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4Music to shift focus to entertainment

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PA
PATV Scunthorpe
The Box Plus Network have announced plans to revise flagship channel 4Music, with its usual music playlists airing during the day and entertainment taking on a new focus during the evening. Plans also seem to include a reduction to its main live show ‘Trending Live’ from 2 hours to an hour and a half, with the entertainment schedule starting afterwards at 5:30pm.

The changes are due to take place around May 1st to coincide with the channels move to the entertainment section on the Sky EPG.

http://www.musicweek.com/media/read/we-re-extremely-excited-the-box-plus-network-repositions-4music-as-youth-music-and-entertainment-destination/071938

Quote:
The Box Plus Network has today (March 2Cool revealed new plans to reposition 4Music to target a mainstream 16-22 year old Gen-Z audience. The move will take 4Music into the entertainment EPG on Sky, next to Channel 4’s digital channels, to reach and engage more of the UK’s youth audiences. The channel will feature a mix of comedy, cult drama, teen fantasy, reality, charts and trending stories.

As part of the change, 4Music mornings will still provide chart hits and new music and talent brought to the fore, providing an access point for artist takeovers, performances and other music productions. There will also be key prime time slots for music as it retains a core part of the channel offer.

Afternoons will host 4Music’s flagship daily live entertainment show Trending Live, a shop window for the complete 4Music offer: live, topical and off the cuff; the only Gen-Z targeted live show on TV featuring guests from the worlds of music and pop-culture, opinion and bite-size previews of content both on and off the network Mon – Thurs 16:00 – 17:30.

Matt Rennie, MD at The Box Plus Network, said: “We’re extremely excited to expand our offer beyond music and for the opportunity to entertain our audience in even more ways. Over the last four years we have become the stand-out leader in music television, so to build on that into entertainment is a momentous time for the network. But don’t worry, even though we’ll only have six of our seven channels dedicated to music, we’ll still be the biggest and best music television network in the UK!”

The entertainment line-up ranges from Love & Hip Hop (exclusive to 4Music), several series in the Kardashians franchise and Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents to teen fantasy such as Charmed and Xena: Warrior Princess. Additionally, 8 Out of 10 Cats, Rude Tube and Sex and the City will feature, with more titles to be announced. The shows are stripped Mon - Thurs to offer up a mix of genres across the channel from 17:30 with stacks at the weekend.

The marketing campaign will run across TV, Radio and digital from April 17 with the EPG change from May 1.
BR
Brekkie
So basically 4Music during the day and some kind of E4 Gold in the evening, just a little bit earlier than it is now.
RE
Rex
This move illustrates what is a double-down approach to the entertainment part of the channel as it stands, and even more so since it corresponds with the Sky EPG changes in May.

In recent years they have been prioritising shows from the Channel 4/E4 archives and The Kardashians, so it's not much of a surprise to see.
NW
nwtv2003
If the music channels are aimed at a young audience, I’m amazed that any of them are still going, considering most watch videos on YouTube and listen on services such as Spotify. They’ve been showing programmes for sometime now so it’s not surprising they’re taking more of an entertainment led schedule. Considering they’re moving high up on Sky it would have been a perfect opportunity to launch an HD service.
TC
TCOTV
This is not news. As said above it's been happening for a while. Surprise they don't just call it T4.
JetixFann450 and paul_hadley gave kudos
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
Not all the music channels are aimed at young audiences, you've got the likes of Vintage TV, Heart, the Now channels... the rest are generic (save for Scuzz and Kerrang) and its probably only the MTV branded channels bar Classic and those that endlessly run on chart countdowns that are primarily aimed at those who can buy it on iTunes without getting out of bed. Back in our day we'd have had to drag our arses down to HMV/Our Price/Woolworths to buy the music.

I've always had the impression that they've never quite known what they wanted to do with 4Music, which was tragic because they had that wonderful E4 Music strand that filled endless hours on E4 and in some ways its a shame that that didn't survive. Such is life though.
KE
kernow
They're basically doing what MTV did a few years ago, and it won't be long before there's hardly any music left on 4Music.

This will ultimately result in the lack of a mainstream music channel on Freeview, which 4Music is now the only example of (with the only other music channels being niche channels Vintage TV and Keep it Country), after the loss of Viva and Chart Show TV.
BR
Brekkie
I suspect C4 getting an extra slot relatively high in the revamped Sky EPG is partly behind this - it will be easy enough to throw it back down the EPG in the future should they launch another channel.
PA
PATV Scunthorpe
I don’t think 4Music will go full MTV and be a full blown entertainment channel, to me they are taking advantage of the situation, someone I know at the Network confirmed to me about a month back that the entertainment shows do rate better at night than music (during the weekdays at least), especially on the Freeview audience, considering its relatively high up slot.

Also, I suppose the higher slot on Sky will also benefit BX+ in relation to American award shows which I often see quite a few people asking where to find them or whether they are showing them (Grammys, AMAs, Billboard, etc.).

But they are definitely (as shown by this move) interesting in expanding their entertainment portfolio, they even dabbled in developing a comedy sketch show which is based around music for some parts... here’s the pilot they made if anyone’s interested...
JF
JetixFann450
If you ask me I believe music channels are quite a dying medium. 4Music moving to the entertainment section isn't really a big surprise.
LL
London Lite Founding member
If you ask me I believe music channels are quite a dying medium. 4Music moving to the entertainment section isn't really a big surprise.


Music channels are becoming more of a niche affair with smaller operators operating the likes of Keep it Country, NOW 80s/90s and Vintage TV.
LL
Larry the Loafer
I suppose other than gyms who don't want to risk screen burn leaving radio stations on their television screens, the purpose of music channels are becoming more and more irrelevant in a word of Vevo and Spotify. Gone are the days calling The Box, punching in the three-digit code you found after waiting for hours to see it flash up on the selection screen, and waiting patiently to see if your pick made it on air. And - ignoring the fear of sounding forty years older than I am - music just ain't what it used to be...

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