Channel 4 secures online deal

9 Jun 2006

Channel 4 has won the right to show its television programmes on the internet for 30 days after the original transmission.

The agreement with TV producers is a victory for Andy Duncan, the chief executive of Channel 4, who had been campaigning for a month-long internet window.

“This deal is of major importance to Channel 4 in securing us the exclusive 30-day window we need to launch a full (TV) on-demand service in the autumn,” he said.

Channel 4 is dependent on independent producers for all its output, and had feared that it was at risk of being cut out by producers, who otherwise would have been free to transmit shows they had made over the Internet within a week of television transmission.

Mr Duncan had said that he would ask Ofcom to set up an in-house production business if he did not get his way — a threat to take business away from the independents that appears to have worked.

Last week, the BBC reached its own agreement with PACT, the trade body for independent producers.

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