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TV4 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 younger audience, and as the nation's official youth broadcaster. it broadcasts a diverse mixture of news, current affairs, youth affairs, sport, movies, children's programmes, adult animation, action, drama, soaps and serials, documentaries, arts and cultural programming, reality shows and comedy, all of which is especially tailored to this specific demographic. The channel broadcasts free-to-air every day for 24 hours. TV4 also includes it's own sibling channel, 4Fun.

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 a commitment to be the main channel to broadcast programmes to appeal to and represent the country's children, teenagers and young adults, alongside the urban and LGBTQ+ communities. It also has a particular remit to take bold creative risks with it's programmes, broadcasting more edgy and controversial programmes and to give a platform for new talent and ideas that it's more mainstream competitors would reject.

TV4 programmes stream on 3 Vision, including a channel branded "hub" and a live stream of the channel.

It has been the Euroish broadcast license holder of some the most iconic, acclaimed and significant US shows over the years, with Futurama, King of the Hill, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Family Guy, The Big Bang Theory, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Genesis, Black Mirror, The Sopranos, Scrubs, Rick and Morty, 30 Rock and South Park all making their Euroish debuts on the channel. At various points in the channel's history it has also held the primary Euroish broadcast rights to Friends, The Simpsons, ER, The Wire, The X Files, Oz and Boardwalk Empire.

TV4 is the Euroish home of Adult Swim, and broadcasts a mix of it's series during late night hours.

History[]

Channel 4 (1995-2003)[]

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. The Euroish Independent Broadcasting Commision gave the go ahead to a fourth channel in November 1994, on the condition that it have a remit to appeal to a certain audience not already well catered for by other mainstream channels.

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 and minorities of the country, reflecting the issues & interests of the target demographic with original content made for (and in some cases by) 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. 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.

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. A vital part of the new schedule would include Must See TV, a Friday night strand of new and popular Euroish, British and American comedy series in addition to drama and entertainment, adapted from the advertising slogan used by NBC in the United States.

The youthful image was reflected in the inital presentation, bright. colourful and energetic yet offbeat and somewhat artsy. The original idents and presentation for Channel 4 were designed and produced by Martin Lambie-Nairn, a designer best known for his other channel branding over the years, including BBC One's "Virtual Globe", "Balloon" and "Rhythm & Movement" idents, "The 2s" for BBC Two and Channel 4's blocky logo. There are remembered fondly by many Euroish ident enthusiasts.

Channel 4 in-vision 1995

An example of in-vision continuity on Channel 4. This backdrop was used from launch until the 1998 rebrand.

In-vision continuity was also a major part of presentation for Channel 4, and was used particularly often during primetime and overnight. Whilst it is lesser seen today, TV4 still uses IVC, and is used more during daytime hours and on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.

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. A few months earlier, 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.

ZTV (2003-07)[]

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 videos taking up the bulk of the afternoon and early evening schedule, between C3 and the main evening news, renamed ZTV Latest. Liquid News was also relaunched with a new set, theme and graphics.

There was a weekly Thursday block foucusing on adult animation known as Do Not Disturb which debuted on 3rd April 2003. This included the Euroish debuts of Monkey Dust, Spy Groove and Clone High, and also included Family Guy, South Park and Queer Duck, which had previously aired on Channel 4. Later additions to the block included Stripperella, Free for All, Father of the Pride and Ren & Stimpy: Adult Party Cartoon.

The channel had struck a content deal with MTV, which saw the free to air premiere of The Osbournes, as well as a Euroish version of Total Request Live. Jackass also continued to air on the channel. The Challenge also began broadcasting on Euroish terrestrial television, as well as MTV Unplugged, Made, Making the Band and Punk'd. The ZTV broadcasts of The Osbournes were notably for being fully uncensored.

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 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, the connection to music was revived with a Euroish version of Top of The Pops was commisioned for TV3, with a spin-off show, Top of The Pops Plus on ZTV. The primetime schedule was filled with new content aimed at a younger audience and repeats of popular TV3 programming.

TV4 (2007-20)[]

ZTV rebranded into TV4 on 4th October 2007, having been delayed from an 8th September relaunch.

Upon the relaunch as TV4, the channel was positioned as the cutting-edge, youthful and bawdier counterpart to TV3, aimed at a younger, more upmarket demographic, particuarly as TV3 began to shift towards a mainstream family audience. Most of the schedule consisted of anticipated new series such as Secret Diary of A Call Girl, Primeval, Chuck, Skins, Dexter, Gavin and Stacey and The Big Bang Theory, and critically acclaimed or high-buzz (but lower-rated) series such as Gossip Girl, Private Practice and Pushing Daisies. In terms of Euroish productions, there was also new soap Faulkshire Flipside and crime drama Jericho Road. The channel also began to repeat TV3's main primetime lineup overnight.

As TV3 looked to shift towards homegrown programming, some acquired TV3 programmes such as Doctor Who, Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, Spooks, American Dad! and ER moved to TV4, and the channel would also transmit “first looks” of popular TV3 series such as Lost, House, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice.

2008 proved to be another major year of TV4 with more new British series including the second series of Torchwood and The Inbetweeners, as well as Being Human. The channel also debuted it's new comedy panel game The Bubble, Ashes to Ashes - the sequel to Life on Mars, and the interlinked comedy and soap Moving Wallpaper and Echo Beach. Other programmes launched on the channel that year were Samantha Who?, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and the US version of Kitchen Nightmares.

It was particularly during this era that TV4 began to be used even more as a "testing ground" for more successful and higher-rating programmes to shift over to TV3. Within the first three years of the channel, Private Practice, Torchwood and The Big Bang Theory were promoted, and this method would later be continued with Jericho Road, Modern Family and Benidorm.

FOX (2020-23)[]

On 19th February, 2020, It was announced that as part of a new multi-year deal with The Walt Disney Company, that TV4 would be relaunched on the coming April 3rd as a localised version of the Fox network.

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.

TV4 returns (2023-present)[]

Rumours began to be made in late 2022 that FOX would 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 suggested 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.

FOX rebranded as TV4 on the evening of Monday 13th March 2023, ahead of the first episode of new endurance reality show Go Hard or Go Home.

TV4 launched it's first sister channel on 30 November 2023, 4Fun. On the day of it's launch, TV4 announced that as part of a minor shift within Three Media Group, that the channel's Saturday late night animé would be dropped from the schedule. This was due to increasingly low ratings, and to accommodate more movies and comedy series, and that animé continues to be provided on Thunderstorm and Toonami, as well as some series during the Adult Swim strand.

Schedules[]

Current programming[]

Domestic[]

News & current affairs[]

  • TV4 News (1995-present)
  • Liquid News (2001-present)
  • 60 Seconds (1998-present)
  • This Week (2008-present)
  • Real Life (2010-present)
  • The Agenda (1996-2021; 2023-present)
  • Free Speech (2023-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)

Soap[]

  • Good Times, Bad Times (1997-present)
  • Faulkshire Flipside (2007-present)
  • Belton 6059 (2009-present)
  • Hollyoaks (UK) (1995-present)
  • Neighbours (AUS) (1995-2022; 2023-present)

Light entertainment & game shows[]

  • RocKwiz (2007-2012; 2023-present)
  • Head Jam (2007-2009; 2022-present)
  • The Crystal Maze (2019-present)
  • The Cram (2022-present)
  • The Singer Takes it All (2023-present)

Reality[]

  • Love Island (2018-present)
  • Big Brother (2000-2009; 2022-present)
    • Big Brother's Little Brother (2001-2009; 2022-present)
    • Big Brother Uncut (2001-2009; 2022-present)
    • Big Brother's Big Mouth (2003-2009; 2022-present)
  • The Only Way is Centle (2014-present)
  • First Dates (2016-present)
  • Gogglebox (2017-present)
  • Naked Attraction (2018-present)
  • Deadline (2023-present)
  • RuPaul's Euroish Drag Race (2023-present)
  • Project Icon: The Next Euroish Music Star (2023-present)

Comedy and animation[]

  • Saturday Live (1996-present)
  • The Bubble (2008-present)
  • TimeLoop (2016-present)
  • This Is Where We Live (2016-present)
  • Balls (2018-present)
  • First Take (2019-present)
  • Guttered (2019-present)
  • Age of Outrage (2020-present)
  • Talk Night (2020-present)
  • The Nigel Robinson Show (2020-present)
  • 100 Ways To Waste Your Life (2021-present)
  • Laxed (2022-present)
  • Paper Round (2022-present)
  • This Hour Has 22 Minutes (2023-present)
  • LOOKAWAY. (2023-present)
  • The Skewer (2023-present)
  • Taskmaster (2023-present)
  • TacTic (2023-present)
  • Emerging (2023-present)
  • F**ktoy (2023-present)

Drama[]

  • Jericho Road (2007-2011; 2022-present)
  • Critical Condition (2012-present)
  • Gems (2018-present)
  • Lazarus (2019-present)[1]
  • Lemonade (2019-present)[1]
  • Years and Years (2019-present) (co-produced with Red Production Company, BBC and HBO)
  • The Plaice (2021-present)
  • Mood (2022-present) (co-produced with BBC Three and BBC America)
  • Terminal 100 (2022-present)[1]
  • Against Consent (2023-present)
  • Beating the Meat (2023-present)[1]
  • Metal Match: The Blooded War of Revenge (2023-present)
  • Frequency Modulation (2024)
  • The Infulence (2024)

Factual[]

Magazine and talk shows[]

Music, arts, culture and the media[]

  • Top of The Pops (2023-present)
  • Live with... (2005-present)
  • The V Festival (2009-present)
  • Play At The Beach (2011-present)

International[]

Reality[]

  • RuPaul's Drag Race (US) (2009-present)
  • RuPaul's Drag Race (UK) (2020-present)
  • Big Brother (UK) (2000-2010; 2023-present)
  • American Idol (US) (2002-2010; 2019-present)

Comedy and animation[]

Adult Swim[]

Drama[]

Psychedelica[]

TV3 domestic repeats[]

Drama[]

  • Complications (2009-present)
  • In Blue (2018-present)
  • Buckingham Avenue (2020-present)

Light entertainment, reality and game shows[]

  • Blockbusters (1995-2009; 2020-present)
  • Gladiators (1995-2000; 2022-present)
  • Supermarket Sweep (1995-2022; 2023-present)
  • Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (1999-2005; 2021-present)
  • The Weakest Link (2003-2010; 2022-present)
  • Dancing with The Stars (2007-present)
  • Euroish Got Talent (2008-present)
  • The Great Euroish Bake Off (2015-present)
  • The Traitors (2023-present)

Comedy[]

  • You've Been Framed! (1995-present)
  • The News Show (1998-present)
  • Would I Lie to You? (2011-present)
  • The Cheap Seats (2021-present)

Late night[]

  • Best Time Ever (2018-present)

Programming blocks[]

Former programming[]

Domestic[]

News and current affairs[]

Light entertainment and game shows[]

  • Don't Forget Your Toothbrush (1995)
  • Don't Try This At Home! (1997-2003)
  • Wanted (1995-1998)

Comedy[]

  • Up Yer News (1995-1998)
  • Ray Cokes Unleashed (1996-1998)
  • 11 Live (1997-2005)
  • The Blizzard of Odd (1998-2004)
  • Celebrity Juice (2009-2015)

Reality[]

  • Go Hard or Go Home (2023)

Acquired[]

Reality[]

  • Pop Idol (UK) (2001-2003)
  • The Osbournes (US) (2003-2011)
  • Making the Band (US) (2003-2006)
  • The X Factor (UK) (2004-2009)

Soaps[]

Drama[]

Comedy[]

Programming blocks[]

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 3 Vision original series, first run terrestrial broadcast on TV4
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 Also broadcast on TV3.
  3. First run episodes moved to TV3 in 2009. Repeats continue on TV4 to this day.
  4. Moved to TV3 beginning with Torchwood: Children of Earth in 2009. Continues to be repeated on TV4 to this day.
  5. Repeats from 1995-2007 and 2009-2011, first run between 2007 and 2009.
  6. First run episodes moved to Premiere 1 in 2001. Repeats continued until 2010.
  7. First run episodes moved to TV3 in 2010. Repeats continued until 2018.
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