Channel 4 Warms Up With Shackleton

Channel 4’s polar epic Shackleton, starring Kenneth Branagh, attracted an audience of over 3 million and won 16% share of viewing, according to the new BARB figures released yesterday (see BARB Releases First New System Overnights).

The two-part film, which at over £10m was the most expensive drama ever made by Channel 4, drew an audience of 3.6m for its first episode on 2 January. 3.3 million tuned in to watch the concluding episode the following evening, meaning that the share of viewing for both episodes was over 16%.

A spokesman for Channel 4 said: “We want to make bigger, more ambitious landmark programmes across the board and there’s no reason why this shouldn’t apply to drama. We’re all very pleased with Shackleton.. The budget for the film could have bought Channel 4 an entire early evening soap, so it was a major commitment.”

In his first statement as Channel 4’s new chief executive, Mark Thompson said that the channel should aim for “really big projects” (see Thompson Takes The Helm At Channel 4) and Shackleton‘s viewing figures appear to suggest that this could be a sound strategy.

Channel 4: 020 7396 4444 www.channel4.com

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