The 4 is not the audience size

By

Your coverage of Channel 4 and its E4 venture showed scant regard for the reality of media evolution in the new media ecology.

It’s crazy to judge a new TV channel on the basis of only four days overnights. Any new entrant in an already very crowded digital TV market is bound to take time to build an audience. Even so, E4 has been measured as delivering a 0.7 per cent share in four days versus its stated settle-down target of 1.1 per cent. That’s a good start compared with many new ventures.

You comment that some E4 programmes recorded an audience of nil. Given the structure of the BARB sample, no informed commentator would have expected anything else in the first days of a new channel.

John Billett

Chairman

The Billett Consultancy

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