Channel 4’s social views surge in 2024 with YouTube full episode views trebling and Channel 4.0 surpassing 65 million views

19 August 2024

• Channel 4 drives progress against its Fast Forward strategy with YouTube UK views on track to more than double by end of 2024 to 100 million
• UK views of Channel 4 full episode content on YouTube up 331% year-on-year
• Channel 4.0, Channel 4’s digital-first youth brand, posts 93% increase in UK views
• Growth builds on Channel 4’s position as only major broadcaster to grow viewing across streaming and linear in H1 2024

 

Channel 4’s social audience is going from strength-to-strength in 2024, passing 1.6 billion UK views, powered by a trebling (+331%) in UK views of full episodes on YouTube, as audiences flocked to Channel 4’s distinctive mix of entertainment, documentaries, film and reality content.

 

Across the year so far shows including First Dates, Gogglebox, Hollyoaks and 60 Days on the Estates have driven 65 million UK views of full episodes on YouTube – more than the 50 million UK views for such content across the whole of 2023. YouTube full episode hits included Channel 4 entertainment (Gogglebox, 2.4 million UK views) and reality programming (First Dates, 2.1 million UK views). UK views of Film4 short-form content (up 26% year on year) also boosted Channel 4’s YouTube audience, included made-for-social content around Wicked Little Letters (0.7 million UK views).

 

Channel 4’s slate of documentaries also proved a hit on YouTube, with 38 million UK views, up 104% year on year – driven by Click for Murder (4.3million UK views), 60 Days On The Estates (2.7 million UK views) Banged Up: Stars Behind Bars (2.1 million UK views) and In The Footsteps Of Killers (1.2 million UK views).

 

Meanwhile, Channel 4.0 achieved a +93% rise in UK views from all platforms, to 65 million. Channel 4.0 focuses on entertaining formats such as the hilarious Tapped Out, anarchic Minor Issue, the jaw dropping King Konan’s Trap Door, and Worst In Class where Harry Pinero takes A-List digital talent back to school.

 

UK views across all social platforms and content passed 1.6 billion, up 13% year on year, putting Channel 4 on track for its target to double it social viewing by 2030. TikTok is now one of Channel 4’s biggest social platforms for UK Views, generating 456 million UK views (excluding Channel 4 News). Some of the best performing videos are from Gogglebox, Hollyoaks, First Dates and Channel 4.0. And on Instagram, UK views have jumped by 92% to 301million. Top performing Instagram content include channels for Hollyoaks, E4Chelsea and the Celebs Go Dating channel.

 

Matt Risley, Managing Director, 4Studio, said: “YouTube is not just a social platform nor is it a simulcast of TV. It is a combination of the two and is integral to our future strategy of reaching and engaging audiences at scale.

 

“Our growth builds on Channel 4’s social success in 2023 - where across the whole year it was the largest UK commercial broadcaster on social. It also continues standout progress against our Fast Forward strategy, which commits us to a doubling of all social views by 2030 – something we are well on track to exceeding.”

 

Sacha Khari, Head of Digital Commissioning, Channel 4, said: “Channel 4.0 continues to serve a rapidly growing viewer appetite for fresh approaches to digital-first content. We’re proud to be leading the way as a hotbed for a generation of established and future content creators from Nella Rose and Yung Filly to Billy The Goat and The Diary Room.”

 

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Notes to editors:

• Data covers period from 1 January 2024 to 4 August 2024
• Overall YouTube audience data excludes trailers