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BBC Four is a British free-to-air

public broadcast Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...

television channel A television channel is a terrestrial frequency or virtual number over which a television station or television network is distributed. For example, in North America, "channel 2" refers to the terrestrial or cable band of 54 to 60 MHz, with ...

owned and operated by the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

. It was launched on 2 March 2002"Culture, controversy and cutting edge documentary: BBC FOUR prepares to launch"
BBC Press Office, 14 February 2002. Retrieved 2 April 2010. and shows a wide variety of programmes including arts, documentaries, music, international film and drama, and current affairs. It is required by its licence to air at least 100 hours of new arts and music programmes, 110 hours of new factual programmes, and to premiere twenty foreign films each year.BBC Four Service Licence. Issued February 2011
Retrieved 7 October 2011. Published by the BBC Trust.BBC Four Service Licence. Issued May 2009
Retrieved 12 March 2010 The channel broadcasts daily from 7:00 pm to 4:00 am, timesharing with

CBeebies CBeebies is a British free-to-air public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 6 years and under. Its sister channel CBBC is aimed at older childr ...

(which starts at 6:00 am).

History

BBC Four launched on 2 March 2002 at 7:00 pm

GMT Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, including being calculated from noon; as a cons ...

, having been delayed from the original planned 2001 launch. BBC Four began originally as a late schedule to BBC Two, before it received its own channel, along with

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, cur ...

. Curiously, BBC Four had to launch before BBC Three as a result of the government delaying approval plans. The channel replaced

BBC Knowledge BBC Knowledge was a British television channel which was owned by the BBC and was launched on 1 June 1999, broadcasting documentary, cultural and educational programmes. It was shut down on 2 March 2002, and was replaced by BBC Four. History L ...

, an educational and cultural channel which had undergone many changes throughout its lifetime; in its final format it carried a schedule of documentaries and art programming, essentially a test of the new BBC Four schedule. BBC Four would rebrand this channel, and bring it into line with the well recognised BBC One and Two brands at the same time. Planning for the new channel, along with the new

, had been in progress since October 2000; however, the incumbent government delayed approving the new BBC digital plans. The BBC Four plans were approved earlier, and as a result launched before BBC Three. BBC Four was different from the old BBC Knowledge: the channel would be more heavily promoted with more new and original programming and the channel would not be broadcast 24 hours a day. This was because on the

Freeview Freeview may refer to: * Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia * Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand *Freeview (UK), ...

digital terrestrial Digital terrestrial television (DTTV or DTT, or DTTB with "broadcasting") is a technology for terrestrial television in which land-based (terrestrial) television stations broadcast television content by radio waves to televisions in consumers' ...

platform, BBC Four is broadcast in a statistically multiplexed stream in Multiplex B that timeshares with the

channel (which is on air from 06:00 until 19:00). As a result, BBC Four broadcasts from 19:00 to around 04:00 each night, with an hour's down-time and promotions for CBeebies before the start of that channel's schedule. On 12 May 2011, BBC Four was added to the Sky

EPG Electronic programming guides (EPGs) and interactive programming guides (IPGs) are menu-based systems that provide users of television, radio and other media applications with continuously updated menus that display scheduling information for ...

in the Republic of Ireland on channel 230. It later moved to EPG 211 to free up space for new channels. It later moved to channel 143 on 1 May 2018 to sit beside the

Northern Irish Northern Irish people is a demonym for all people born in Northern Ireland or people who are entitled to reside in Northern Ireland without any restriction on their period of residence. Most Northern Irish people either identify as Northern ...

versions of

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

and BBC Two there, and the 200s being used for +1 channels. On 17 August 2018, BBC Four announced BBC 4.1, a special two nights of programming which would revolve around

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...

(AI) selecting the programmes broadcast on the channel, based on "what BBC Four audiences might like, based on the channel's previous schedules and programme attributes." It would then " ankprogrammes it thought were most relevant

o what BBC Four viewers would like O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''o'' (pronounced ), pl ...

" The programming was aired on the nights of 4 and 5 September 2018. This included a few special programmes about AI, such as "Made by Machine: When AI Met The Archive", which documented how the AI works, and "The Joy of AI", where "the emergence of machine learning" is discussed, as well as "why Ishouldn't spook us". On 19 February 2019, Virgin Media stopped providing BBC Four in standard definition. Due to the launch of BBC Scotland on 24 February 2019, BBC Four has been on a higher

EPG number in Scotland than elsewhere, moving to 82 to make room for BBC Scotland. Following eventual closures, it moved to channel 75 there, and later to channel 68, and eventually channel 55. On 4 November 2020, due to Ofcom proposals regarding certain PSB channels requiring greater prominence on each UK TV provider's channel listing, BBC Four moved to channel 24 in Scotland, while every channel from that number (ITV4) to channel 54 (5SELECT) moved up one place. In May 2020, the BBC submitted its annual general plan for 2020–21, which included a proposal for BBC Two to supplant BBC Four as its main outlet for specialist programmes. Under the plan, BBC Four would cease originating new programmes, and become a service showcasing the BBC's "rich archive". The plan also included the possibility of the BBC expanding BBC Four into a global brand, to "

ake Ake (or Aké in Spanish orthography) is an archaeological site of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. It's located in the municipality of Tixkokob, in the Mexican state of Yucatán; 40 km (25 mi) east of Mérida, Yucatán. The name ...

our strengths in specialist factual to the world stage." On 9 April 2021, the day that

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 1921 – 9 April 2021) was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he served as the consort of the British monarch from E ...

died, BBC Four was suspended for a whole day so the BBC could continue coverage of the Duke's death across its television, radio and online services. The next day (10 April) BBC Four resumed airing at the normal time of 7:00 pm. On 26 May 2022, the BBC announced plans to discontinue BBC Four as a broadcast channel within "the next few years", as part of plans to streamline and modify services to create a "digital-first" BBC. On 8 September 2022, BBC Four,

and BBC RB1 suspended broadcasting for the entire night, following the

death Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...

of Queen Elizabeth II, in order to preserve the bandwidth for BBC News' rolling coverage. BBC One and BBC Two simulcasted

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

' coverage of the monarch's death for the rest of the night until a revised schedule appeared on BBC Two at 6am. Unlike their other channels, the BBC decided that no amendments were needed to BBC Four's schedule on Friday 9 September 2022, with the music programming going ahead as advertised in the ''Radio Times'', with repeats of ''Top of the Pops 1993'' appearing at 7pm, followed by Nicola Benedetti playing Wynton Marsalis's Violin Concerto at the ''BBC Proms'' and programmes devoted to 1970s rock acts like The Pretenders.

Organisation

The channel direction is determined by the channel's remit, set by royal charter and the corporation's governing body (the

BBC Board The BBC Board is the governing board of the British Broadcasting Corporation #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and ...

), and by the channel controller. In October 2013, following the departure of Richard Klein from the controllership, the management of the channel changed, with the role of Controller of BBC Four scrapped: from this point the Controller of BBC Two would have ultimate oversight of BBC Four as part of their role, absorbing some of the former duties of the Controller of BBC Four, but a new 'Channel Editor' post, reporting up to this controller, would be created to take day-to-day charge of Four. The controllers of BBC Four from 2002 to 2016 have been: *2002–2004: Roly Keating *2004–2008:

Janice Hadlow Janice Vivienne Hadlow (born November 1957) in Lewisham is a former BBC television executive. She was the controller of the BBC television channel BBC Two, taking over this position in November 2008 having previously been controller of BBC Four. A ...

*2008–2013: Richard Klein *2013–2014:

(as Controller of BBC Two and BBC Four) "on an interim basis" – Hadlow had been Controller of BBC Two since departing BBC Four in 2008 *Early 2014: Adam Barker (interim Controller of BBC Two and BBC Four following Janice Hadlow's departure to a new post) *2014–2016: Kim Shillinglaw (as Controller of BBC Two and BBC Four) Channel Editors of BBC Four have been: *2013–present: Cassian Harrison BBC Four has an annual budget of £54.3 million. On 20 January 2016, Kim Shillinglaw announced that she had decided to leave the BBC as the Controller of BBC Two & BBC Four. As a result of the reorganisation, the post of BBC Two and Four control had closed after her departure later that year.

BBC Four HD

On 16 July 2013, the BBC announced that a high-definition (HD)

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simulta ...

of BBC Four would be launched by early 2014. The channel launched on 10 December 2013 at 18:58 GMT, and rolled out nationwide up to June 2014 (as did BBC News HD and CBeebies HD). The channel broadcasts on the BBC's new HD multiplex on Freeview and shares its stream with CBeebies HD as they both air at different times. Prior to launch, the majority of BBC Four's HD output was broadcast on the

BBC HD BBC HD was a 24-hour high-definition television channel provided by the BBC. The service was initially run as a trial from 15 May 2006 until becoming a full service on 1 December 2007 before its discontinuation on 26 March 2013. It broadcast ...

channel before its closure on 26 March 2013. In 2017 BBC Four HD along with CBBC HD and CBeebies HD launched in Ireland.

Programming

The first evening's BBC Four programmes were

on BBC Two, with the first programme being ''The Man Who Destroyed Everything'', a documentary about conceptual artist

Michael Landy Michael Landy (born 1963) is one of the Young British Artists (YBAs). He is best known for the performance piece installation '' Break Down'' (2001), in which he destroyed all his possessions, and for the ''Art Bin'' project (2010) at the ...

and his installation Break Down. BBC Four was also notable for first showing

Larry David Lawrence Gene David (born July 2, 1947) is an American comedian, writer, actor, and television producer. He and Jerry Seinfeld created the television sitcom ''Seinfeld'', on which David was head writer and executive producer for the first seve ...

's '' Seinfeld'' follow-up, '' Curb Your Enthusiasm'',

Armando Iannucci Armando Giovanni Iannucci (; born 28 November 1963) is a Scottish satirist, writer, director, producer, performer, and panellist. Born in Glasgow to Italian parents, Iannucci studied at the University of Glasgow followed by the University of ...

's cutting

political satire Political satire is satire that specializes in gaining entertainment from politics; it has also been used with subversive intent where political speech and dissent are forbidden by a regime, as a method of advancing political arguments where s ...

, ''

The Thick of It ''The Thick of It'' is a British comedy television series that satirises the inner workings of British government. Written and directed by Armando Iannucci, it was first broadcast for two short series on BBC Four in 2005, initially with a smal ...

'', '' The Chaser's War on Everything'', ''

Flight of the Conchords Flight of the Conchords is a New Zealand musical comedy duo formed in Wellington in 1998. The band consists of multi-instrumentalists Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement. Beginning as a popular live comedy act in the early 2000s, the duo's come ...

'', ''

Mad Men ''Mad Men'' is an American period drama television series created by Matthew Weiner and produced by Lionsgate Television. It ran on the cable network AMC from July 19, 2007, to May 17, 2015, lasting for seven seasons and 92 episodes. Its f ...

'' and

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

thriller ''Forbrydelsen, The Killing''. The channel broadcasts a mixture of art and science Documentary film, documentaries, vintage drama (including many rare black-and-white programmes), and non-English-language productions such as films from the Artificial Eye catalogue, the French thriller ''Spiral (TV series), Spiral'' and the Swedish detective series ''Wallander (Swedish TV series), Wallander''. BBC Four further supports foreign-language films with its annual BBC Four World Cinema Awards, World Cinema Award which has been running since 2004. Until the middle of 2020, BBC Four broadcast a global news bulletin on weekdays at 19:00 which most recently was a simulcast of ''Beyond 100 Days'' Monday–Thursday and an edition of ''World News Today'' on Fridays which was produced by BBC World News. This replaced ''The World'' and ''BBC Four News'' which aired in the slot from the launch of the channel. As of autumn 2020, BBC Four no longer broadcasts a news bulletin. It screens a number of documentaries such as ''The Century of the Self'' and ''The Trials of Henry Kissinger''. The channel is also home to many political travel shows such as ''Holidays in the Axis of Evil'' which features investigative journalism. BBC television drama, Drama has given the channel some of its most popular programmes, with ''Alan Clark, The Alan Clark Diaries'' (2003) and ''Kenneth Williams: Fantabulosa!'' (2006) being among the highest rated, with over 800,000 viewers. The highly acclaimed Hattie (film), Hattie, broadcast in 2011, holds the record for BBC4's best ever consolidated ratings of 2m / 8%. Before that ''The Curse of Steptoe'' brought the channel its highest audience figures, estimated as 1.41 million viewers, a 7% share of multichannel audiences between 21:00 and 22:05, based on overnight returns. The official audience figures for the broadcast, including time-shifting, were later published as 1,625,000. Another notable production was a live re-make of the 1953 science-fiction serial ''The Quatermass Experiment (film), The Quatermass Experiment'', adapted from the original scripts into a single, two-hour version (though on the night it, in fact, underran considerably, lasting less than 1 hour 40 minutes), broadcast on the evening of Saturday 2 April 2005. Discounting BBC Four's previous live relays of theatrical William Shakespeare productions, this was the first live made-for-television drama to be broadcast by the BBC for twenty years. Another notable programme broadcast on BBC Four is ''Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe'' which contains reviews of current shows, as well as stories and commentary on how television is produced. The show is presented by broadcaster Charlie Brooker. The channel is also curator and leader of the BBC Archives, BBC Archive project whose aim is that the BBC's television archive is re-broadcast as much as appropriate so that the Archive can be enjoyed again and not isolated. Some output from BBC Four (documentaries rather than foreign films) was for a time repeated on BBC Two in a 'BBC Four on Two' branded area, although this was often in a late night broadcast slot after ''Newsnight'' and has since been discontinued. According to BARB the comedy panel game ''QI'' has the highest ratings of any show on BBC Four. At the Edinburgh International Television Festival, BBC Four won the Non-Terrestrial Channel of the Year award in 2004, 2006 and 2012. In 2012 ''Dirk Gently (TV series), Dirk Gently'' became the first continuing drama series produced for the channel. Since the initial closure of BBC Three as a linear TV channel, BBC Four is occasionally used to show live sports coverage. The channel aired games from the UEFA Euro 2016 and 2018 FIFA World Cup football tournaments when the final round of matches in the group stages took place (when matches in each group kick-off simultaneously). It has also been used to broadcast England women's football matches, as well as some matches from 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup. It also temporarily extended its broadcast hours to show live action from the 2016 Summer Olympics. As of 2022, BBC Four schedules still feature music programming (such as ''Top of the Pops'' and Neil Brand's documentaries) on a Friday night, with drama imports on a Saturday (but not always foreign-language productions like Italian crime drama ''Inspector Montalbano (TV series), Inspector Montalbano'') and usually an hour of 'archive' programmes (such as those by Bob Ross and Fred Dibnah) starting off the weekday schedule at 7pm. As well as programmes from the 1980s and 1990s, this early evening slot gives a chance for regional programmes to get a national airing with Cy Chadwick, Cy Chadwick's ''Walking with... (2019 TV series), Walking with...'' productions and ''Gareth Edwards’s Great Welsh Adventure'' (from BBC Wales) getting a repeat here and then again late night. In addition to these programmes, many hour long regional documentaries such as BBC Scotland's ''Rigs of Nigg'', about the 1970s North Sea oil drilling platform construction industry based around the Cromarty Firth, also received their national debut on the channel.

Programmes

Original programmes

Imports

*''Arne Dahl (TV series)#Arne Dahl TV adaptations, Arne Dahl'' *''The Bridge (Danish/Swedish TV series), The Bridge'' *''Borgen (TV series), Borgen'' *''Hostages (Israeli TV series), Hostages'' *''Inspector De Luca (TV series), Inspector De Luca'' *''Inspector Montalbano (TV series), Inspector Montalbano'' *''The Killing (Danish TV series), The Killing'' *''Minuscule (TV series), Minuscule'' *''The Money'' *''Salamander (TV series), Salamander'' *''Spiral (TV series), Spiral'' *''Trapped'' *''Wallander (Swedish TV series), Wallander'' *''The Joy of Painting''

Domestic repeats

Music concerts

*''BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend'' (from 2016) *''Coldplay Live'' *''David Gilmour Live in Gdansk'' (part of David Gilmour Night) * ''Eurovision Song Contest'' semi-finals (2016–2021) *''Madness Live'' (part of Goodbye Television Centre) *''Queen 1975 Live''

Music programming

*''...at the BBC'' (an original hour long music compilation usually featuring performances from various BBC TV shows, with bands like ABBA, genres like disco and acts from record labels such as Motown and Island featured) *''The Sound of Musicals with Neil Brand'' (documentary series) *''The Sound of TV with Neil Brand'' (documentary series) *''Top of the Pops'' (episodes repeated each week from BBC One, with the run continuing from 1976 to 1992 as of October 2022) *''Top of the Pops: The Story of...'' (an original hour long year-by-year documentary on BBC Four, also shown on BBC Two/UKTV Yesterday in an edited 45 minute version) *''Top of the Pops: Big Hits'' (an original hour long year-by-year compilation featuring performances from the show with added on-screen facts, also shown on BBC Two) *''Top of the Pops: Big Hits 1964 to 1975'' (a 90-minute version of the Big Hits format featuring early hits from the show, also shown on UKTV's Yesterday channel)

Classics (shown in 2007 and 2015)

*''The Avengers (TV series), The Avengers'' *''Blue Peter'' *''The Clangers'' *''Grange Hill (TV series), Grange Hill'' *''The Magic Roundabout'' *''Newsround'' *''Play School (UK TV series), Play School''

Most watched programmes

The following is a list of the ten most watched broadcasts on BBC Four since launch, based on Live +7 data supplied by BARB. Number of viewers does not include repeats.

Availability outside the UK

BBC Four is widely available on Cable television in the Republic of Ireland, cable, IPTV and digital satellite television in the Republic of Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. The channel is registered to broadcast within the European Union/EEA through the Luxembourg Broadcasting Regulator - ALIA.

Presentation

The channel's initial series of Station identification, idents were generated Audio visualisation, dynamically reflecting the frequencies of the continuity announcers' voice or of backing music and were designed by Lambie-Nairn. As a result, no two idents were ever the same. The first continuity announcer was Zeb Soanes. When the channel first started airing, it used the slogan "Everybody Needs A Place To Think", but the BBC stopped using this several months after the launch. However the BBC Four logo and above slogan can be found, engraved on benches along the South Bank in London, between the London Eye and Waterloo Bridge. On 10 September 2005, the channel began showing new idents comprising a central BBC Four logo surrounded by four quadrants which show different stages of the same footage thus making for a sort of optical illusion; for example, a swimming pool where a person on an inflatable ring appears in the bottom-left corner, though ripples don't enter the remaining quarters. Although the image appears as one at the start of the ident, by the end it is clearly four separate images. In March 2019, BBC Four added several new idents inspired by "oddly satisfying videos" in tandem with the quadrants theme, originally premiering for a programme season honouring the 30th anniversary of the World Wide Web.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bbc Four 2002 establishments in the United Kingdom BBC television channels in the United Kingdom Television channels and stations established in 2002 Television channels in the United Kingdom

History

Organisation

BBC Four HD

Programming

Programmes

Original programmes

Imports

Domestic repeats

Music concerts

Music programming

Classics (shown in 2007 and 2015)

Most watched programmes

Availability outside the UK

Presentation

See also

Notes

References

External links