Next linear channel to close?

[dbl]

challenge, literally just the chase with a couple episodes of bullseye at 3am

The ratings are still strong for Challenge in general, so the demand is there.

[This is UTV]

With 4Music showing not that much music, will the rebrand to 4Comedy be more likely to happen?

Was the name 4Comedy seriously being considered by C4, or was it just TVF fantasy gossip?


I can see Blaze being wound down within the next 12 months too, and Sky History 2.

[AllWillBeWell]

Not sure what the latest stats on "live" TV viewing are. Not that long ago it was still around 90%, but looking at ratings it certainly has fallen further in the last couple of years, but even so the death of linear TV has been greatly exaggerated. You only have to look at Line of Duty pulling in 9m on Sundays to see that - and even with a show with much smaller ratings such as The Circle hovering around 1m has clear benefits in engaging the viewers by playing it out at the same time to all of them than releasing it on demand.


The broadcasters clearly experimenting a bit this year with how to release content - at the beginning of the year virtually all dramas on the BBC and ITV (and It's a Sin on C4) seemed to be released as a box set after the first episode, but they seem to have scaled back on that now. I see C4 are opting to release just the next episode of First Dates Hotel after each episode, a strategy UKTV used to do with Taskmaster - which is great after the first episode, but then each subsequent week you're still waiting a week for the next episode so may as well watch it on linear TV.

And of course Disney+ have largely ignored the boxsetting strategy in favour of weekly releases, meaning they probably only really need one landmark show a quarter rather than something significant every month.

That may be more a case of the way the release has happened, if all episodes were on iPlayer at once before the linear broadcast I suspect the linear views would drop like a ton of bricks. The broadcasters may well decide to release episodes once a week to keep the linear views strong, but the fact that the channel gets a lot of views because of this does not necessarily mean linear channels are still valued by the viewer. They just have no choice and are "forced" to watch the linear version. Does that really change anything, I don't think so. People are always going to tune in to watch a hit if that is the first option to watch it. I guess it has always been the case with commercial channels spreading a show across six or eight weeks so they can keep the viewers coming back and ad revenue coming in. If a broadcaster has no requirement to keep ad revenue coming in, can they still justly the weekly release stratergy? I am sure there are other targets at play and not just viewers that would factor into it.

Apple TV is another streaming service which has opted for weekly releases, For all mankind is such an example. I actually prefer weekly releases. It gives you time to take in the content more instead of binge watching!

[JAS84]

I would expect 5Select and POP Max to close next.

Both channels have bombshell ratings. 5Select is useless. Literally just repeats. I know that's the point of the channel but people can just use My5. The same could be said about 4seven as well. Pop Max is just POP with a different name and lower ratings. They never should've rebranded from KIX and took the channel off Freeview.

That is odd. Wikipedia says it's only available on Freeview in Manchester... but surely in that case it should be available anywhere that has a local channel?

[nwtv2003]

I would expect 5Select and POP Max to close next.

Both channels have bombshell ratings. 5Select is useless. Literally just repeats. I know that's the point of the channel but people can just use My5. The same could be said about 4seven as well. Pop Max is just POP with a different name and lower ratings. They never should've rebranded from KIX and took the channel off Freeview.

That is odd. Wikipedia says it's only available on Freeview in Manchester... but surely in that case it should be available anywhere that has a local channel?

It’s the legacy G-MAN MUX which was set up for Channel M. So not only do we get the Local TV MUX, we get the G-MAN one also.

[LondonNewsBites]

5Select or Paramount Network have got to be quite likely. Paramount in particular doesn't really have much of a purpose other than screening endless repeats of Police Interceptors and Traffic Cops.

4Music is a possible candidate as well.

I agree, 4Music is becoming less music and should be merged into E4.

[paul_hadley]

Looking at the schedules for the next couple of days 4Music doesn’t have any music programming beyond midday. This reminds me of when the E4 Music strand was a thing on E4 where they used the “dead air” time when Big Brother’s live stream was out of season for music videos.

[AJ]

The Trace music channels have reinvented themselves so many times in a short space of time that they must be struggling.

That said, there can't be much of a market for music channels outside of hairdressers etc nowadays with the likes of Spotify.