C4 signs content and commercial deal with YouTube as part of Future4 strategy

UK commercially funded pubcaster Channel 4 has signed a content and commercial partnership with YouTube as it presses ahead with plans to become a digital-first broadcaster for young audiences.

Alex Mahon

Under the deal, YouTube will make 1,000 hours of full episodes from new and popular series available to watch across the It’s a Sin broadcaster’s YouTube network by the end of 2022, with content starting to roll out this month.

Shows include 8 Out of 10 Cats, SAS: Who Dares Wins, Nikki Grahame: Who is She?, Unapologetic and Location, Location, Location. Selected programmes will be available to watch on YouTube 30 days after first being broadcast on C4 and sister youth-skewing network E4.

The alliance is part of C4’s five-year Future4 strategy to accelerate digital growth, reach young audiences where they enjoy watching content, increase new revenue streams and build strategic partnerships to compete more effectively.

C4 CEO Alex Mahon said: “Innovative strategic partnerships are Channel 4’s speciality, and this new relationship with YouTube is another which will ensure we continue to keep growing our reach with young audiences and build on our unrivalled digital success.

“Together with YouTube, we have created a powerful consumer channel full of our brilliant Channel 4 content. This will engage even more viewers through the enhanced reach and digital scale of YouTube, combined with the dynamism of the Channel 4 brand.”

Ben McOwen Wilson, MD of YouTube UK and Ireland, added: “I’m proud to welcome Channel 4’s creative, thought-provoking longform content on to the YouTube platform.

“As an open platform, YouTube is where UK audiences of all ages and backgrounds come to watch what they want to watch, when they want to watch it. It is fantastic to drive innovative partnerships such as this, to enable leading broadcasters to contribute to the diversity of content on the platform of choice for young viewers.”