MORE4

www.channel4.com/more4

More4 is a spin-off channel from the makers of Channel4, which offers the best of world documentaries, smart films, highest-quality news and current affairs and big pieces of home-grown contemporary drama. More4 competes with the BBC's similar offering, BBC Four, which also centers on lifestyle, documentary, and arts programming. Peter Dale, Channel 4's current head of documentary events and the new channel's chief said it would be "television that restarts the conversation". More4 is trying to replace BBC Four as the younger and trendier version to get educated and sophisticated television. They are also both available on Freeview which increases the competitive factor. The technology involved is digital technology as it is not a terrestrial channel.

More4 appeals to an older and more sophisticated audience than their sister channels, CH4 and E4, both of which came before More4. In September 2005 Channel 4 began running teaser trailers for the new station (although the name was neither mentioned nor seen in the adverts). Showing neon lettering, the teasers hinted at "adult entertainment". Some people may have been confused by the deliberate double-meaning of these trailers and mistakenly presumed that the new channel will be of a pornographic nature. The Daily Mail refused to accept launch advertising for the channel on these grounds, which created the hype and curiosity that the CH4 bosses had presumably hoped for. Advertisements starting at the end of September made it much clearer that the "adult entertainment" being offered was the 'intelligent and insightful' programming. The More4 website is stylistically quite different from both the E4 and CH4 key websites. It appears very organized and muted, which resembles the mature nature of the programme.

The website offers many interactive features that link in to the channel and further your knowledge of the various programmes shows. Following on with the intellectual theme of the channel, viewers can check out the latest news headlines, and by being placed top of the scroll list we realize its importance to the channel. We are then offered links to Documentaries, True Stories, Drama, Shows, Personalities (see picture below), Quizzes, Competition, Forum and ‘Your Say’.


More4 personalities

contact more 4

You are also given the option to ‘Search More4’ to be sent straight to the designated area. The last few options show the interactive nature of the website, telling the audience that although the channel is aimed at an older audience, they are still keeping up to date with the latest technology. The option of ‘Quizzes’ suggests that they are still looking to offer fun to their audience, as they could have offered to name it ‘Questionnaires’ or something similar.

I think that this website is a good example of the local competition in the spin off channels made by big broadcasters including Channel4, the BBC and ITV. It seems to be trying to get across to those who visit the website that even though it is quite a serious channel, it still manages to use the same technology for channels and programmes aimed at the younger generation, which suggests that it might also attract some of this audience as well.