TV4 (Euro Republics)

Fox is the fourth main free to air TV channel in the Euro Republics, commonly available on LCN 4, and is a sister channel to TV3.

It is aimed at a young male & female audience, and it airs news, sport, movies, children's shows, animation, action, US drama and comedy. The channel broadcasts in 5 languages with subtitles and via audio options. The channel airs free every day for 24 hours.

The channel is the fourth of the five main NSB (National Service Broadcaster) broadcasters in the country, the others being ETV One, Network Two, sister channel TV3 & Prime Television, and therefore has to provide at least 5 hours of original & repeated Euro Republican entertainment content a week, mostly used by Liquid News, archive content from it's early days as Channel 4, ZTV & TV4, TV3 repeats & spin-offs of TV3 programmes. The channel has to air at least an hour of news programmes between Monday-Friday, used by Fox Headline News, with it's 19:10, 12:00 & post-midnight bulletins.

History
Around the autumn of 1994, rumours began to spread spread that TV3 was planning a new channel. It was unknown about the target audience & what it was called.

TV3 confirmed more details about the new channel in March 1995. The channel would be a National Service broadcaster, and would “cater to the youth of the country, with a slightly male flavour, reflecting the issues & interests of the target demographic with original content made for young people of the Euro Republics, news, live sports, feature films, popular drama, comedy & music-based programming.

Channel 4 (stylised as Ch 4) launched on 31st October, 1995 at 7:00pm. Its inaugural program was the premiere of Channel 4 News at 7, a news magazine program originally hosted by Kevin Paxman and Sarah Johnson; Paxman opened the show by jokingly welcoming viewers to "the end of our careers." Launching with an estimated audience of about 10 million homes, Channel 4 aimed to be a more informal and youth-oriented channel than parent network TV3, featuring a heavier emphasis on programming that would appeal to the demographic, both original & imported. The youthful image was reflected in the inital presentation, bright & colourful.

Channel 4 was initially unavailable worldwide, with programmes carried by international channel TV3 World, which was originally scarce to find in Europe. C4 became available on some Irish MMDS systems in 1997, replacing the UK service, and was very successful, becoming the country's #3 most popular MMDS channel, and spread to other European systems later.

Channel 4 soft relaunched on Monday 4th May 1998, with new idents and presentation. On the same day, 60 Seconds was launched, a 1-minute news programme running hourly on the channel (except during children's programmes and news bulletins) which runs to this day.

On 1st April, 2003, Channel 4 was completely relaunced as ZTV. The refresh saw the channel launch a larger emphasis on music programming, with music videso taking up the bulk of the afternoon and early evening schedule, between C3 and the main evening news, renamed ZTV Latest.

There was a weekly Thursday block foucusing on adult animation known as Padlock. This included the Euro Republican debuts of Monkey Dust, Spy Groove and Clone High, and also included Family Guy, South Park & Queer Duck, all of which had already aired on TV3 and Channel 4. Later additions to the block included Stripperella, Free for All, Father of the Pride and Ren & Stimpy: Adult Party Cartoon.

Other new programmes to co-incide with the rebrand of Channel 4 as ZTV included Dreamscapes, Fatboy Slim: Musical Hooligan, Little Britain, Office Monkey, Burn It, Bo' Selecta! and Swiss Toni.

Whilst the new programming was for the most part critically acclaimed, there was criticism that virtually none of the new programmes were homemade, and that the music video slot was nothing more than filler.

The ratings for ZTV were lower in the afternoons than they had been as Channel 4, whose mix of sitcom repeats, soaps and gameshows proved a successful afternoon alternative to women's magazine show Open House on ETV1, lifestyle programmes on Network 2 and Club 3.

The channel was soft relaunched in January 2004, with the rolling video jukebox slot moved to the overnight hours, plus an hour long slot at 1pm. To make up for the loss of the slot, a Euroish version of Top of The Pops was commisioned for TV3, with a spin-off show, Top of The Pops Plus on ZTV.

ZTV rebranded into TV4 on 8th September, 2007. Most music programming would be moved to TV3 and eventually V5, whilst TV4 would focus on entertainment programming for youth audiences.

On 19th February, 2020, It was announced that as part of a new multi-year deal with The Walt Disney Company, that Viasat 4 would be relaunched on the coming April 3rd as a localised version of the Fox network.

The rebrand saw a shift to a younger audience, and was repositioned as both a variety channel aimed at the 0-39 age group, including movies, comedy, gameshows and kids shows, and a youth network similar to the original Channel 4.

It rebranded on 3rd April, 2020 at 8.30pm with a special programme beforehand marking the best shows aired by TV4 in it’s 13 year history, and another one afterwards, an hour long show previewing the upcoming content on FOX.

On 17th March, 2021, the channel stopped airing CBS drama programmes, in an attempt to target more at a male demographic, with the only dramas airing from then on being series from HBO Max & Showtime, most of which were aired 1 to 2 nights after their debut on Premiere.

As part of the TV3 Annual Report for 2021-22, it was announced that going forward FOX's programme budget would be expanded to allow production for new comedy, drama and factual programmes on the channel. Rumours began to be made in late 2022 that FOX will be rebranded sometime in early 2023, with media insiders suggesting that the deal to use the FOX name for the channel was not going to be renewed in 2023 and that FOX would be rebranded under a new brand. On the ERIPO (Euro Republican Intellectual Property Office) website on 28 December 2022, a logo featuring a stylised number 4 was published under EuroMedia's name. This suggests that FOX might rebrand back to TV4 in 2023.

The rumours were confirmed on 20th February, 2023 when EuroMedia officially announced that FOX would revert to TV4 in March 2023, with a slate of new shows joining the schedule.

News & current affairs

 * Fox Headline News (1995-present)
 * Liquid News (2001-present)
 * 60 Seconds (1998-present)
 * This Week (2008-present)

TV3 spin-offs

 * Pop Idol Plus (2003-present)
 * The Xtra Factor (2005-present)
 * Euro Republics' Got More Talent (2008-present)
 * Big Brother's Little Brother (2002-2012; 2022-present)

Reality

 * Married at First Sight ER (2015-present)
 * Love Island ER (2018-present)
 * Big Brother ER (2001-2012; 2022-present)
 * Gogglebox Euro Republics (2017-present)

Comedy - original

 * First Take (2019-present)
 * Guttered (2019-present)
 * Welcome to Faulkshire (2017-present)
 * Paper Round (2022-present)
 * Odd Balls (2018-present)

Comedy - acquired

 * (US) (1995-present)
 * (US) (1999-2003; 2005-present)
 * (US) (1999-present)
 * (US) (2005-present)
 * (US) (1998-present)
 * (US) (2011-present)
 * Seinfeld (US) (1995-present)
 * Friends (US) (1995-present)
 * Married... With Children (US) (1995-2003, 2007-present)
 * Malcolm In The Middle (US) (2000-present)
 * Modern Family (US) (2010-present)
 * The Big Bang Theory (US) (2008-present)
 * (US) (2007-present)
 * (UK) (2003-present)
 * (UK) (2006-present)
 * Schweetzman (1995-2003; 2020-present)
 * It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (US) (2004-present)
 * Chuck (US) (2008-present)
 * The Young Ones (UK) (1995-present)
 * Bottom (UK) (1995-present)
 * Father Ted (UK/IRE) (1995-present)
 * Him & Her (UK) (2011-present)
 * Peep Show (UK) (2004-present)
 * Gavin & Stacey (UK) (2008-present)
 * Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps (UK) (2001-present)
 * Benidorm (UK) (2008-present)
 * Derry Girls (UK/IRE) (2017-present)
 * 8 Out of 10 Cats (UK) (2005-present)
 * 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown (UK) (2013-present)
 * Spaced (UK) (2000-present)
 * The Adam and Joe Show (UK) (1997-present)
 * Bad Education (UK) (2013-present)
 * I'm Alan Partridge (UK) (1998-present)
 * The Day Today (UK) (1995-present)
 * Brass Eye (UK) (1997-present)
 * The League of Gentlemen (UK) (1999-present)
 * Look Around You (UK) (2005-present)
 * Garth Marenghi's Darkplace (UK) (2004-present)
 * The Mighty Boosh (UK) (2004-present)
 * TV Offal (UK) (1998-present)
 * Black-ish (US) 2015-present)
 * Mixed-ish (US) (2023-present)

Drama - original

 * Mood (2022-present) (co-produced with BBC Three and BBC America)
 * Deejay's (2021-present)
 * Jericho Road (2007-2011; 2022-present) (co-produced with HBO)
 * The Plaice (2019-present)
 * Against Consent (2023-present)

Drama - acquired

 * Casualty (UK) (1995-present)
 * Doctor Who (UK) (2005-present)
 * Torchwood (UK) (2006-present)
 * Shameless (US) (2011-present)
 * Game of Thrones (US) (2011-present)
 * Dexter (US) (2007-present)
 * Raised By Wolves (US) (2021-present)
 * It's A Sin (UK) (2021-present)
 * Red Rose (UK) (2022-present)
 * The Newsreader (AUS) (2022-present)
 * Wreck (UK) (2022-present)
 * Succession (US) (2022-present)
 * The Last of Us (US) (2023-present)

Gameshows/Quizshows

 * Family Fortunes (1995-present)
 * The Crystal Maze (UK) (1995-present)

Sports

 * UEFA Champions Leauge (only if two matches happen at once) (1995-present)
 * UEFA Europa Leauge (1995-present)
 * UEFA Super Cup (1995-present)
 * WWE Raw (1999-present)
 * WWE Smackdown (1999-present)
 * AEW Dynamite (highlights) (2019-present; aired live on TNT)

Soap repeats

 * Coronation Street (1995-present)
 * Hollyoaks (1996-present)
 * EastEnders (1995-present)
 * Lifeline (2002-present)

Factual

 * Liquid Assets (2003-present)
 * Real Life (2018-present)
 * We Are the Euro Republics (2022-present)
 * Float the Bubble: All Their Way (2023-present)
 * Behind Zeroshock (2021-present)

Other programmes

 * Culture Pub (FR) (1995-2006; 2008-present) (with English subtitles)
 * The Hard Sell with Matthew Harris (UK) (2016-present)
 * The Hard Sell with Guilherme Fontes (UK) (2020-present)
 * ITV in The Face (UK) (2010-present)
 * Watch and Smile (UK) (2018-present)
 * The Kids Are Alright (UK) (2019-present)
 * The World According To Jeff Goldblum (US) (2019-present)
 * Bill Nye The Science Guy (US) (2017-present)
 * Ashens reviews (UK) (2013-present)

Programming blocks

 * 3C (2011-present)
 * 3C Playbox (2023-present)

News and current affairs

 * Newsnight (1995-2001)
 * Life (1995-1998)
 * 4D (1999)

Light entertainment and reality shows

 * Euro Republics Got Talent (2006-2007, also on TV3)
 * Britain’s Got Talent (2007, also on TV3)
 * America’s Got Talent (2006-2007)
 * Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway (2004-2007)
 * The X Factor (2004-2006)
 * The X Factor: Celebrity (2019)
 * Big Brother ER (2000-2007)
 * Big Brother USA (2002-2007)
 * Big Brother UK (2000-2007)
 * I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here! (2003-2007, moved from and back to TV3)



Drama

 * Holby City (UK) (1999-2022)
 * Neighbours (AU) (1995-2022)
 * Echo Beach (UK) (2008-2009)
 * The Bill (UK) (1995-2010)

Comedy - original

 * The Blizzard of Odd (1998-2004)

Comedy - imported

 * MADtv (US) (1995-2007)
 * The King of Queens (US) (2007-2022)
 * Mom (US) (2014-2022)
 * Little Britain (UK) (2003-2020)
 * Brickleberry (US) (2013-2021)
 * The Cleveland Show (US) (2010-2020)
 * Moesha (US) (1997-2005)
 * Popetown (UK) (2004-2005)
 * Watching (UK) (1997)
 * Ideal (UK) (2006-2013)
 * My Wonderful Life (UK) (1997-1999)
 * Wilfred (AU) (2011-2015)
 * Two and A Half Men (US) (2004)
 * How I Met Your Mother (US) (2006-2007)
 * Spitting Image (UK) (2020-2022)
 * Queer Duck (US) (2001-2004)
 * Spy Groove (US) (2003)
 * Monkey Dust (UK) (2003-2009)
 * Coupling (UK) (2001-2010)
 * Game On (UK) (1996-2003)
 * Clone High (US) (2003-2008)
 * Takeover TV (UK) (1995-2003)

Factual

 * The Agenda (1996-2021; replaced by We Are the Euro Republics in January 2022)

Programming blocks

 * The Fix (1995-2010)
 * Star (2021-2022)
 * Disney Junior (2011-2022)

Magazine
In March 1997, Euro Publishing Group released FOXMAG (previously Ch4 Magazine, ZTV Weekly & TV4 Magazine), a weekly magazine aimed at a 13-34 demographic featuring programme info, events, movie reviews, game reviews and a 7-day TV guide in the style of the Fox channel.