Free online access to C4 archives

BRITISH broadcaster Channel 4 is to put its back catalogue online free of charge – becoming the first British broadcaster to do so.

Most TV stations, including RTÉ, only allow free access to short clips of programmes or archive material and rarely allow access to TV drama programmes.

The Channel 4 move means viewers in Britain and Ireland will be able to watch every episode of British produced shows including Father Ted, Shameless, Grand Designs and Brass Eye without having to buy a DVD box set.

The broadcaster will also upload selected episodes of Brookside, featuring what it says were the soap’s most important storylines.

More than 4,000 hours of archived content, representing around 10,000 programme titles, will be added to the broadcaster’s 4oD on-demand internet service from July.

However, rights or legal issues means that some of Channel 4’s content – such as Friends – will not be included. Channel 4 News will also not be included as some paid-for news clips form part of a rights agreement which only allows it to show them up to midnight on the day of transmission.

The archived content will be made available to PC, Mac and Linux operating systems users on a free, streamed basis.

The 4oD catch-up service offers viewers programmes for 30 days after they broadcast, and some archive material for free to PC users. It also offers some US programmes and films on a pay-per-view basis.

Jon Gisby, the director of future media and technology at Channel 4, said: “We were the first broadcaster to launch a comprehensive video-on-demand service in 2006, and since that time 4oD has become one of the UK’s most popular VOD brands.

“We think the combination of fantastic content that’s easy to find and view will prove compelling for all users.”