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BBC Four
BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002 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. The channel broadcasts daily from 7:00 pm to 4:00 am, timesharing with CBeebies (which starts at 6:00 am).
BBC Four launched on 2 March 2002 at 7:00 pm GMT, having been delayed from the original planned 2001 launch. BBC Four began as a late schedule for BBC Two, before it received its own channel, along with BBC Three. BBC Four was launched before BBC Three as a result of the government delaying approval for the latter. The channel replaced BBC Knowledge, an educational and cultural channel that 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. It was rebranded as part of BBC Four, aligning it with the existing BBC One and Two brands. Planning for the new channel, along with the new BBC Three, 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 digital terrestrial platform, BBC Four is broadcast in a statistically multiplexed stream in Multiplex B that timeshares with the CBeebies 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 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 versions of BBC One 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 (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 "[rank] programmes it thought were most relevant [to what BBC Four viewers would like]." 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 AI shouldn'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 Freeview 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 "[take] our strengths in specialist factual to the world stage."
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BBC Four
BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002 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. The channel broadcasts daily from 7:00 pm to 4:00 am, timesharing with CBeebies (which starts at 6:00 am).
BBC Four launched on 2 March 2002 at 7:00 pm GMT, having been delayed from the original planned 2001 launch. BBC Four began as a late schedule for BBC Two, before it received its own channel, along with BBC Three. BBC Four was launched before BBC Three as a result of the government delaying approval for the latter. The channel replaced BBC Knowledge, an educational and cultural channel that 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. It was rebranded as part of BBC Four, aligning it with the existing BBC One and Two brands. Planning for the new channel, along with the new BBC Three, 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 digital terrestrial platform, BBC Four is broadcast in a statistically multiplexed stream in Multiplex B that timeshares with the CBeebies 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 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 versions of BBC One 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 (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 "[rank] programmes it thought were most relevant [to what BBC Four viewers would like]." 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 AI shouldn'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 Freeview 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 "[take] our strengths in specialist factual to the world stage."