Channel 4 To Launch “E4 Extra” As New Home To US Comedy & Drama Imports
Channel 4 is having a bit of a channel shuffle as they announce ‘E4 Extra’, a new location focused mainly on reruns of their acquisitions, and overspill from the main ‘E4’ channel.
On 29th June, ‘E4 Extra’ will take over the EPG slot currently occupied by ‘4Music’. ‘4Music’ will move and replace the ‘Box Hits’ channel, which is being shut down. This new channel will be home to things such as reruns of ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’, ‘The Big Bang Theory’, ‘The Inbetweeners’ and ‘Derry Girls’, along with dramas such as ‘Batwoman’, which the UK has been patiently (or impatiently…) waiting to return to finish its run of the 3rd and final season.
The channel will also hold unscripted formats such as ‘Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares’, ‘Ninja Warrior Japan’ and ‘Undercover Boss USA’. Whilst the channel seems mainly focused on reruns, they have acquired the 2nd Season of ‘Legendary’, the reality vogueing competition which aired Season 1 on All4 last year.
For those of you thinking this might bring in an influx of new US acquisitions, that does not seem to be the case. It’s more of a rebranding of 4Music, which has become less of a music channel and more of a general entertainment channel in recent years.
“4Music started life as a music channel, but it has changed over time in line with audience demands, offering a blend of E4 flavoured comedy and entertainment,” said C4 head of youth and digital, Karl Warner. “So E4 Extra feels like a natural evolution, strengthening the E4 brand and optimising the content mix between the channels. It’s a really significant change that will give more shelf space to E4. E4 Extra will operate like 4Music did but will be fine-tuned and work with E4 much more seamlessly.”
If you’re wondering what that leaves for the main ‘E4’ channel, they are retaining shows such as ‘Hollyoaks’ and ‘Young Sheldon’. However, it seems it will now mainly focus on the various unscripted formats which have crept onto the network in the last twelve months such as ‘Married At First Sight’, ‘Made in Chelsea’, ‘Celebs Go Dating’ and ‘Teen First Dates’…
‘E4 Extra’ launches Wednesday, 29th June 2022 on Freeview 31, Virgin 337, Sky 139, Freesat 181 and YouView 31.
