Channel 4 gets personal with 4oD relaunch
My 40D to be unveiled
Channel 4 is all set to relaunch its on-demand service at the end of the month, with 4oD getting a significant makeover.
The service has been around for a good five years now but has never reached the heady heights of the iPlayer. Channel 4 knows this and that is why it has rebuilt 4oD, adding more personalisation and much-needed features like predictive search and recommendations.
At the heart of these changes is My 4oD, a section of the service that allows users, once registered, to add in their programme preferences and help them manage their on-demand experience.
This essentially means building playlists, having access to viewing history.
Other features include better full-page viewing and optimised site navigation when you are in the middle of watching a programme.
Improving 4oD
"Increasing the availability of 4oD on multiple platforms remains a key tenet of Channel 4′s strategy," said Sarah Milton, Channel 4′s Head of VoD.
"Channel4.com is by far the most popular access point for 4oD and we are focused on developing and improving this proposition.
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"We have refined and optimised the design to ensure viewers get the best experience from the wealth of content Channel 4 has to offer.
"We have over 5,000 hours of archive programming available on the Channel4.com 4oD service, and the redesign makes it even easier for users to browse our offering."
The new redesign will debut 31 August and there will be a dedicated iOS app in September.
Via Broadcast
Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.