4Music

Looks like a play on Vista Sans... but it'll be a custom made font probably/

So, according to the press release calls this the "REBIRTH OF MUSIC TV". Fantastic! Let's look at launch night.

7:00pm DAVINA & STEVE'S 20 BIG ONES
Davina McCall and Steve Jones hook up to bring viewers 20 big hits from 20 big stars in celebration of tonight's launch of the 4Music channel.

9:00pm KYLIEX2008
Kylie Minogue brings her latest live extravaganza to the O2 Arena, London, with classic hits and songs from her latest album X .

11:10pm BIG BROTHER LIVE
4Music brings viewers live action direct from the Big Brother house.

1:10am DAVINA & STEVE'S 20 BIG ONES
Davina McCall and Steve Jones hook up to bring viewers 20 big hits from 20 big stars in celebration of tonight's launch of the 4Music channel.

3:00am 4 MUSIC FLOORFILLERS
An eclectic mix of upbeat party tunes to see viewers through the night.


...Big Brother. A repeat that soon after?
Yeah, this channel isn't going to do well.

damn! I knew 4Music would be a letdown

I thought it was launching with the V Festival.

Saturday and Sunday.

What's Big Brother doing on a music channel?

Especially when its also being shown on E4.

I really like Channel 4's music output, it's quite original and I'm sure it will go well on 4Music, but I really hope it won't be wall to wall BB and SNP...

Looking at the first week Big Brother is only there on launch night, which is kind of strange.

The hits are now showing another promo, which incudes their current ident, turning into what appears to be a new 4music ident, with how many days until launch in the corner, and the voicover "Something very special is happening to the hits"

I don't find it "special", there getting rid of one of the most well known music channel.

They're promoting it on Bauer's Radio stations, I take it Bauer will still have 50% control.

Daytime is just the same as The Hits is now if the weekend mornings and first Monday are anything to go by. Its exactly the same line up just with 4Music just where The Hits was.

Saturday 17th August

1.10am- Davina & Steves 20 Big Ones
3.00am- 4Music Floorfillers
6.00am- 4Music Big Ones
8.00am- Flashbox
10.30am- V Festival 2008: The Line Up
11.00am- The Official Hit40UK Top 40
2.00pm- V Festival 2008: Live

Sunday 17th August

2.00am- 4Music Big Ones
5.30am- Signed by 4Music
6.30am- 4Music Big Ones
10.00am- Top 50 V Festival Acts
2.00pm- V Festival 2008: Live

Monday 18th August

2.00am- 4Music Big Ones
5.30am- Signed by 4Music
6.30am- Teleshopping
9.00am- Top 25 Chick Flick Favourites
11.00am- 4Music Big Ones
12.00pm- Todays 4Music Top 10
12.45pm- 4Music Big Ones
3.00pm- R&B Download Chart: Top 20
4.30pm- 4Music Big Ones
5.15pm- Todays 4Music Top 10
6.00pm- Shipwrecked 2008
7.30pm- Shipwrecked 2008: The Third Island
8.00pm- Miquita Does the 90's
10.00pm- The Sunday Night Project
11.00pm- TMobile Transmission

Its really not as bad as people are making out but I don't see why they have to axe The Hits. It has to go from Freeview to make space but The Hits is by far the most watched and most popular music channel. Here is a list of the channels the Bauer Group and Channel 4 own and the audience share:

The Box- 0.1%
The Hits- 0.3%
Kiss- 0.1%
Magic- 0.1%
Smash Hits- 0.0%
Q- 0.0%
Kerrang- 0.0%

The 0.3% share for The Hits is down to it being on Freeview but it would probably still hold 0.1% or 0.2% just because of the channel name. They own 3 channels with a 0.0% share, and Smash Hits is essentially the same channel as The Hits but The Hits manages a bigger share and would manage a bigger share on Sky/Freesat/Virgin Media alone. I don't see why they're axing The Hits altogether to make way for Smash Hits when there are less successful and similar channels they own.