Film4
Logo of Film4
Launched November 1 1998
Owned by Channel 4 Television Corporation
Audience share <0.1% (October '05, [1])
Formerly called FilmFour (until July 19 2006)
Timeshift service Film4+1
Website filmfour.com
Availability
Terrestrial
Freeview Channel 31
Satellite
Sky Channel 315
(Channel 316 for Film4+1)
Cable
NTL Channel 701/50
(Channel 714/46 for Film4+1)
Telewest Channel 444
(Channel 445 for Film4+1)
NTL Ireland Channel 323
(Channel 324 for Film4+1)

Film4 is a free British digital television channel, owned and operated by Channel 4, which screens 'high-quality' films.

Contents

Programming[edit]

Film4 broadcasts from 3pm until approximately 3am. Unlike its rivals, Film4 does not focus on broadcasting blockbusters. Instead, it focusses aims for a more niche and highbrow market by showing many a mixture of old and new independent, arthouse, British, foreign language and specialist cinema, along with some critically-acclaimed Hollywood films. The channel frequently has themed nights or seasons or where a number of films centred around one genre, director or actor are shown. As Channel 4 also owns a film production company, Film4 Productions, it often shows many of its products.

Occassional non-film (but film-related) programmes are also shown.

Wherever possible, films are always shown unedited and in widescreen. No digital on-screen graphics are shown during programming.

History[edit]

File:Filmfour logo.gif
Original FilmFour logo

Film4 was originally known as FilmFour and became Channel 4's second channel (after Channel 4 itself) when it launched on November 1 1998. It was a subscription-only satellite and cable and cost £5.99 a month (which eventually rose to up to £7 a month). The launch night, which was also broadcast on Channel 4, was hosted by Johnny Vaughan and the first film to be shown was What's Eating Gilbert Grape.

The subscription service ended on July 19 2006 and the channel re-launched (under the slightly modified name of Film4) as a free service on July 23. When the channel became free, it also launched on Freeview for the first time and became completely free-to-air on satellite television. Due to the change, the channel's availability increased from 300,000 (subscribers) to 18 million households. It also changed its broadcasting hours to 1500-0300 and commercial breaks were included during films for the first time. The first film broadcast under the new format was Lost in Translation.

Advertising Campaign[edit]

To alert the public to it going free, Film4 held a mass advertising campaign featuring major celebrities advertising Film4 in odd ways. Examples include:

Sister channels[edit]

In addition to the main channel, Film4 also operates a one-hour-timeshifted variant, Film4+1 on satellite and cable only.

Previously, two other FilmFour channels, FilmFour World and FilmFour Extreme, were broadcast alongside FilmFour. These were discontinued in 2003 and replaced by another channel, FilmFour Weekly, which screened four films across the week at the same time each day to make it easier to catch a film at least once. FilmFour Weekly ceased broadcasting on July 19 2006 when the subscription service ended.

Channel 4 also operates three other free digital channels: E4, More4 and Quiz Call.

External links[edit]