Channel 4+1 falls short of 10% target in first week

Channel 4+1, Channel 4’s new repeats channel, has failed to hit its target in the first week of broadcasting.

The digital channel, which has slots on Freeview, Sky Digital and Virgin Media, only accounted for 4.5% of Channel 4’s total impacts after forecasting it would account for 10%.

The channel, which launched on 20 August, gives viewers the opportunity to catch the Channel 4 TV schedule on a one-hour delay and was expected to boost the channel’s impacts by at least 10%.

One agency’s head of TV said: “It hasn’t been as successful as Channel 4 hoped, but it’s early days and there hasn’t been a huge amount of marketing for it.”
He added: “It will probably be a gradual improvement like E4+1 was, but its performance really depends on Channel 4’s schedule being strong enough to make people want to watch the programmes again.”

However, the head of TV at another agency doubted the popularity of a repeats channel for a core terrestrial station. He said: “Channel 4 is probably more of an appointment-to-view channel. People know when the programmes are on and aren’t likely to miss them. Channels like ITV+2 and Channel 4+1 probably get more of a fragmented audience who are channel-hopping.”

Phil Wise, head of broadcast at Mediaedge:cia, speculated: “This result sounds disappointing, but I think it could be down to a large percentage of homes having yet to retune their Freeview boxes in order to access the channel. In that respect Channel 4 can certainly expect growth. But it’s all still early days.”
Channel 4+1’s electronic page guide (EPG) position has also been cited as a possible reason for its initially disappointing performance. Unlike most repeats channels, Channel 4+1 is not in the slot next to its parent channel.

A Channel 4 spokesman said: “We are very happy with Channel 4+1’s progress and expect it to grow gradually. We feel we have a lot of experience with +1 channels as we have launched three in the past, which have all helped grow our share.”

Source: Media Week