Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded entirely by its commercial activities, including advertising. It began its transmission in 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service in the United Kingdom. At the time, the only other channels were the licence-funded BBC1 and BBC2, and a single commercial broadcasting network, ITV.
Originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority, the station is now owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation, a public corporation of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which was established in 1990 and came into operation in 1993. Until 2010, Channel 4 did not broadcast in Wales, but many of its programmes were re-broadcast there by the Welsh fourth channel S4C. In 2010, Channel 4 extended service into Wales and became a nationwide television channel. The network's headquarters are in London and Leeds, with creative hubs in Manchester, Glasgow and Bristol.
History
Conception
Before Channel 4 and S4C, Britain had three terrestrial television services: BBC1, BBC2, and ITV, with BBC2 the last to launch in 1964. The Broadcasting Act 1980 began the process of adding a fourth channel; Channel Four Television Company was formally created in 1981, along with its Welsh counterpart.The notion of a second commercial broadcaster in the United Kingdom 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 often had a spare tuning button labelled "ITV 2" or "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. Most likely, politics had the biggest impact leading to a delay of almost three decades before the second commercial channel became a reality.
One 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 an "ITV2" was anticipated.
Wales
At the time the fourth service was being considered, a movement in Wales lobbied for the creation of dedicated service that would air Welsh language programmes, then only catered for at off-peak times on BBC Wales and HTV. The campaign was taken so seriously by Gwynfor Evans, former president of Plaid Cymru, that he threatened the government with a hunger strike were it not to honour the plans.The result was that Channel 4 as seen by the rest of the United Kingdom would be replaced in Wales by S4C. Operated by a specially created authority, S4C would air programmes in Welsh made by HTV, the BBC and independent companies. Initially, limited frequency space meant that Channel 4 could not be broadcast alongside S4C, though some Channel 4 programmes would be aired at less popular times on the Welsh variant; this practice continued until the closure of S4C's analogue transmissions in 2010, at which time S4C became a fully Welsh channel. With this conversion of the Wenvoe transmitter group in Wales to digital terrestrial broadcasting on 31 March 2010, Channel 4 became a nationwide television channel for the first time.
Since then, carriage on digital cable, satellite and digital terrestrial has introduced Channel 4 to Welsh homes where it is now universally available.
1982–1992: Launch and IBA control
After some months of test broadcasts, the new broadcaster began scheduled transmissions on 2 November 1982 from Scala House, the former site of the Scala Theatre. Its initial broadcasts reached 87% of the United Kingdom.The first voice heard on Channel 4's opening day of 2 November 1982 was that of continuity announcer Paul Coia who said: "Good afternoon. It's a pleasure to be able to say to you, welcome to Channel 4." Following the announcement, the channel played a montage of clips from its programmes set to the station's signature tune, "Fourscore", written by David Dundas, 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, at 16:45. The first person to be seen on Channel 4 was Richard Whiteley, with Ted Moult being the second. Whiteley hosted the gameshow for 23 years until his death in 2005. The first woman on the channel, contrary to popular belief, was not Whiteley's Countdown co-host Carol Vorderman, but a lexicographer only ever identified as Mary. Whiteley opened the show with the words: "As the countdown to a brand new channel ends, a brand new countdown begins." On its first day, Channel 4 also broadcast the soap opera Brookside, which often ran storylines thought to be controversial; this ran until 2003.
After three days, ITV chiefs called for founding chief executive Jeremy Isaacs to resign due to poor ratings. Critics called it "Channel Bore" and "Channel Snore".
At its launch, Channel 4 committed itself to providing an alternative to the existing channels, an agenda in part set out by its remit which required the provision of programming to minority groups. In step with its remit, the channel became well received both by minority groups and the arts and cultural worlds during this period under Isaacs, during which the channel gained a reputation for programmes on the contemporary arts. Two programmes captured awards from the Broadcasting Press Guild in March 1983: best comedy for The Comic Strip Presents…Five Go Mad in Dorset, and best on-screen performance in a non-acting role for Tom Keating in his series On Painters. Channel 4 co-commissioned Robert Ashley's television opera Perfect Lives, which it premiered over several episodes in 1984. The channel often did not receive mass audiences for much of this period, as might be expected for a station focusing on minority interests. During this time, Channel 4 also began the funding of independent films, such as the Merchant Ivory docudrama The Courtesans of Bombay.
In 1987, Richard Attenborough replaced Edmund Dell as chairman. In 1988, Michael Grade became CEO.
In 1992, Channel 4 faced its first libel case which was brought by Jani Allan, a South African journalist, who objected to her representation in Nick Broomfield's documentary The Leader, His Driver and the Driver's Wife.
1993–2006: Channel Four Television Corporation
After control of the station passed from the Channel Four Television Company to the Channel Four Television Corporation in 1993, a shift in broadcasting style took place. Instead of aiming for minority tastes, it began to focus on the edges of the mainstream, and the centre of the mass market itself. It began to show many American programmes in peak viewing time, far more than it had previously done.In September 1993, the channel broadcast the direct-to-TV documentary film Beyond Citizen Kane, in which it displayed the dominant position of the Rede Globo television network, and discussed its influence, power, and political connections in Brazil.
Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Channel 4 gave many popular and influential American comedy and drama series their first exposure on British television, such as Friends, Cheers, Will & Grace, NYPD Blue, ER, Desperate Housewives, Homicide: Life on the Street, Without a Trace, Home Improvement, Frasier, Lost, Nip/Tuck, Third Watch, The West Wing, Ally McBeal, Freaks and Geeks, Roseanne, Dawson's Creek, Oz, Sex and the City, The Sopranos, Scrubs, ''King of the Hill, Babylon 5, Stargate SG-1, Star Trek: Enterprise, Andromeda, Family Guy, South Park and Futurama.
In the early 2000s, Channel 4 began broadcasting reality formats such as Big Brother and obtained the rights to broadcast mass appeal sporting events like cricket and horse racing. This new direction increased ratings and revenues. The popularity of Big Brother led to the launches of other, shorter-lived new reality shows to chase the populist audience, such as The Salon, Shattered and Space Cadets.
In addition, the corporation launched several new television channels through its new 4Ventures offshoot, including Film4, At the Races, E4 and More4.
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 include programmes of an educational nature which exhibit a distinctive character.
On 31 December 2004, Channel 4 launched a new visual identity in which the logo is disguised as different objects and the "4" can be seen from an angle.
Under the leadership of Freeview founder Andy Duncan, 2005 saw a change of direction for Channel 4's digital channels. The company made E4 free-to-air on digital terrestrial television, and launched a new free-to-air digital channel called More4. By October, Channel 4 had joined the Freeview consortium. By July 2006, Film4 had likewise become free-to-air and restarted broadcasting on digital terrestrial.
Venturing into radio broadcasting, 2005 saw Channel 4 purchase 51% of shares in the now defunct Oneword radio station, with UBC Media holding on to the remaining shares. New programmes such as the weekly, half-hour The Morning Report'' news programme were among some of the new content Channel 4 provided for the station, with the name 4Radio being used. As of early 2009, however, Channel 4's future involvement in radio remained uncertain.