Channel 4 swims against tide with new Internet broadcasting

It's been said before, but now it could finally happen. The Internet is about to become an entertainment medium. While most players are pulling out of Internet broadcasting, it's a refreshing change to find Channel 4 pumping millions of pounds into developing a website for entertainment devotees.

But not only is the channel getting serious about developing an online entertainment destination to stand head and shoulders above the crowd, it is about to sprint way ahead of the broadcast competition when it reveals the potential of €4.com.

But the freshest breath of air is that Channel 4 is not screaming and shouting from the highest building about how wonderful €4.com is going to be. It seems it has learned the lesson of caution from the recent implosion of the dot.com market.

"The Web is not yet proven as an entertainment medium," says Mr Andy Anson, head of strategic planning and interactive at Channel 4. "We've still got to prove it can work within the current limitations and make sure we're not too far ahead of the game."

So rather than run before they can walk, the interactive team at Channel 4 are adamant that the present version of €4.com is in pre-launch mode. The official launch of the website will not happen until March, by which time Channel 4 will have completed part of its crucial learning phase and have a sense of what floats the boat of online entertainment seekers. The channel will be available through NTL in Britain, but it will be some time before it becomes available in Ireland. Ali G is currently the public face of €4.com as he is fronting the advertising campaign.

It's largely untrodden ground. The number of good online entertainment channels can be counted on one hand: Zeppotron.com, Z.com, AtomFilms.com, Icebox.com and Heavy.com are the ones that have gained something of a cult status among a hardcore fraternity of Web users but the brands have yet to become household names.

€4.com should be able to change all that by its strategy of working with the best of the already established entertainment sites, such as Icebox.com and Heavy.com, and aggregating all the programming in one place. It has already commissioned Zeppotron's Office Romance, a series of 15 animations aimed at anyone who has loved and lost that will appear every Wednesday on €4.com.

It is also hoping to sign up Z.com's Dare for Dollars, a variation on The Hopefuls, the classic yuck TV item from Channel 4's The Word.

"Contestants" e-mail in their dares and how much money they would be willing to do it for. Dares are then posted on an auction forum where visitors are encouraged to challenge them or suggest a more extreme dare. The most extreme daredevil is chosen by the Web producers who film the dare and broadcast it on the website.

Mr Stevan Keane, head of interactive commissioning at Channel 4, says he has high hopes of taking a Web show such as Dare for Dollars on to TV. "The strategic rationale is that €4.com will be an incubator for new talent and shows. We'll start things online and work them back into TV. We're already talking about what €4.com content can go on TV before the end of the year."

Mr Anson adds: "It's not about crap TV on the Web, it's about using the Web in its best way and creating very good, compelling Web entertainment."

The first example of an €4 cross-platform show is Banzai, a madcap Japanese gameshow which will be simulcast (broadcast simultaneously on TV and the Web) on Sunday nights. Web viewers will be encouraged to play along by betting on which contestants will win and playing along with a Banzai online game.

In addition to building up the Banzai fanbase via the website, €4 has developed a Banzai Wap game and an enhanced TV product which it says will work in a similar way to Sky Sports Active, with viewers able to bet on the outcome of the show using their remote controls. At the moment, however, this service is only available on ONdigital, although Mr Anson anticipates that a version will soon be available on Sky Digital.

"We're taking very small steps with interactive TV because it's expensive but we do want to be able to allow TV viewers to play along with the gameshows. Big Brother 2 will have a significant deal of interactive TV built around it," says Mr Anson. The Web plans for Big Brother 2 are being kept under wraps but given Channel 4's new remit to make everything cross-media, the Web channel is going to be more involving this time around with games and more accessible webcams high on the agenda.

The cross-media strategy is also being funnelled into Channel 4's FilmFour website, FilmFour.com, which is gearing up for a relaunch in March and working towards screening payper-view films.

Another part of the strategy is to make investments in other websites where the objectives fit in with those of Channel 4. Its first was in Fingertips, a soon-to-launch personalised online entertainment tool two years in the making.

Channel 4 is believed to have invested some £1.5 million in Fingertips, which was set up by the former BMP interactive specialists Ross Sleight and Robert Fields. The plan is to tie Fingertips.co.uk very heavily into €4.com. "Fingertips was perfect for our needs," says Mr Anson. "It's all about planning entertainment needs and social lives and because of the heavy emphasis on personalisation it will allow us to get very close to consumers."

Channel 4's other dot.com investment to date has been in Popworld, the music portal co-founded by the ex-Spice Girls manager Simon Fuller. As part of the Popworld deal, a Popworld-branded daily TV show is being screened on €4, and a 60-minute version is to be broadcast on Channel 4's Sunday morning teen show T4. The Channel 4/Popworld partnership also encompasses a co-branded microsite on €4.com that will be linked to the Popworld portal.

The clear message is that €4.com is not just going to be a support vehicle for the TV channel. "While we do want to support the channel, we want to do it in an innovative way. €4 is a multi-platform brand that we're taking on the Internet in a way that mirrors the TV content but is uniquely focused on interactivity," says Mr Anson.

"We'll always have something new and fresh every day and when we start marketing the site around the full launch, we'll be encouraging people to come and visit us for 10 minutes every day - it's healthier than taking a fag break."

Between now and March, €4.com marketing will be confined to the Web contact appearing on trailers and at the end of shows but over time it will be mentioned in programming and promoted to the wider audience of Friday night Channel 4 viewers.

Considering Channel 4's reputation for cutting edge TV, the odds are stacked in €4.com's favour. With broadband slowly seeping into the UK, Channel 4 has dropped a firm anchor into the turbulent waters of new media that, all being well, should give it a market leading position whenever the current storm calms.