Research and Planning: E4 and the Brief

E4 is a British/Irish based television channel, owned by the Channel 4 Television Corporation. This channel is funded by advertising, which means that other companies will pay to advertise their products on their channel. E4 launched as a pay-TV companion to Channel 4 on 18 January 2001. On 16 December 2004, Channel 4 announced E4 as its own digital channel, however it was available as a bonus subscription channel. It later became a part of Top Up TV until 27 May 2005. The channel then became available on free-view and ever since has became a lot more popular. The programmes that are commonly shown on E4 are shows such as:

The primary audience of E4 is people aged 16-34 as the majority of their shows are rated U for Universal. 

Primary Audience:

Secondary Audience:

E4 is owned by channel 4 who own a large majority of TV channels such as:

• 4Seven 
• Film4
• E4
• More4
• 4Music

Most of their channels are extensions of their existing channels with slight changes to them. More4 is a channel which plays exactly what was on the original channel 4 an hour later and acts as a catch up channel. This is aimed at people who will miss a programme or people who are wanting to re-watch something. This can helpful for people that miss a programme as they can still watch it and are given another opportunity. 4Music however, is a bit different. This channel is based around music and will usually be playing the most popular songs for the current time. This is aimed at people who enjoy music and like what is currently popular. This is often so that they can stay up to date with all of the recent music.

E4 also owns a large amount of other companies and components which help to build their brand. E4 also has their own production company called Film4 Productions and have helped to make many big films such as The Inbetweeners movies.

 An ESting is a channel ident which is placed on the channel throughout their adverts and after programmes. Many channels have idents, such as BBC and Channel 4. This is a short clip to show off their logo and create a brand. This was also a competition, as they posted on their website requesting people to create a short 10 second clip with their soundtrack and logo. Above this are 3 examples of peoples responses to the competition.