British TV sets had a button waiting for Channel 4 years before it arrived
Many televisions sold in Britain during the 1970s and early 1980s carried a spare tuning button marked "ITV 2" or "IBA 2". Everyone expected a second commercial channel; broadcast frequencies had even been set aside for it in the early 1960s. Political wrangling delayed it for almost three decades, until Channel 4 finally switched on in 1982.
Its first afternoon, 2 November 1982, began with announcer Paul Coia welcoming viewers, followed by a montage set to the jingle Fourscore. The first programme was the word-and-numbers game Countdown at 16:45, with Richard Whiteley, who went on to host it for 23 years, the first face on screen. Brookside, a soap known for bold storylines, also debuted that day. Initial broadcasts reached 87 percent of the country, but within three days ITV bosses were demanding that chief executive Jeremy Isaacs resign, and critics dubbed it Channel Snore.
Low ratings were partly the point. Its founding remit required programmes for minority audiences, and under Isaacs it built a reputation for contemporary arts, funded independent films and even co-commissioned Robert Ashley's television opera Perfect Lives. Wales got something different: after former Plaid Cymru president Gwynfor Evans threatened a hunger strike, the Welsh fourth channel became S4C, broadcasting in Welsh. Channel 4 itself only reached Wales as a full service in 2010.
A new owning corporation took over in 1993, and the tone shifted toward the mass market. Channel 4 gave many American hits their British debut, among them Friends and The Sopranos, and in the early 2000s leaned into reality television with Big Brother, along with cricket and horse racing. The Communications Act 2003 responded by requiring it to show innovation, experimentation and educational programming for a culturally diverse society.
Unusually, Channel 4 is publicly owned but receives no public funding, paying its way through advertising and other commercial activity. Its national headquarters is now in Leeds. For its 25th birthday in 2007 it reran the very first Countdown.
Source: Channel 4
