Opinion
Film4 Strategy Verdict
13.07.2006Darran Lucas, TV Director Get the popcorn salted, the hotdogs on the griddle and the home cinema DVD system cranked up to ASBO level. Alternatively, if we are to believe Channel 4, you could also tune in to Film4’s launch as a free to air channel for that Cinema experience at home.
Film4’s launch on the 23rd July is a new direction for the channel which up till now has been subscription-only. By now carrying advertising in its films, the hope will be that its appeal is not lost in translation.
At present there are no other dedicated movie channels on the Freeview platform and with 7.1million DTT-only homes you don’t need to be fan of Trainspotting to see the logic for both Channel 4 and advertisers. To directly replace an estimated £25m in subscription revenues, Film4 will be looking to achieve a 0.8% share of Broadcast revenue in 2007. Quite a task when you consider it aims to run only 3 minutes of advertising every 45 minutes during films.
To help achieve this, the channel has clearly set its sights on attracting Cinema advertisers to the station and has offered 60 second + spots at a discount and a preview spot (Cinema’s equivalent of the last in reel) prior to its daily 9pm main film.
While both these policies should lead to a greater cinematic feel to the channel, they are unlikely to attract cinema advertisers on this basis alone. Cinema is not just a platform for targeting film watchers; it provides impact, stature and a captivated audience that cannot be bettered elsewhere. Coupled with this, the vast majority of Cinema’s big spenders already have significant TV spends and use the two media in very different ways.
