C4 to shut E4 on polling day

The UK’s Channel 4 will shut down its youth-skewing sister network E4 on the day of the country’s forthcoming general election to encourage more young people to go out and vote.

Once polling stations open at 07.00 on May 7, E4 will go dark in what is thought to be the first move of its kind in the UK.

A promotional campaign for the move and its purpose began across Channel 4, E4, More4 and 4Seven yesterday. The initiative is designed to tackle apathy with the British political system among young people in the country.

Dan Brooke, Channel 4’s chief marketing and communications officer, said: “Less than half of under-25s voted at the last election, so we’ve engaged the most powerful weapon we have at our disposal to try and boost that number – switching off their favourite TV channel for the day.”

Channel 4 says E4 is the number one digital channel for 16- to 34-year-old viewers, attracting a 5.2% share of the young demographic so far this year – outperforming BBC2 and Channel 5.

The channel recently picked up US drama Empire and ordered four-part original comedy series Tripped.