E4 is a British digital television channel launched as a pay-tv companion to Channel 4 on 18 January 2001. The "E" stands for entertainment, and the channel is mainly aimed at the lucrative 18 - 35 age group. Programming includes US imports such as Friends, ER, The O.C., Smallville, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Desperate Housewives, One Tree Hill, Scrubs and Lost, mostly already on Channel 4, plus lots of home-grown chat and reality shows. Some of the imports are screened on E4 ahead of their Channel 4 broadcasts.

Every year, whilst the Big Brother game show airs, E4 devotes much of its schedule to Big Brother programming such as live coverage from inside the house and interactive features that give access to additional camera angles, although this feature has now been discontinued. The channel also allows Big Brother voting options and Big Brother "catch up" shows (i.e., repeats). Big Brother coverage is among the highest rating programming on the channel, and comes at a time when most of the year's American imports have ended.

E4 has become somewhat notorious for is strange promotion campaigns, narrated by the infamous ‘voice of E4’, actor Patrick Allen. Advertisements often make use of dry humour and phrases which at first, do not appear to make any sense. Past examples include:

• “Big shiny films in your dinky little home!”
• “In 1884 we invented music telly. We just didn't bother telling anybody.”
• “The bestest stuff that’s better than any other stuff.”

Films advertised are usually gently ridiculed, with the voice of E4 telling viewers they "probably will" guess the ending of She's All That, for example. There is also quite heavy use of British words which have generally fallen out of circulation, such as ‘ruddy’ and ‘gaff’. They send up there own Friends-filled schecdule, and play on the fact that many of their shows are repeated. On one occasion when a playout-error caused part of an episode to be repeated, the announcer said, "I know we repeat ourselves a lot on E4 but that was of course a technical fault. Hopefully we'll have it fixed by the time it's repeated on Sunday."http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/showpost.php?p=8153306&postcount=28 On 16 December 2004, Channel 4 announced that it would move the subscription channel to digital terrestrial television. It was a part of the Top Up TV subscription scheme until 27 May 2005, when the channel joined Freeview and became free-to-air. This decision was made in the hope of attracting a larger audience and increasing advertising revenue.

In May 2005, E4 began to air "First Look", offering viewers the opportunity to watch an episode of popular programmes, such as Hollyoaks, and drama series, such as Lost and Invasion, in advance of their airdate on Channel 4.

In August 2005, E4 became a 24 hour channel with the introduction of E4 Music. It airs from 6am each morning (7am on E4+1) except if Big Brother or other reality shows are in progress.

In October 2005, More4 was unveiled alongside E4 to complement Channel 4's digital channels. The West Wing has since been moved exclusively to More4.

E4 launched a dedicated Republic of Ireland service in June 2002 and the channel has become the second largest viewed non-terrestrial channel in Ireland next to Sky One, with a 1.1% market share ^*.

In 2006, E4 is sponsoring the E4 UdderBELLY venue (part of Underbelly) at the Edinburgh Fringe. The venue takes the form of a giant upside cow in the purple colour of E4's logo.

External links

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• E4 Online

Television channels in the United Kingdom

E4 (TV-kanal)