The Stage

C4 to simulcast shows on broadband

Published Thursday 22 June 2006 at 10:00 by Liz Thomas

Channel 4 is to air its commissioned programmes simultaneously on the main channel and on broadband, making it the first major UK broadcaster to launch a service of this type.

Chief executive Andy Duncan said that broadcasters had to start thinking of new media as the “now media”.

Talking at the New Statesman annual media lecture he said: “I don’t see the digital revolution as an attack on Channel 4’s power as a public broadcaster. I see it as a fantastic opportunity to build on what Channel 4 has always done - stimulate, infuriate, debate, create. The difference is we’re doing it in many more ways than just via broadcast these days, because we have to engage with the public wherever they are.”

The new broadband simulcast will be available to PC users from June 27 via the channel4.com website but will not include films or acquired shows such as Lost and Desperate Housewives. At launch it will still carry the same commercials as the television channel but the broadcaster plans to see advertising on the broadband service once it has been established. Registered users will be able to access a streamed live version of the Channel 4 schedule, allowing them to watch Channel 4’s flagship shows at the same time as their TV transmission.

Speaking about the station’s future, Duncan welcomed the plans of indirect support outlined in the Government White Paper on charter renewal but said that these were only the first steps to ensure that the broadcaster could continue as “the only meaningful [public service] competitor to the BBC in vital areas like education, innovation and distinctive quality.”

Ofcom will complete its review of Channel 4’s financial position in 2007 and Duncan, who has previously warned that the broadcaster faces a funding shortfall of £100 million by 2009, warned that the media regulator had a “historic opportunity to identify and propose the longer-term solutions” necessary to secure its future as a key rival to the BBC.

He added: “The big unknown is how entirely commercially-supported alternatives to the BBC can be made viable until the completion of switchover, much less beyond it. There’s only one way to remove that uncertainty, and that is to take steps now to safeguard the future of Channel 4.”

Describing public service TV as the “sturdiest bridge we have from the old analogue world of mass viewing experience to the rapid emerging future of the consumer-led, made to measure media, the executive also said that pubcasters had an educational role helping viewers navigate the “bewilderingly complex multimedia world”.