Every year, when the likes of me complains that one quarter Channel 4’s peak time output over the year is used up by a single programme, others will point me to all the viewing figures it achieves. It massively bumps up the channel’s share across the year, and reports even suggest that it accounts for a frightening amount of Channel 4’s overall revenues. We can’t forget that there’s a “celebrity” version too.
So I may hate it and not watch it while others do. What’s the harm?
The problem is that people like me watch far less Channel 4 than they normally do. It gets to the point that if I’m channel surfing at 9pm, I don’t even bother pressing 4 (well 104) to see what’s on. I know that I’m not going to be interested.
Yet, the channel does have other programming, and since its best mechanism for informing me about its upcoming programming is using its own promotional airtime, I miss out.
A case in point is Cape Wrath. I didn’t see a single trailer for the programme, and missed the first episode altogether. It was only because I knew about Showtime broadcasting the series as Meadowlands that I knew about it at all.
There’s an interesting new series starting tonight called Enemies of Reason, presented by Richard Dawkins. I may not always agree with him – I’ve yet to read my copy of The God Delusion – but I find him interesting and worthwhile. And any attack on homeopathy, astrology and the like can only be good in my books. Yet, if it weren’t for the Sunday papers pointing me the right way, I wouldn’t know it was on. Again – I’ve not seen a single trailer.
Athens – The Truth About Democracy, presented by Bettany Hughes, only came to my attention when I heard her interviewed on the Simon Mayo show on Five Live (more specifically on his podcast).
Finally, I know that there’s a new series on The IT Crowd starting soon on the channel. I’ve not seen the trailer, but fortunately others in forums I frequent have seen it, and have effectively alerted me accordingly.
These are four series that I have, one way or another, found out about. But I learnt about none of them thanks to Channel 4. There may well be other worthwhile series or one-off programmes that have aired recently. But I don’t know what they are.
I’d have thought that any TV exec worth his or her salt must realise that giving us too much of a successful show is a very short-term solution. The soaps are spread too thin these days, and yet we’re threatened with yet another episode of Eastenders (at the same time as we hear that series like Timewatch, Horizon and Storyville are threatened with cuts, while BBC3 or 4 might actually be axed – but that’s for another blog entry).