Channel 4 Looks to Drive Digital Viewing

Channel 4 has outlined a content and commissioning strategy focused on driving growth in digital viewing.

All 4 will now serve as the focus of creative decision-making as part of Channel 4’s Future4 strategy. The U.K. broadcaster is looking to double viewers to All 4 over the next five years. This year alone, views on the streamer are up 27 percent.

The new remit includes investing more in content that does well on All 4, notably young-skewing factual entertainment, “box-setable” and “noisy” documentaries, reality shows, comedy entertainment, scripted comedy and young-skewing, bingeable drama.

“To ensure that Channel 4 remains a relevant and vibrant voice in a digital world, we know we must now bring all the passion, originality and disruptive flair that we brought to the world of terrestrial TV 38 years ago, to the world of streaming and social media,” said Ian Katz, director of programs. “So after a breakthrough year for All 4, which saw it achieve record growth, we’re doubling down on the types of programs that will drive further digital growth. That doesn’t mean the character of the channel will be changing—we’ll be just as noisy, inquisitive and unruly as ever, from uncompromising dramas such as Jack Thorne’s blistering piece on the care home crisis to our upcoming investigation of the power once yielded by notorious publicist Max Clifford. But, more than anything, over the coming year, we’ll do our best to offer viewers an escape from the grimness of a COVID-ravaged world with a schedule packed with fun and joy including sparkling new scripted comedy, fabulous new formats like Living Wild and more of viewers’ favorites from The Dog House and Snackmasters to uproariously funny entertainment like Taskmaster. I’m determined that however miserable the news is outside our living rooms, Channel 4 will be an oasis of joy in a joyless age.”

New commissions include Help (working title), penned by Jack Thorne and starring Jodie Comer and Stephen Graham, from The Forge; the comedy Big Boys from Roughcut TV; and new travel series from Tuesday’s Child TV called Extraordinary Escapes.