 4 live on the Internet. However, for legal reasons all adverts have been removed and some programmes (mostly international imports) are not shown. This service no longer exists. Channel 4 is also provided by
Virgin Mobile's
DAB mobile TV service which has the same restrictions as the internet live stream.
Channel 4 also makes some of its programming available 'on demand' via cable and the internet (see
4oD).
Funding
Channel 4 has never received any public funding. During the station's formative years, funding came from the
ITV companies in return for their right to sell advertisements in their region on the fourth channel.
Nowadays it pays for itself in much the same way as most privately run commercial stations, for example through the sale of on-air advertising, programme sponsorship, and the sale of any programme content and merchandising rights it owns, such as overseas sales and video sales. It also has the ability to subsidise the main network through any profits made on the corporation's other endeavours, which have in the past included subscription fees from stations such as
E4 and
Film4 (now no longer subscription services) and its 'video-on-demand' sales. In practice, however, these other activities are loss-making, and are subsidised by the main network. According to Channel 4's last published accounts, for 2005, the extent of this cross-subsidy was some £30 million.
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The change in funding method came about by the
Broadcasting Act 1990 when the new corporation was afforded the ability to fund itself. Originally this arrangement left a 'safety net' guaranteed minimum income should the revenue fall too low, funded by large insurance payments made to the ITV companies. Such a subsidy was never required, however, and these premiums were phased out by government in 1998. After the link with ITV was cut, the cross-promotion which had existed between ITV and Channel 4 also ended.
Programming
Channel 4 is a "publisher-broadcaster", meaning that it commissions or "buys" all of its programming from companies independent of itself, and was the first broadcaster in the United Kingdom to do so on any significant scale. This had the consequence of starting an industry of production companies that didn't have to rely on owning an
ITV licence in order to see their programmes air, though since Channel 4, external commissioning has become regular practise on the numerous stations that have launched since, as well as on the
BBC and in
ITV (where a quota of 25% minimum of total output has been imposed since the 1990 Broadcasting Act came into force). Ironically, having been the first broadcaster in the UK to completely commission its core product from third parties, and after 25 years in-house, Channel 4 will now become the last terrestrial broadcaster to outsource its transmission and playout operations (to Red Bee Media).
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The requirement to obtain all content externally is stipulated in its licence across all digital platforms. In common with many other broadcasters, these channels output exactly the same programmes and continuity as was broadcast an hour previously, and are titled with the station name followed by a "+1" suffix.
Channel 4+1, E4+1 and More4+1 all carry a "+1" indication onscreen. There was some concern about how it would be indicated on
Channel 4+1 as Channel 4 doesn't carry its own on-screen graphic. Eventually, a "+1" symbol that's derived from the Channel 4 logo was unveiled. However, it should be noted that neither Film4 or Film4+1 carry on-screen graphics.
In July 2007 Channel 4 bought 50% of Box Television Ltd for £28 m from Emap plc. It has since emerged that, as a result of Emap's decision to sell off its divisions in a break-up sale of the group, Channel 4 may be interested in acquiring the remaining half of the business. Box TV operates 7 music TV stations (
The Hits,
The Box,
Smash Hits,
Kerrang!,
Q,
Kiss and
Magic). Recently, it has been announced that
The Hits will be re-branded as 4Music, following a deal to show branded content from Channel 4. Emap's stake in Box Television Limited was transferred to new owners, Bauer Consumer Media, following Bauer's acquisition of Emap's publishing and radio businesses.
Channel 4 HD
On
December 10 2007, Channel 4 launched a
high definition television simulcast of Channel 4 on
Sky HD. It is planned to roll out on other platforms "in the future".
The channel carries the same schedule as Channel 4, broadcasting programmes in HD when available. Initially this is expected to mostly be American imports (such as Ugly Betty for example) and movies, with the number of hours of original HD programming increasing over time. It has been announced as the UK's first full-time high definition channel from a terrestrial broadcaster.
Previously, in the summer of 2006, Channel 4 ran a six month closed trial of
HDTV, as part of the wider
Freeview HD experiment in London, including the use of
Lost and
Desperate Housewives as part of the experiment, as US broadcasters such as
ABC already have a HDTV back catalogue.
Previous Channels
At The Races
In 2000, Channel 4 launched a dedicated horse racing channel, At the Races. However, for a combination of financial and legal reasons the channel ceased broadcasting in 2003. It was subsequently bought by
BSkyB and relaunched in June 2004. Channel 4 has no involvement with the new At The Races, which is branded with almost identical livery as Sky Sports. Channel 4's racing coverage, re-named to incorporate "At The Races" in the title, returned to its original name of
Channel 4 Racing when the channel left involvement with At The Races. Channel 4 racing programmes now feature close co-operation with rival digital racing channel
Racing UK, who sub-licence the live rights and share the same production company. Channel 4 cross-promote Racing UK's coverage of the day's racing during its broadcasts.
Quiz Call
4Ventures previously owned
Ostrich Media Limited, a company which ran the participation television station,
Quiz Call. In November 2006, Channel 4 confirmed that it had sold Ostrich Media Limited to iTouch. Channel 4 cited the fact that strong competition in the UK participation television market had meant that it was no longer easy to make profits from participation TV as the reason for selling. The space occupied by QuizCall on Freeview wasn't included as part of the sale. Consequently, the channel left Channel 4's space on Freeview on
15 November 2006, and was replaced in the short term by Film4+1. Channel 4 director of television, Kevin Lygo, confirmed the plan to launch a new channel in the longer term. However, he was reported not to be satisfied with the first round of ideas submitted to him (a US acquisitions channel, a comedy channel and a T4 youth brand channel) and is now canvassing further options.
The service will operate ten radio stations, including Channel 4 Radio, E4 Radio, Sky News Radio (operated by
BSkyB and
Global Radio UK) and Radio Disney (in association with
Disney). Many of the services, especially Channel 4 Radio and E4 Radio, will attempt to compete directly with national BBC Radio stations.
Podcast and text services will also be provided when the stations go on air in 2008.
4radio
In June 2006 Channel 4 launched
4radio, offering audio programmes in the shape of podcasts aimed at introducing new public service radio services informed by C4’s values of creativity and innovation. Coupled with its strategy of becoming a truly multimedia company, 4radio hosts shows that tie in with its flagship TV hits including
Big Brother,
Lost, and
Channel 4 News.
The successful multiplex consortium isn't expected to launch until 2008. However a taste of Channel 4 Radio's audio output was made available earlier, including a revival of the channel's
The Tube music programme, and a very small amount of 4radio-branded content could be heard on
Oneword until its closure in January 2008.
Oneword
Oneword is a
digital radio station featuring the spoken word. In early 2005 Channel 4 purchased a minority stake in it, later that year buying a majority one worth £1,000,000. On
4 January 2007 it was announced that had Channel 4 sold its 51% stake back to
UBC Media for £1. Its normal programming was suspended while a strategic review took place on the station. The station ceased broadcasting on Friday 11th January 2008.
Channel4.com
The station's website is
channel4.com. The site offers detailed programme information, highlights, and chats with actors and presenters of all Channel 4 channels. It also has in-depth sections including
news,
film,
homes,
sport, and more. Its learning sections are often used by many for educational needs.
4oD
Launched in November 2006, 4oD stands for "4 on Demand", a service which allows some internet,
Virgin Media,
Tiscali TV and
BT Vision users to view programming recently shown on Channel 4, E4 or More4, or from their archives. 4oD also includes a selection of films and content from the
National Geographic Channel and
FX (UK). The cable version is operated through an appropriate
set top box whilst the internet variant requires the installation of a free piece of software, which allows users to download the programmes to a computer for viewing.
The services are limited to UK and Republic of Ireland viewers only, and the internet version is at present further limited to Windows XP and Windows Vista, PC users only. In 1993, with Oracle losing its franchise to
Teletext Ltd, the running of 4-Tel was taken over by Intelfax The service is provided on both Channel 4 analogue and digital television services, Channel 4, E4 and More4.
Corporate Structure
Management
Channel 4 is run by a chief executive, whose role can be compared to that of the
Director-General of the BBC. The chief executive is appointed by the chairman, which is a part-time position appointed by
Ofcom.
Chairmen
Edmund Dell (1982–87)
Richard Attenborough (1987–92)
Michael Bishop (1993–97)
Vanni Treves (January 1998 – December 2003)
Luke Johnson (January 2004– )
Chief executives
Jeremy Isaacs (1981–87)
Michael Grade (1988–97)
Michael Jackson (1997–2001)
Mark Thompson (March 2002 – June 2004)
Andy Duncan (July 2004– )
Financial information
Channel 4's total revenue for the year to 31 December 2005 was £894.3 million, of which £735.2 million was generated by its main channel, and the remainder by its subsidiaries channels, sales of programming rights to other broadcasters, Film Four and "new media". Operating profits for the year to 31 December 2006 fell 70% to £14.5 million from £56.9 million in 2005. (External Link)
Headquarters
Originally based at 60 Charlotte Street (the same building in which former chief executive Jeremy Isaacs later originally based his Artsworld channel), close to the BT Tower in London's film and media heartland, Channel 4 has occupied since 1994 a distinctive, purpose-designed building at 124 Horseferry Road, Westminster, designed by Richard Rogers Partnership with structural engineering by Ove Arup & Partners. Architecturally it follows on from, but is more restrained than, the Lloyd's building in the City of London, and was constructed between 1991 and 1994. It was built on the former site of a Methodist teacher-training college, which occupied a neo-Gothic campus intermittently from its foundation in 1851 until World War II, when the buildings were badly damaged by an incendiary bomb. The College eventually moved to a purpose-built site in Oxford in 1959 and became Westminster College, Oxford.
Despite commissioning all programmes from independent production companies, the Channel 4 headquarters contains a studio and post production facility, marketed as 124 Facilities. The studio has been used for Channel 4 programmes (such as T4 continuity), and third party programmes (such as the base for Five's football coverage). The studio was closed at the end of October 2007.
Regions
Channel 4 has, since its inception, broadcast identical programmes and continuity throughout the UK (excluding Wales where it doesn't operate on analogue transmitters). At launch this made it unique, as both the BBC and ITV had long established traditions of providing regional variations in their programming and announcements between transmitters in different areas of the country (although in the case of BBC2, variations have by and large tended to be limited to national idents as opposed to regional ones). In ITV's case, this was a consequence of its inherent federal structure (see ). Since the launch of subsequent British television channels, Channel 4 has become typical in its lack of variations of this nature.
A few exceptions exist to this rule for programming and continuity: The Republic of Ireland has a dedicated variant broadcast on Sky Digital which omits programmes for which broadcast rights are not held in the Republic, whilst some schools' programming (1980s/early 90s) were regionalised due to differences in curricula between different regions of the UK.
Part of Channel 4's remit covers the commissioning of programmes from outside of London. Channel 4 has a dedicated director of nations and regions (Stuart Cosgrove), who is based in a regional office in Glasgow. As his job title suggests, it's his responsibility to foster relations with independent producers based in areas of the UK (including Wales) outside of London.
Advertising on Channel 4 does contain regular variation: Prior to 1993, when ITV was responsible for selling Channel 4's advertising, each regional ITV company would provide the content of advertising breaks, covering the same transmitter area as themselves, and these breaks were often unique to that area. After Channel 4 became responsible for its own advertising, it continued to offer advertisers the ability to target particular audiences and divided its coverage area into six parts coining the term 'LEMNUS' standing for "London, The East [andSouth] of England, The Midlands, The North of England, Ulster and Scotland. At present, Wales doesn't have its own advertising region, instead its viewers receive the southern region on digital platforms intentionally broadcast to the area, or the neighbouring region where analogue transmissions spill over into Wales. The Republic of Ireland shares its advertising region with Northern Ireland (referred to by Channel 4 as the 'Ulster Macro') with many advertisers selling products for the Republic here. E4 also has an advertising variant for the Republic.Annual Reports and Financial Statements
Annual Reports and Financial Statements 1983-PresentFurther Information
Get more info on 'Channel 4'.
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