The first person to be seen on Channel 4 was Richard Whiteley, with Ted Moult being the second. The first programme to air on the channel was the teatime game show Countdown, produced by Yorkshire Television, at 16:45. It's a pleasure to be able to say to you, welcome to Channel Four." Following the announcement, the channel headed into a montage of clips from its programmes set to the station's signature tune, "Fourscore", written by David Dundas, which would form the basis of the station's jingles for its first decade. The first voice heard on Channel 4's opening day of 2 November 1982 was that of continuity announcer Paul Coia who said: "Good afternoon. Since then, carriage on digital cable, satellite and digital terrestrial has introduced Channel 4 to Welsh homes where it is now universally available. With this conversion of the Wenvoe transmitter group in Wales to digital terrestrial broadcasting on 31 March 2010, Channel 4 became a UK-wide television channel for the first time. Initially limited frequency space meant that Channel 4 could not be broadcast alongside S4C, though some Channel 4 programmes would be aired at less popular times on the Welsh variant this practice continued until the closure of S4C's analogue transmissions in 2010, at which time S4C became a fully Welsh channel. Operated by a specially created authority, S4C would air programmes in Welsh made by HTV, the BBC and independent companies. The result was that Channel 4 as seen by the rest of the United Kingdom would be replaced in Wales by Sianel Pedwar Cymru (S4C) ("Channel Four Wales"). The campaign was taken so seriously by Gwynfor Evans, former president of Plaid Cymru, that he threatened the government with a hunger strike were it not to honour the plans. "ITV2" is not to be confused with ITV's digital television channel launched in 1998.Īt the time the fourth service was being considered, a movement in Wales lobbied for the creation of dedicated service that would air Welsh language programmes, then only catered for at "off peak" times on BBC Wales and HTV. This led to very good coverage across most of the country and few problems of interference with other UK-based transmissions a stark contrast to the problems associated with Channel 5's launch almost 15 years later. One clear benefit of the "late arrival" of the channel was that its frequency allocations at each transmitter had already been arranged in the early 1960s, when the launch of an ITV2 was anticipated. Most likely, politics had the biggest impact in leading to a delay of almost three decades before the second commercial channel became a reality. Throughout ITV's history and until Channel 4 finally became a reality, a perennial dialogue existed between the GPO, the government, the ITV companies and other interested parties, concerning the form such an expansion of commercial broadcasting would take. Indeed, television sets sold throughout the 1970s and early 1980s often had a spare tuning button labelled "ITV 2" or "IBA 2". The notion of a second commercial broadcaster in the United Kingdom had been around since the inception of ITV in 1954 and its subsequent launch in 1955 the idea of an "ITV2" was long expected and pushed for. After some months of test broadcasts, it began scheduled transmissions on 2 November 1982 from Scala House, the former site of the Scala Theatre. The Broadcasting Act 1980 began the process of adding a fourth Channel 4 was formally created, along with its Welsh counterpart, by an act of Parliament in 1982. Main article: Fourth UK television serviceīefore Channel 4 and S4C, Britain had three terrestrial television services: BBC1, BBC2, and ITV.
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