CHANNEL FOUR LAUNCHES 21st CENTURY TV

Next month, Channel 4 will become the first broadcaster in the world to put all shows from its current TV schedule on-line for viewers to download.

While the BBC has been plugging internet viewing for about a year with niche programmes such as The Mighty Boosh previewed on the net a week before the TV show airs, Channel 4 are the first to fully unlock their doors and allow access to current shows alongside a selection of its 24-year-old archive.

All new shows will continue to be aired on TV first, but will immediately be available for download at just 99p from the “Four on Demand” service. Film Four movies will be available to download for £1.99.

It signals the beginning of the end of TV consumption as we know it. With the likes of Four on Demand and SKY+, alongside last year’s mobile TV breakthrough and this year’s advent of advertising on mobiles (hugely attractive to advertisers due to the fact that, unlike your TV, your phone is always with you), it’s programming Jim, but not as we’ve known it. Bring it on.

But while they're innovating technically, Channel 4 have been severely critisised by former founder Sir Jeremy Isaacs over the content of its programming. Sir Jez, who ran the channel from its launch in 1982 until 1987 - arguably its most groundbreaking, culturally defining period - has got a problem with recent programmes such as:

1. The World's Largest Penis (my review: demoralising)

2. Designer Vaginas (my review: demotivating)

3. The upcoming - I swear, no pun intended - W*nk Week (my review: to my knowledge it hasn't aired yet, but I honestly can't see how they're going to fill seven days of programming on shandy's. That said, you've got to give them a firm hand shake for trying)

But hang on Jezza. You're taking issue with the current controllers of C4 because they're showing too much mucky stuff? I thought dirty programmes masquerading as academia was part of Channel 4's viewers charter! For as long as I can remember, C4 has served up a staple diet of swingers, bondage, suburban sexual freakshows and a plethora (love that word - sounds filthy even though it's as innocent as "omnibus") of other eye-popping sub-porn programmes (prime example: last months "The Real Blue Nuns" about 'Nunsploitation' movies ... a far more rivetting tale of extra-curricular religious studies when compared to the content of the 1992 GCSE syllabus). Anyhow, apparently it's good to take a peak behind the curtains of depravity once in a while. And now you can take that peak on your laptop for just 99p a pop.