E4 2001 – 2002 Branding

A couple of E4 pre-launch promotions about the new channel.

E4 Launch – 18th January 2001

David Cuff, broadcast director, Initiative Medias said: The BBC talks genre-based channels, C4 just does it. Only 18 years old, yet they give birth to their second new channel. Have they laid another golden egg? C4 scheduled Lost Gardens opposite E4, hoping younger fans would do the right thing. E4 is overtly trying to position itself as the best digital entertainment channel for youth. This new C4 “variant” is broadcasting more of the mad, bad, studenty programmes that may now irritate the more mature C4 viewers such as the Japanese-style betting show, Banzai, in which viewers are asked to place bets on things like the weight of chef Nancy Lam’s breast.

The schedule is bolstered by Friends, ER, Hollyoaks and Dawson’s Creek – although ER doesn’t fit into E4’s youthful and trashy aesthetic. The previewed home-grown programmes are packed with attractive hopefuls trying to be sexy and humorous but strangely I was reminded of the Woodentops. While E4 hopes for a halo effect from C4’s current success with youth, C4 itself risks debasing its own currency with E4. Plus its digital first runs for Friends and others will grate with many viewers.

E4 Continuity

In August 2001 a new set of idents were added to the rotation, some of the original launch set still appeared .

E4 Programme Promotions