back to article YouTube to broadcast Channel 4 shows

YouTube and Channel 4 have inked a landmark content deal that will see most of the UK broadcaster's programming made available for free on the Google-owned video sharing site. Under the pact, Channel 4 will make its entire 4 on Demand catch-up service of new shows available on YouTube shortly after airing, plus around 3,000 …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    But.....

    Can we look forward to a change to the interface? Will Channel 4's media contain advertising breaks, with the ability to skip/fast forward disabled?

    I hope not, but lets face it, the advent of PVR's has left advertisers more & more concerned about the fact that people don't actually like advertising breaks. Personally I love them, gives me time to go and have a cigarette, make a cup of coffee, or use the toilet. But, if I'm watching BBC and want to do the same thing, I just hit pause. Either way advertisers lose out, but at least on live telly you can't skip that short break, even if you don't actually watch the ads themselves.

    Should be quite a good thing when it happens, haven't used 4oD on the PC in a while, but IIRC it required Windows, so opening it up in this way is definitely a good thing.

    How many people will use it though? I use 4oD through my STB so unless I'm out & about, I probably won't be using Youtube to watch them.

  2. Matt Bucknall
    Thumb Up

    For the few programmes worth watching on four..

    I welcome the move if it means I no longer have to navigate 4's bloody awful website!

  3. wobbly1
    Pint

    Volte face?

    or just farce. The CEO of C4 lectured us all on the parasitic relationship that the Internet has to the Broadcast media this summer from his vantage point on the moral hight ground. from wich he slipped on his arse and in to the quagmire with his channel for the the second week filling a prime time C4 Friday night slot with culled viral videos from the net. I'd love to hear him square the circle of using the parasite to get his goodies to the masses. If he had brains rather than bonuses, he might realise that this sort of symbiotic relationship will help slow the death that is increasing obsolescence for a few months more. TV is just a delivery system for content, a bloody bad one. The means of dissemination have passed form their hands of the media moguls, they just haven't realised it yet.

    the death throes of one-way-media (TV,Cinema, CD, Print-media) , is as revolutionary as the passing of the horse powered transport system or steam engines. It just lacks their poignancy. The vested interests that try to hold the convenient cheaper more reliable alternatives where as desperate and amusing in their legal machinations as the TV guys and Murdoch. RIP now how to re-institute peer to peer to by pass the ISP parasite... oh FIDO where are you when we need you ;)

  4. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    What's the point?

    It's got the same content as 4od and is only available to those in the UK - just like 4od. So why bother at all? Be different if they were making it available to the whole world.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    But only in the UK

    Oh, right.

    Thanks for nothing, Ch4. It turned out to be just another outsourcing agreement

  6. Chris 3
    FAIL

    Good news for me..

    Channel 4's current geolocation system is so piss-poor that it thinks that I - in East London on Virgin Media am overseas somewhere, so wont show me any programmes.

  7. Lars Silver badge
    Paris Hilton

    Only in the UK

    I suppose there must be some logic to that.

    Only I cannot understand how that logic works.

    Somebody who could explain that.

    Paris Hilton because of the question mark.

  8. peisley

    Why Not the U.S.?

    I would love to receive Channel 4 in the U.S. We already have BBC America, but it doesn't program many of the series available on Channel 4. Please consider this in the future.

  9. KenBW2
    Linux

    4OD in a cross-browser format

    At last!

  10. dunncha
    Thumb Up

    Wicked news

    Was never able to find out how to get 4OD with giving my credit card details.

    Would this exempt you from a TV License? Only joking Not even death will exempt you from a TV License.

  11. MarkOne
    Happy

    Another PS3 TV service

    Hot on the heels of iPlayer, we now have CH4 too. (and anything else that's on YoutubeXL)

  12. Cameron Colley

    RE: C4 in Linux

    Thanks to someone mentioning it on here I tried C4 again the other week and found that it now works fine -- the Windows-only stuff they had has all gone.

    Still, the Youtube interface is a little better to use and, as a bonus, will work on my phone.

  13. Rob

    In the UK only probably because...

    .... channel 4 recieves funding from the public via the TV license fee, only a small amount compared to the Beeb, but they do recieve money from the UK populace to make programming, hence why it's UK only.

    The reason they have advertising (before anyone asks) is because that funding from the public purse is so small, so they need to beef it up with revenue from somewhere else.

    But as someone mentioned before C4 does sound like it's doing an out sourcing deal, they've have revenue troubel for awhile, how bad it is now I'm not sure but this seems to indicate it's not very healthy at the moment.

    I think Film4 turns a healthy profit at the moment, but don't quote me on that it was along time since I last caught up on their situation.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    @But.....

    4oD has been multi-platform (browser-based - just needs Flash) and free (advert-funded) for several months now!

  15. ThomH

    So does this mean 4OD on the iPhone?

    You know, through the YouTube app that it comes with?

    Obviously that's just for Peep Show. I definitely don't watch Skins and the Inbetweeners despite being a decade too old. Honest.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    @Rob

    Rob, they don't receive any of the license fee.. it's because they don't make any of their own shows, they just buy the rights to air 'em, and the rights they have are only for the UK and Ireland. Some C4 shows will be shown in other countries by other broadcasters who have the rights for their particular country.

    4oD has been multi-platform/browser for months now, as well.

    Not entirely sure what the point of this deal is but I suppose having the choice of how you want to watch shows is never a bad thing, is it?

  17. itbod
    FAIL

    Competition commission....

    MUPPETS ......we should have got behind and supported the kangaroo.

  18. EdwardP
    Flame

    Roughly translates:

    "4od is costing us rather a lot just to keep in step with the Beeb, can't we get YouTube or somebody to pay for the bandwidth instead?"

  19. Daedalus
    Alert

    What would you do if I sang out of sync?

    YouTube is famous for bad audio sync: a notable case is Joe Cocker's spastic turn channeling Ringo Starr at Woodstock. Can we look forward to horrendous sync on the Channel 4 output? Would it be fun? I don't think so.

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like