E4 Upbeat As 1st Birthday Approaches

Channel 4’s fledgling digital entertainment channel, E4, is claiming an early victory for its new “Big Thursday” promotion in the run up to the channel’s 1st birthday on Friday (see Ali G Launches E4).

A year from launch, there has been criticism that the channel, which is only available in an average 72% of multi-channel homes, is yet to build up a credibly sized audience. However, E4 claims that on the first “Big Thursday” on 10 January, record audiences were achieved for the featured programmes- new series of Friends and ER.

According to BARB overnight data, the 9pm showing of Friends had an audience of 1.1 million, E4’s highest audience yet. The total grew to 1.7 million when the figures for the Sunday repeat were added. ER at 10pm managed 800,000, giving the channel a viewing share in multichannel homes of 2.8% between 4pm and 2am.

E4 is keen to emphasise its increasing appeal to its target audience of 16-34 year olds. Its share of viewing for this age group is said to have grown 66% in multichannel homes compared to the E4 2001 average during the first week of January.

Financially, the channel is said to be £4m ahead of business plan, with a first year investment of £38m against a budgeted loss of £42m. It is expected to break even in 2005. Dan Brooke, E4’s general manager, said: “This has been a tough year in tough market and to be ahead of financial targets is a considerable feat.”

Channel Four: 020 7396 4444 www.channel4.com

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