All 4 is a

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of ...

service from the

Channel Four Television Corporation Channel Four Television Corporation is a British state-owned media company headquartered in London. Its original and principal activity is the British national television network Channel 4. The company was founded in 1982 as the Channel Four T ...

, free of charge for most content and funded by advertising. The service is available in the UK and Ireland; viewers are not required to have a TV licence—required for live viewing and the

BBC iPlayer BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers and smart televisions. iPlayer services del ...

on-demand service—when watching on-demand services. The service launched on 16 November 2006 as 4oD (for "4 on Demand"). The service offers a variety of programmes recently shown on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

, E4,

More4 More4 is a British free-to-air television channel, owned by Channel Four Television Corporation. The channel launched on 10 October 2005. Its programming mainly focuses on lifestyle and documentaries, as well as foreign dramas. Content When ...

Film4 Film4 is a British free-to-air television network owned by Channel Four Television Corporation launched on 1 November 1998, devoted to broadcasting films. While its standard-definition channel is available on Freeview and Freesat platforms ...

and

E4 Extra E4 Extra is a British free-to-air television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation, launched on 29 June 2022. It is a sibling channel to E4 and replaced 4Music, with 4Music in turn replacing Box Hits which has shut do ...

and shorts. However some programmes and movies are not available due to rights issues. The service was originally available without registration, but free registration was later required. The service is available without advertising (except for live viewing) on payment of a subscription, under the name All 4+. The cable and IPTV versions are operated through an appropriate set-top box, the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...

variant can be accessed via their website, and there are apps for mobile devices. All 4 generated around 215 million long-form video views on all platforms where it is available in the first half of 2011, making Channel 4 the biggest commercial UK broadcaster in the video on-demand market during the period. On 30 March 2015, 4oD was merged into and renamed All 4. (References below to "All 4" before that date should be understood as including 4oD.) On 1 March 2019, All 4 was rebranded with a new logo, website design and app design. All 4 is set to rebrand as Channel 4 in 2023, becoming the "first UK broadcaster to adopt one brand identity across its digital and linear channels".

Web platforms

Channel4.com

All 4 is the main source of on demand programmes from Channel 4, E4, and More4. The catch up service currently lasts 30 days, and the archive has thousands of hours of programming. As of April 2009, the internet version is fully available to Mac and Windows users with

Adobe Flash Player Adobe Flash Player (known in Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Google Chrome as Shockwave Flash) is computer software for viewing multimedia contents, executing rich Internet applications, and streaming audio and video content created on ...

installed. The "catch-up" service offers content free of charge for 30 days after a programme's broadcast on Channel 4. As of 2011, not all content is available to Irish users, due to licensing restrictions; however, the majority of the programming is available. Live streaming of Channel 4 and its sister channels is not available outside the UK. Channel 4 relaunched 4oD on 31 August 2011. At the heart of the changes is 'My 4oD', allowing registered users to build playlists, schedule shows, maintain a record of what they have watched, save their favourites in a single place, and receive in-page reminders from Channel 4 whenever a new episode is available for them to watch. Other features include better full-page viewing and optimised site navigation during viewing. Since 2014, the service stops users with

ad blocking Ad blocking or ad filtering is a software capability for blocking or altering online advertising in a web browser, an application or a network. This may be done using browser extensions or other methods. Technologies and native countermeasures ...

software from watching videos on All 4.

Third party "box-set" content

During 2020 Channel 4 entered a new licensing deal with the

Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

for distributing a variety of older

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Disn ...

programming as part of All 4's expanding "box set" feature. In June, ''

Buffy the Vampire Slayer ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' is an American supernatural drama television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon. It is based on the 1992 film of the same name, also written by Whedon, although the events of the film are not consid ...

'' was introduced, followed by ''Angel'' in September 2020, and ''

Malcolm in the Middle ''Malcolm in the Middle'' is an American family television sitcom created by Linwood Boomer for Fox. The series premiered on January 9, 2000, and ended on May 14, 2006, after seven seasons and 151 episodes. The series follows a dysfunction ...

'' in October 2020.

2023 rebrand

On 2 November 2022, Channel 4 announced plans to rebrand it's on-demand service, All 4, as Channel 4. In a statement released by Channel 4, the change enabled it to become "the first UK broadcaster to adopt one brand identity across its digital and linear channels". It was also announced that their portfolio of channels will also align with the Channel 4 branding.

Television platforms

Blu-ray players and televisions

An All 4 app for the

Samsung Smart TV Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (, sometimes shortened to SEC and stylized as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean multinational electronics corporation headquartered in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, South Korea. It is the pinnacle of the Samsung chaebol, acco ...

service was released on 22 March 2013.

Freesat

All 4 became available as part of

Freesat Freesat is a British free-to-air satellite television service, first formed as a joint venture between the BBC and ITV plc and now owned by Digital UK. The service was formed as a memorandum in 2007 and has been marketed since 6 May 2008. Free ...

's second generation Free Time guide on 27 June 2013, offering the last seven days of programming integrated to the TV guide and access to the All 4 archive via the on demand section. As of 22 February 2018 All 4 will no longer be available on Freesat services.

Sky

All 4 was added to Sky's

On Demand On-demand or on demand may refer to: Manufacturing * Build-on-demand * Just-in-time manufacturing, a methodology for production * Print on demand, printing technology and business process in which new copies of a document are not printed until an ...

service on 18 March 2013.

Virgin Media

All 4 is available on

Virgin Media Virgin Media is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, television and internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, England. It is owned by Virgin Media O2, a 50:50 joint ventu ...

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

service. This platform offers programmes for 7 days after broadcast and Virgin has exclusive use of most of Channel 4 archive which is free on XL package. In 2007, Virgin Media announced plans to offer high definition programming through All 4 but no further information has been released.

YouView

All 4 was one of four services available at the launch of

YouView YouView is a hybrid television platform in the United Kingdom developed by YouView TV Ltd., a partnership of four broadcasters, the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5; and three telecommunications operators, Arqiva, BT Group and TalkTalk Gro ...

in July 2012. At launch, the All 4 app contained options to resume watching recent programmes and browse by most popular, categories, collections, and A-to-Z, but lacked a search function and contained non-skippable adverts. It is also available for

BT TV BT TV is a subscription IPTV service offered by BT; a division of United Kingdom telecommunications company BT Group, and was originally launched as BT Vision in December 2006. As of the end of June 2019, BT TV had 1.9 million customers ...

and

TalkTalk Plus TV TalkTalk TV is a UK-based consumer television and video on demand service, operated by the TalkTalk Group that originally launched in 2000. In September 2012, the current TalkTalk TV was launched in partnership with YouView. Its television an ...

customers, as these services run on YouView.

Game consoles

PlayStation 3

All 4 was released on 14 December 2010 on

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...

via the

PlayStation Network PlayStation Network (PSN) is a digital media entertainment service provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Launched in November 2006, PSN was originally conceived for the PlayStation video game consoles, but soon extended to encompass smar ...

. This service was accessible through ps3.channel4.com, but has now been replaced with a native app. The app version of All 4 for PlayStation 3 was released on 20 June 2013, allowing access to the full All 4 library. All 4 on PS3 is free and ad-funded with pre-, mid- and post-roll video ads being sold and served by Channel 4. The service closed on PS3 systems on 31 January 2021.

PlayStation 4

The All 4 app was launched on

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 i ...

on 23 December 2015.

PlayStation 5

All 4 is now available on the

PlayStation 5 The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, it was launched on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North ...

Xbox 360

On 5 October 2011, it was announced that All 4 would be made available to all

Xbox Live Gold The Xbox network, formerly and still sometimes branded as Xbox Live, is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft. It was first made available to the Xbox system on November 15, 2002. An u ...

members. The service also integrates with the

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...

Kinect Kinect is a line of motion sensing input devices produced by Microsoft and first released in 2010. The devices generally contain RGB cameras, and infrared projectors and detectors that map depth through either structured light or time of fli ...

controller. All 4 was added to the Xbox Live on 21 December 2011. All content on Xbox Live contains ads which cannot be skipped.

Xbox One

On 8 November 2013,

announced that the All 4 app would be available on

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

when it launched on 22 November 2013. In August 2019, the app was removed from the Microsoft Store. It was later released with inferior features to other platforms.

Mobile platforms

Android devices

An All 4 app for the Android operating system was released on 5 February 2013. Android version 5.0 or greater is required. The service does not support devices it detects as rooted.

iOS devices

An All 4

iPad The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, ...

app launched on 3 May 2011, offering a 30-day catch-up service. this app was compatible with iPad with iOS 3.2 or later. The design of the app was elegant and intuitive but received unfavourable reviews because of technical issues and its use of commercial breaks. Since 2013 download and offline watching is supported. An All 4 app for the iPhone and

iPod Touch The iPod Touch (stylized as iPod touch) is a discontinued line of iOS-based mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. with a touchscreen-controlled user interface. As with other iPod models, the iPod Touch can be used as a musi ...

allowing a 30-day catch-up was released on 2 September 2011, along with an update to the iPad app. Both apps support search functionality to enable users to navigate the catch-up and archive content. They can both be browsed in 3G, but video playback is still only available with a Wi-Fi signal to "ensure the quality of the viewing experience isn't affected". The app also links to Channel 4's content on

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mu ...

, allowing programmes to be purchased.

Windows Phone

On 13 November 2013, a native All 4 app was launched for mobile phones running the

Windows Phone Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design lan ...

8 platform.

Computer platforms

The service was originally available as a

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for se ...

-only desktop program for downloading shows similar to

Desktop. Following the launch of the web version of 4oD in April 2009, the desktop client continued to allow content from outside the catch-up window to be downloaded. The Kontiki based program which offered

Windows Media Video Windows Media Video (WMV) is a series of video codecs and their corresponding video coding formats developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Windows Media framework. WMV consists of three distinct codecs: The original video compression technol ...

downloads was closed in July 2009. The desktop client offered programming from other broadcasters such as FX and

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widel ...

as well as movies from

. A Download To Own (DTO) or "Buy" feature was also available on selected content, allowing users to purchase a programme and keep it for as long as they wish. On 17 December 2012, Channel 4 and

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washi ...

released a dedicated All 4 application for

Windows 8 Windows 8 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012; it was subsequently made available for download via MSDN and TechNet on August 15, 2012, and later to ...

. The move saw Channel 4 become the first major UK broadcaster to support the operating system with a native app.

Exclusive programming

Shorts (2014–present) *

Walter Presents Walter Presents is a video-on-demand service of the UK's Channel 4, part of its All 4 online platform. Launched on 3 January 2016, it specialises in foreign-language drama and comedy with English subtitles. It is named after Walter Iuzzolino, ...

(2016–present) - foreign language titles * The Island with Bear Grylls USA (2016–present) * Hunted America (2017–present) *

Don't Hug Me I'm Scared ''Don't Hug Me I'm Scared'' (often abbreviated as ''DHMIS'') is a British web and television series created by Becky Sloan, Joe Pelling, and Baker Terry. The series is notable for its blending of surreal comedy and black comedy with psychologica ...

(2022–present)

References

External links

* {{Navboxes, list1= {{Channel Four Television Corporation {{UK Based TV on demand {{Media in the United Kingdom, television {{VOD services Channel 4 British entertainment websites Television websites Video on demand services 2006 establishments in the United Kingdom Internet properties established in 2006 PlayStation 4 software