Film4 is a British
free-to-air
Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscripti ...
television network owned by
Channel Four Television Corporation
Channel Four Television Corporation is a British state-owned media company headquartered in London. Its original and principal activity is the British national television network Channel 4.
The company was founded in 1982 as the Channel Four T ...
launched on 1 November 1998, devoted to broadcasting films. While its
standard-definition
Standard-definition television (SDTV, SD, often shortened to standard definition) is a television system which uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. "Standard" refers to it being the prevailing sp ...
channel is available on
Freeview Freeview may refer to:
* Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia
* Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand
*Freeview (UK), ...
and
Freesat
Freesat is a British free-to-air satellite television service, first formed as a joint venture between the BBC and ITV plc and now owned by Digital UK. The service was formed as a memorandum in 2007 and has been marketed since 6 May 2008. Free ...
platforms, its
high-definition variant is offered only as a
pay television
Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, b ...
service.
The channel offered an online
video on demand
Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of ...
service,
Film4oD
Film4oD was a UK based video on demand service for Film4, from Channel Four Television Corporation and FilmFlex. Film4oD officially launched on 1 November 2010, following two years of development by FilmFlex, with more than 500 films available ...
until it was closed in July 2015.
History
The network has its origins in
Channel Four Films
Film4 Productions is a British film production company owned by Channel Four Television Corporation. The company has been responsible for backing many films made in the United Kingdom. The company's first production was '' Walter'', directed by ...
, a production company opened by
Channel Four Television Corporation
Channel Four Television Corporation is a British state-owned media company headquartered in London. Its original and principal activity is the British national television network Channel 4.
The company was founded in 1982 as the Channel Four T ...
in 1982 which has been responsible for backing a large number of films made in the United Kingdom and around the world. The company's first production was
Stephen Frears
Stephen Arthur Frears (born 20 June 1941) is an English director and producer of film and television often depicting real life stories as well as projects that explore social class through sharply drawn characters. He's received numerous accola ...
' ''
Walter
Walter may refer to:
People
* Walter (name), both a surname and a given name
* Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–1968)
* Gunther (wrestler), Austrian professional wrestler and trainer Walter Hahn (born 19 ...
'', which was released in the same year.
On 1 November 1998, the production company was re-branded as FilmFour to coincide with the launch of a new
digital television
Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an innovative advanc ...
channel of the same name on both
Sky
The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space.
In the field of astronomy, ...
and
ONdigital
ITV Digital was a British digital terrestrial television broadcaster which launched a pay-TV service on the world's first digital terrestrial television network. Its main shareholders were Carlton Communications plc and Granada plc, owners o ...
platforms, becoming
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
's second network. At its launch, it was a
subscription
The subscription business model is a business model in which a customer must pay a recurring price at regular intervals for access to a product or service. The model was pioneered by publishers of books and periodicals in the 17th century, and ...
-only service costing £6 a month, eventually rising to £7. The launch night (which was also broadcast on Channel 4) was hosted by
Johnny Vaughan
Jonathan Randal Vaughan (born 16 July 1966) is an English television and radio presenter and a film critic. He was the main presenter of ''Capital Breakfast'' alongside Lisa Snowdon on 95.8 Capital FM between 2004 and 2011.
Vaughan currently pr ...
and the first film to be shown was 1995's ''
The Usual Suspects
''The Usual Suspects'' is a 1995 neo-noir mystery thriller film directed by Bryan Singer and written by Christopher McQuarrie. It stars Stephen Baldwin, Gabriel Byrne, Benicio del Toro, Kevin Pollak, Chazz Palminteri, Pete Postlethwaite, and ...
''. On 31 March 2000 at 6.00am, the analogue version of FilmFour shut down and later switched to digital.
On 7 April 2001, the three additional channels were added: FilmFour World broadcasts international cinema from 4.00pm to 10.00pm, as well as FilmFour Extreme carries "controversial and cutting-edge" movies from 10.00pm to 4.00am which operated on a timeshare, and the timeshift channel FilmFour +1.
In July 2002, Channel 4 reduced FilmFour's budget from £30 to £10 million and cut 50 staff to curb mounting losses, reintegrating FilmFour as a division of its television operation to continue to invest in new films. The cuts were a consequence of FilmFour's unsuccessful attempts to compete with
Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood, ...
. David Thompson, head of
BBC Film
BBC Film (formerly BBC Films) is the feature film-making arm of the BBC. It was founded on 18 June 1990, and has produced or co-produced some of the most successful British films of recent years, including ''Truly, Madly, Deeply'', '' Alan Part ...
s described it as:
Also in the same year,
Tessa Ross
Tessa Sarah Ross CBE (born 1961) is an English film producer and executive. She was appointed Head of Film at Channel 4 in 2000 and ran Film4 and Film4 Productions from 2002 to 2014. Ross was appointed to the Board of the Royal National Theatre ...
became the head of both FilmFour and Channel 4 drama. FilmFour World and Extreme were discontinued on 5 May 2003 and replaced by FilmFour Weekly, which screened four movies across the week at the same time each day to make it easier to catch at least once.
Subscription access to FilmFour ended on 19 July 2006, as well as FilmFour Weekly ceases broadcasting to became a free channel, and the service relaunched under modified branding as Film4 a few days later on 23 July. With this relaunch, the channel also returned to digital terrestrial television as part of the Freeview service. At this time, it also became free-to-air on satellite television. As part of the rebrand, the production company was also rebranded to "Film4 Productions". Due to the change, the channel's availability increased from 300,000 (subscribers) to 18 million households. It also changed its broadcasting hours, broadcasting from 12.45pm to 8.45am with
commercial breaks included during films for the first time. The first film broadcast under the new format was the British non-subscription television premiere of 2003's ''
Lost in Translation''. Prior to the arrivals of
Movie Mix
Movie Mix was a television channel that was originally available through the Freeview platform, initially as a live-quiz service under the name of The Big Deal in July 2009 before being turned into a movie channel in December 2012.
On 10 Janua ...
and
Movies4Men
Movies4Men (stylized as movies4men) was a free-to-air film channel in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It was available on Freeview, Freesat and Sky. The channel was aimed at the middle to old aged male viewer, with a look at the classics in ...
on the Freeview platform, Film4 was the only free film channel available on
digital terrestrial television
Digital terrestrial television (DTTV or DTT, or DTTB with "broadcasting") is a technology for terrestrial television in which land-based (terrestrial) television stations broadcast television content by radio waves to televisions in consumers' ...
.
From 23 May 2009, the broadcasting hours were amended to 11.00am to 4.00am, with the downtime hours broadcasting either
teleshopping or an animated caption screen stating when the channel will return. On 1 November 2010, Film4 partnered with
FilmFlex
FilmFlex, is an Video on demand, on-demand movie rental services provider, claiming to be largest outside the US.
The service originally launched as a joint venture between Sony Pictures Television and The Walt Disney Company, but it was sold in ...
to launch
Film4oD
Film4oD was a UK based video on demand service for Film4, from Channel Four Television Corporation and FilmFlex. Film4oD officially launched on 1 November 2010, following two years of development by FilmFlex, with more than 500 films available ...
.
On 2 September 2014, Film4 debuted a new on-air look, designed by Man vs. Machine. There are 15 new idents in the series which run alongside a new
on-screen presentation.
Former logos
File:Filmfour logo.png, First FilmFour logo (2003–2006)
File:Film4.svg, Second Film4 logo (2006–2018)
File:Film4+1 logo.svg, Logo of timeshifted version; "Film4 +1"
File:Film4 HD logo.png, Logo of high-definition version; "Film4 HD"
Subsidiary channels
Film4 +1
Prior to 20 August 2007, Film4 operated a one-hour timeshift channel, Film4 +1, on satellite, cable and
Freeview Freeview may refer to:
* Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia
* Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand
*Freeview (UK), ...
. This channel was later dropped on Freeview to free up space for Channel 4 +1, but returned on 27 August 2013. It continued to be broadcast on Sky, Virgin and Freesat during this time period. On 26 November 2014, Film4 +1 became available via Freeview HD services only.
On 10 January 2019, Film4 +1 was moved from the Freeview HD PSB3 (DVB-T2) multiplex to the Freeview PSB2 (DVB-T) multiplex, making the service available once again to viewers with non-HD Freeview systems and television sets that are incapable of decoding DVB-T2 signals. The capacity on PSB2 was made available by the "Sewing Quarter" service moving to Freeview COM6 (DVB-T) multiplex operated by
Arqiva
Arqiva () is a British telecommunications company which provides infrastructure, broadcast transmission and smart meter facilities in the United Kingdom. The company is headquartered at the former Independent Broadcasting Authority headquarters ...
.
Film4 HD
On 20 July 2010, Film4 HD launched exclusively on
Virgin Media
Virgin Media is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, Cable television, television and Internet access, internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, Berkshire, Reading, Engla ...
's cable television platform on channel 429, only available on certain packages. Film4 HD launched on Sky on 2 September 2013, but requires customers to add the Sky HD upgrade to their subscription.
Film4 HD is not available on Freeview.
See also
*
List of television channels in the United Kingdom
This list of linear television channels in the United Kingdom refers to television in the United Kingdom which is available from digital terrestrial television, terrestrial, satellite, Cable television, cable, and IPTV providers, with an estimat ...
*
50 Films to See Before You Die
''50 Films to See Before You Die'' was a television programme first shown on Channel 4 on Saturday 22 July 2006, to celebrate the relaunch of Film4 as a free-to-air TV channel available to digital terrestrial homes in the United Kingdom. It consist ...
*
London FrightFest Film Festival
FrightFest, also known as Arrow Video FrightFest is an annual film festival held in London and Glasgow. The festival holds three major events each year: a festival running five days over the UK late August Bank Holiday weekend, a Halloween event ...
*
Carlton Cinema
*
Sky Cinema
Sky Cinema is a British subscription film service owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). In the United Kingdom, Sky Cinema channels currently broadcast on the Sky satellite and Virgin Media cable platforms, and in addition Sky Cinema on ...
References
External links
*
{{Freeview
Channel 4 television channels
Movie channels in the United Kingdom
Television channels in the United Kingdom
Television channels and stations established in 1998
1998 establishments in the United Kingdom