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Channel
Four
Channel
4 was still under the auspices of its founding chief executive,
Jeremy Isaacs in its original home of 60, Charlotte Street.
Isaacs was an ex-ABC and Rediffusion man, and it is interesting
that during his tenure at Channel Four there was a huge emphasis
on adult education, gritty drama and a disproportionate number
of programmes commissioned from Thames – 1985 being no
exception!
The
channel also still had its original funding formula, whereby it
was financed by subscriptions from the ITV companies levied by
the IBA in return for the ITV companies being able to sell
advertising time on Channel 4 in their own regions.
Additionally, if the channel made a profit, ITV was entitled to
a large slice of it because if the channel made losses the ITV
companies had agreed to bail it out. As a result, there was
regular cross-promotion of ITV and Channel 4 on-air.
Channel
4, in 1985, was still a relatively young channel – although
97% of the country could receive Channel 4 many had been only
able to watch it for less than a year. It was also perhaps far
truer to its brief to be "innovative and different"
that it would subsequently become.
It
also broadcast far less hours back then than you may imagine.
Channel Four only broadcast 61 hours a week back then, compared
to 105 for ITV. The most common sight on tuning to Channel 4
during the daytime would be the IBA’s boxy test card ETP-1.
Channel 4 tending to start-up mid-afternoon. Schools programmes
were still transmitted on ITV, and it was yet to launch a
breakfast television service.
One
of the more interesting programmes made by Channel Four in 1984
was "Citizen 2000", which wanted to follow the lives
of newborn children who would come of age in the year 2000.
However, by the time they came of age Thames Television (who
made the programme for Channel Four) had came and went.
Channel
Four had immediately earned a reputation for "sex and
depravity", whipped up by reactionary tabloid press
coverage, and "tedious obscurity" due to lazy parody
of the channel by comedians (the channel had been dubbed
"Channel Bore" and "Channel Snore"). This
had put off a large part of the channel’s potential audience.
Whilst
people under 30 had been particularly keen on the choice and
breadth offered by the channel, older viewers were proving
harder to win over.
However,
by 1985 the channel was gradually starting over older viewers
who had been put off by the adverse comment about the channel in
the media. With productions such as "Mapp and Lucia"
and "The Irish RM" – not to mention
"Countdown" – middle England was discovering the
channel in increasingly large numbers. It had taken a while, but
Channel Four was now truly arriving. |
