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Channel 4 has pulled all its full-length episodes of its TV shows from YouTube. If you want to watch shows like Fresh Meat in their entirety, you’ll have to head to 4oD to do so.
All shows from More4 and E4 have been taken down too. But Channel 4 isn’t ditching YouTube altogether. You can still find clips and previews on its Channel 4 and E4 channels on the video sharing site.
Head to Channel 4’s YouTube channel, and you’ll be greeted with this message: “As you may have noticed, we’ve now removed all full episodes of Channel 4, E4 and More4 programmes from our 4oD channels on YouTube. As a not-for-profit broadcaster funded by advertising, we put our money back into the programmes themselves.
“To make the best of this investment, we’ve decided to focus on bringing online viewers of our full-length shows to our own 4oD apps — such as those on iOS, Android and channel4.com. These apps allow us to encourage more viewing by recommending programmes we think people will appreciate, and to provide viewers with additional services.”
ITV and the BBC currently only show clips of their shows on YouTube, with the full-length versions available through their respective on-demand apps.
In 2009, Channel 4 and YouTube struck a deal in which the broadcaster’s on-demand shows would be shown on the video site, with YouTube taking a slice of the advertising revenue. Obviously Channel 4 is keen to take back that slice of money pie.
Does it make sense for Channel 4 to yank its shows from YouTube? Or will you miss not being able to watch The Inbetweeners on the video-sharing site? Is 4oD as good as YouTube? How does it stack up against BBC iPlayer and ITV Player? Let me know in the comments, or over on our public service Facebook page.
