I probably shouldn't be surprised - but frankly I'm surprised they're ditching them completely rather than phasing them out by cutting down or moving them to More4.
Basically their £6m budget is being diverted online, with C4 saying it's pretty stupid putting on programmes targeted at 14-19 year olds while they're at school/college. I think it's fair to say few schools make an appointment to watch programmes live as they used to do back in my (primary) school days.
It's a shame they're going completely though because amongst all the repackaged reality shows dressed up as educational and repeats there are a few gems there, especially in relation to TV and the media.
I also wonder what will replace them - will they stick with the US comedies and dramas that fill the slots at other times of the year?
Basically their £6m budget is being diverted online, with C4 saying it's pretty stupid putting on programmes targeted at 14-19 year olds while they're at school/college. I think it's fair to say few schools make an appointment to watch programmes live as they used to do back in my (primary) school days.
No school has been watching live programmes since at least the mid-1980s where I come from, but that did not stop BBC2 and ITV, later C4 providing the service well into the 2000s.
Hiding everything away online means the programmes won't be exposed to a more general audience who might watch the programmes on individual merit.
And how convenient that C4 decides to make this announcement immediately after, instead of in advance of, the end of its Autumn Term 2007.
They don't give an exact date in the articles, but I'm assuming that's it and programmes cease from January, rather than continuing them through to the end of the school year.
It seems they'll still make programmes as they talk about builiding brands online first before making a programme around the brand - but when they'd show them I don't know.
In terms of "new" programming I doubt C4 currently make more than the equivalent of say one week of it's school schedule per year, never mind per term - but as I said though I expected the slot to be scaled back, I'd have thought they'd keep either a shorter slot on C4 or move programming to More4 just so they have a place where people know they'll find the programming.
Even the BBC is cutting back - there's a real possibility also that Class TV won't be returning in the new year, having already suffered relegation to a lunchtime slot for the term just gone.
Notice how the fate of schools TV is being sealed in a series of snap decisions rather than the long-term planning that would have been necessary in the past. In the case of Class TV, schedulers had put together a full 9am-1pm five-days-a-week schedule for the Autumn Term 2007, only to be told the slot was moving to lunchtimes. In 2004 we were most surprised that the "traditional" format of 4Learning was abandoned mid-way through an academic year in favour of the present teenage format.
Time was C4 would have been compelled to carry on with 4Learning until the end of an academic year (ie. June/July) and give plenty of notice to viewers this might affect, hence why the IBA did not approve the move of schools programmes to C4 until 1987 when everyone could receive the new channel. But sinceC4 took over editorial control of the schools service in September 1993, they reduced the amount of yearly coverage (ditching half-term broadcasts and reducing the summer term to next to nothing) and now this.
I'll agree the way these things are just happening so hastily isn't exactly the best way to deal with this. On the other hand though it was only a matter of time, the traditional schools programmes disappeared long ago and I'm pretty sure that Teachers TV do a good job of providing schools with what they need. So it isn't much of a surprise that they've announced this move.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. These programmes could easily be transferred to E4 and used during primetime. People are constantly going on about how there should be a gay channel available in UK (IMO, I can't figure out how they could fill a 24 hour channel with... gay programming!). There's been a tonne of gay-themed shows over the last year during C4's "educational" slot to satisfy a niche audience on E4. Surely these programmes would rate far higher than a C movie on a Friday night! I'm not saying they need to make new programming for it at the moment, just repeat the programmes they've already got and look at the viewer reaction.
Obviously stuff that is explicitly educational would not work on E4, stuff like Adventuras Basques which I watched in my Spanish class last term. It was both educational and boring at the same time!
Shame. S4C have been doing things differently though haven't they? So hopefully they will continue. Also, what is happening with the early morning slot, is it going to stay for a while?
Now, how do we go about persuading somebody to make decent documentary on the history and decline of schools TV? There is so much material there to make an interesting BBC4 programme around, I wonder why it hasn't been done already.
Hadn't thought about S4C - I'd imagine their own programming at least will continue.
Not sure about primetime E4, but there certainly is some stuff from 4 Learning that would be suitable on the channel - and if T4 could sacrifice an episode of Friends each Saturday, there too.
Though it seems hasty to us, I suspect C4 wanted to do this alot earlier in the year but after the scrutiny it came under as a result of Celebrity Big Brother they've probably delayed the decision - and made it public at the last possible minute.
No mention of how 4oD would be used, but I think a commitment to make their educational archives free on 4oD would be a positive first move.
Hopefully too if they're are less "educational" programming in the traditional slot more of it will leak out into primetime - where people won't realise it is educational, and hence will be more likely to watch it.
The Open University ad on the BBC shows how effective that can be!
As Ben has suggested, what is future for the 4 - 6am slot. It seems to have been primary school programmes pre hafl-term and more recently secondary. Some of the programmes (eg Fourways Farm) hadn;t had an airing for some time. Agree with another that the C4 digital suite of channels there should be space somewhere for the programmes, though I think they would sit more happily in More4 territory.