Film Four On Air

This weekend saw the launch of Channel 4’s new film channel, Film Four, on cable, digital and satellite television. As a one off, Channel 4 suspended its usual service, and Film Four was broadcast simultaneously on Channel 4, and cable, digital and satellite.

The line up included the films What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, The Usual Suspects and The Pillow Book, as well as an introduction to Film Four and a documentary style programme about the making of The Usual Suspects.

The channel’s launch kicked off at 7pm with an audience of 1.26 million viewers, according to unofficial overnight figures. The first film to be shown was the Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio drama What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, which had a peak audience of 2.08 million between 8.30pm and 8.45pm.

The big film of the night was The Usual Suspects and it proved to be the most popular. The complex thriller managed to attract an average audience of around 2 million and had a peak audience of 2.9 million between 10pm and 10.15pm. The average audience for the whole of the FilmFour night, between 7pm and 12am, was 1.85 million people.

A spokesperson for Channel Four told Newsline yesterday afternoon: “The launch of Channel Four’s new film channel set a television first with the unique simulcast of ten hours of the new channel’s programming on Channel 4 on launch night, Sunday 1st November. The response to the channel has been overwhelming with an initial 50,000 enquiries from potential subscribers. We are absolutely delighted with the initial response to the channel which offers a real and varied choice to those people who want something different from a film channel.”

Channel 4: 0171 306 8444