Channel 4 explains why it pulled its TV episodes from YouTube

Channel 4 has taken all of its shows off YouTube, leaving just short clips to view.

Back in 2009, Channel 4 made its 4oD platform available through Google's video service as part of a long-standing relationship with YouTube.

Several 'channels' were set up on YouTube and full series of shows such as Misfits were available to watch. This is now not the case, though, with the following notice there instead:

"As you may have noticed, we've now removed all full episodes of Channel 4, E4 and More4 programmes from our 4oD channels on YouTube. As a not-for-profit broadcaster funded by advertising, we put our money back into the programmes themselves.

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"To make the best of this investment, we've decided to focus on bringing online viewers of our full-length shows to our own 4oD apps - such as those on iOS, Android and channel4.com."

Reflecting viewers' needs

TechRadar contacted Channel 4 to get more clarification on the situation and were told: "Reflecting the ways in which our viewers consume Channel 4 content across digital and mobile platforms, our relationship with YouTube will now focus on short form content.

"We continue to make long-form programming available through our 4oD service on a range of platforms."

The statement continued: "This approach bolsters our on-going viewer engagement strategy, deepening our two way relationship with our audience by bringing viewers to our programmes on our owned and managed 4oD services where possible."

This is a blow for YouTube as it has been trying hard for years now to make itself into a viable platform for television programmes and movies.

For Channel 4, though, the breadth of places 4oD is now available – it was added to Sky and Samsung Smart TVs last year and was on YouView's platform at launch – means that it can be a little more choosier as to where its shows reside.

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