Four (stylised as FOUR; formerly TV4) was the second New Zealand television channel owned and operated by MediaWorks New Zealand, broadcast via the state-owned Kordia transmission network. The channel launched on 29 June 1997 as TV4 and was replaced by C4 on 3 October 2003. It was relaunched on 6 February 2011 as a separate channel from C4.
In general, the channel's target audience was 18- to 49-year-olds and could be broader in its appeal, with programming which attracted a wider, and more mature audience. During early mornings and late afternoons the channel screened a range of children's programming such as Sesame Street and in the evenings screened shows aimed at the mainstream audience. Overnight and late mornings – early afternoons the channel screened Infomercials and Auto TV (Car Commercials). Four broadcast mostly American programming, with the exception of Sticky TV, Four Live, and Smash, which were in-house produced Auckland-hosted youth shows, and the Pukana youth show, which was produced from a Maori language government fund. Pukana also airs on one of the two government funded Maori language channels.
On 2 July 2016, Mediaworks closed Four and replaced it with Bravo as part of a deal with NBC Universal.
Contents
History
TV4
TV4 was an entertainment network catering to the 15-39 demographic and screened a wide range of imported shows, mainly from Viacom's catalogue, such as South Park, Beverly Hills 90210, and Beavis and Butt-Head. After 2000, new programming was scarce, with the infiltration of 1980's and 1990's repeats. On October 3, 2003, TV4 was replaced by music channel C4.
The history of Four dates back to October when TV3 decided to announce the launch a second TV channel called TV4, scheduled for June 1997. Initially, it would air for twelve hours a day and would reach 60% of the national population. No news and current affairs programmes were scheduled, while there was also going to be a substantial amount of local productions. The network employed the VHF band, which implied several gaps in the national coverage. Areas which as of the 2 October 1996 launch announcement were excluded were the Far North, Hawke's Bay, Taupo, eastern Bay of Plenty, Nelson and Blenheim, Oamaru, Central Otago and the West Coast.
The creation of the new channel caused panic at TVNZ, whose chief executive Chris Anderson thought that TV4 would challenge the audience of its two channels, given that it and TV3, owing to their Canwest ownership, which claimed to have "deep pockets", enabling "increasing access to foreign programming". John Wright, formerly of Channel 2 and Telecom's First Media cable TV company, was appointed director of programming in December. By early 1997, it was reported that TV4 was set to acquire programmes from alternative sources, which would also imply that the new channel would air a substantial amount of Canadian imports. TV3's acquisitions team did not buy "quality" imports, meaning that its launch would include B-grade imports. A volume deal with MTV was on the cards in April, which was set to include Beavis and Butt-Head, a show TVNZ rejected to buy because of its crude humour.
The upcoming launch of the new channel caused a series of changes to the transmitter networks, causing the existing channels to announce retune plans. Kapiti missed out on the launch of the channel because of possible interference with TV One's transmitter in Palmerston North. The full line-up was announced on 19 April by two former TV2 executives, Bettina Hollings (channel manager) and John Wright. Hollings announced that it would create a new generation, the ACES generation: A for alienated, C for cynical, E for experimental and S for savvy. The core 25-39 demographic was touted as "screenagers", the "neo-young" group which associated itself with youth culture. The launch was scheduled for 29 June.
Four
In October 2010, MediaWorks announced the return of the TV4 format of a broader channel as Four, replacing C4. The new network would focus on children's programming during the day and a range of shows aimed at the 18-to-49-year-old audience in the evening. The launch announcement did not make it clear if it would launch an HD feed, meaning that certain shows such as the newer post-February 2009 episodes of The Simpsons would only be transmitted in standard definition after the launch. The changeover took place on 6 February 2011, at the end of C4's countdown Top 100 Music Videos Ever, and was followed by the Sesame Street-themed video of 1234 by Feist (Sesame Street being one of Four's launch titles, specifically for Four Kids). The first programme to air on Four was The Simpsons episode "Elementary School Musical" at 6pm (not coincidentally featuring New Zealand band Flight of the Conchords).
Four's launch campaign featured a giant rubber duck installed at Auckland's harbour, for a package of idents commissioned by Special Group, to capture the channel's slogan, "feels like Four".
At the end of 2012, Four began screening some new episodes of shows within seven days of the show being broadcasting in the United States under the Fast Four brand. Examples of shows include The Simpsons, Family Guy, Glee and How I Met Your Mother. New Zealand TV networks typically start screening most US television series around five months after the original release, usually first screening in late January or February at the end of the New Zealand summer, catching up to the US at the end of the season as all 22 episodes are broadcast week-after-week, not spread out over nine months as in the US. The transition of shows like Glee from TV3 to Four also lost the NZ On Air funding that is given to TV3 to get EIA-608 captions converted from source masters to the preferred Teletext format by TVNZ's Access Services. As New Zealand broadcasters are completely reliant on this process for program subtitling.
Four was the main beneficiary of a new output deal with Fox which was signed on 20 December 2013.
Beginning in 2014, Four's ratings began to fall to levels comparable to its launch phase, dipping further in October 2015, which eventually became its least-rated month. At the end of the year, TVNZ announced that it would take over the terrestrial rights to Four's flagships The Simpsons and Family Guy. Episodes of both shows would continue on Four until their existing rights expired.
Closure
On 2 May 2016, MediaWorks announced the closure of Four, being replaced by Bravo, a female-oriented reality show channel, from 3 July. The decision was aided by the fact that its core demographic had moved online, which no longer justified maintaining such a channel. Moreover, MediaWorks thought that they "tried hard" with Four but it was "almost too niche to compete with TV2".
The final ever prime time schedule on FOUR consisted of an episode of Million Dollar Listing at 7pm, followed by the final ever show, The Biggest Loser (season 15), from 8pm. At 10:50 pm on Saturday 2 July 2016, the channel closed with Feist singing "1234" (the same Sesame Street song that was used to relaunch the channel back in February 2011); the channel then faded to black.
Content
TV4
When TV4 launched, it carried a mix of programmes, such as vintage and contemporary comedies (Get Smart, Gilligan's Island, Saved by the Bell), dramas and soaps (The Kindred, Baywatch, General Hospital, Neighbours) and general entertainment (Beavis and Butt-Head, Ed's Night Party). Wednesdays were dedicated to British programming, titles at launch included Red Dwarf and Harry Enfield. Saturdays saw the airing of several shows previously seen on TV3 (Moesha, New York Undercover, the local youth programme Ice TV and a repeat of Twin Peaks). The channel obtained NZ$$512,896 in funding from NZ On Air for a youth magazine tentatively titled TV World in late August 1997. This was the first NZOA-funded programme to be produced specifically for TV4; though Flatmates, which aired on the channel at launch, was originally commissioned for TV3. TV World was set to air during peak time and aimed at becoming TV4's flagship, though it had a repeat showing on TV3 in order to reach out to areas where its signal wasn't available yet. Flatmates, on the other hand, gained peak time repeats on TV3 in September. At MIPCOM 97, TV4 obtained the rights to air Comedy Central's heavyhitter South Park.
Its first cricket broadcast was announced in August 1997, when New Zealand Cricket had to accept an agreement to air three test matches in Australia on TV4 in November. The rationale behind the move was that, although TV4 still hadn't fixed its coverage problems yet, November was seen as an important sales period for TV3, and the airing of cricket tests in cities with differing timezones (Perth, Hobart, Brisbane) would have a negative effect on its programming and news. Moreover, the airing of cricket posed as a threat for TV4's credibility as a youth channel, as most cricket watchers were over the age of 40.
November saw the announcement of a raft of acquisitions for the new year: the British drama series This Life, sci-fi series Lexx, Coogan's Run and Frontline, an Australian comedy that parodied 60 Minutes-style newsmagazines. For Christmas 1997, the channel aired Spawn, Through the Cakehole with Jo Brand and a Christmas special of The Tony Ferrino Phenomenon.
The Young Ones made its return to New Zealand television on this channel on 28 January 1998. In February, it was announced that Melrose Place would come to the channel, as its ratings were falling on TV3. South Park premiered on 2 March. One of TV4's earliest hits, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, moved to TV3 in April 1998 in hopes of attracting higher ratings, in order to emulate what happened in the US airing. To compensate for the loss, it added repeats of Clueless and Baywatch in its Saturday early evening timeslot.
Four
Fast Four was introduced in 2012 to deliver new episodes of imported shows (mostly from 20th Century Fox Television) in the same week as their original airing in the US. It was an attempt to reduce the usage of piracy to access the latest episodes of key US shows, as well as an international trend to cut down for viewers to wait for legal releases and had a special logo for such airings. The move came a year after the US version of The X Factor was broadcast on TV3 simultaneously with the US.
The Fast Four-marked shows for September and October 2012 were:
Glee season 4 (19 September)
Survivor: Philippines (23 September)
How I Met Your Mother season 8
New Girl season 2 (2 October)
The Simpsons season 24 (7 October)
Family Guy season 11 (7 October)
It was also expected that more shows would join the scheme and that other New Zealand broadcasters would do similar arrangements with producers and distributors to deliver same-day or same-week seasons there. By contrast, Homeland on TV3 was set to premiere its second season on 30 September 2012 while TV3's teasers still said "coming soon".
The initiative was downsized in October 2013 with the suspension of the Fox supply agreement, which implied that both TV3 and Four had to suspend airing of its film and TV productions from November unless the two companies entered new terms. This came to an about-face after the December content agreement, causing the return of Fast Four.
With the launch of Four, TV3's children's programming, including Sticky TV, moved to two Four Kids programming blocks, airing 6-10am and 2-4pm. Key to its launch was the return of Sesame Street to New Zealand television.
After its closure, the replacement channel Bravo, which did not carry any children's programming, was not well-received by parents, who criticised the removal of the early morning children's slot in favour of infomercials. A small number of programmes (such as Sticky TV) moved to TV3 and 3NOW, while Sesame Street was removed completely. This also led to the creation of a petition, which amassed 8,099 signatures and was handed to the MediaWorks offices on 13 July 2016, but the company did not hear the plea of the Taranaki petitioner, due to commercial reasons. TV2 ultimately acquired the rights to Sesame Street and started airing on its channel on 12 September 2016. When Four closed, TVNZ had no plans to obtain the rights, which were seen as expensive.
Four Plus 1
Four Plus 1 was a timeshift service that MediaWorks launched on 27 June 2014. It was a standard hour-delayed timeshift channel of the Four broadcast. Four Plus 1 was initially only available on digital terrestrial with satellite launched a week later on Sky's fifth digital transport. MediaWorks hoped for an increase in Four's audience share, like what happened to TV3 upon launching its +1 channel. Shortly before its closure, it relocated to a new satellite frequency on 24 June 2016. It was replaced by Bravo Plus 1 on 3 July 2016, when Bravo replaced Four.
