Channel 4’s 4OD Beats Expectations; 20 Million VOD Deliveries In First Six Months

Channel 4’s 4OD on-demand content strand has seen 20 million programs pulled down by more than a million viewers in its first six months, FT reports. The broadcaster launched the service, which makes a large number of recent and archive Channel 4, E4 and More4 shows available on-demand for free and at a range of price points, on cable (Virgin Media), IPTV (BT Vision and Tiscali) and its own website to Windows users at the end of last year. It seems to have become successful earlier than envisaged. FT: “According to independent producers, Channel 4 guaranteed them a minimum of £500,000 in revenues in the first year of the service but this was achieved after just four months.” C4’s VOD head Sarah Rose said: “It has definitely taken off. We were pleasantly surprised by people’s willingness to pay.” Now C4 is in talks with BSkyB to carry 4OD on its Sky Anytime VOD offering over televisions, PC and mobile.