Watch 4seven Live Stream

At the point of its launch in 2012, the channel was the first to combine reactions of viewers with the programmes they reacted to. The selection of comments from Twitter and Facebook, both positive and negative, was put together and aired at the beginning of the show to demonstrate why the show was rerun, in the first place, and what was so important or controversial about it.

4seven was launched in 2012 with the single goal: to repeat the most demanded and popular shows from Channel 4 for viewers who did not catch the initial airing. The channel aimed to provide a unique ‘rerun’ experience of viewing repeats on large screens, something other channels haven’t tried yet.

4seven is not a full-time channel, it provides around 20 hours of viewing per day. Prime time slots of 8.00 pm and 10.00 pm are specifically reserved for rerunning the buzz-creating shows with a side of genuine viewers’ comments created overnight.

The initial name of the channel had to be ‘Project Shuffle,’ but the final name turned out to be ‘4seven.’ ‘Seven’ means that the shows will be repeated multiple times during the next 7 days after the initial running.

4seven takes cue from Channel 4 in the specific type of content, namely, short documentaries and single shows. Some of the most watched buzz-creating reruns were The Undatables, Dambusters: Building the Bouncing Bomb, and Mummyifying Alan.

According to the channel's creators, 4seven helped to change the image of show repeats from being essentially bad to being indispensable. They attract big numbers of viewers who did not watch the initial airing of programmes but wanted to see them due to the media impact they created.

The channel’s logo reflects the idents of its parent Channel 4. 4seven features the recognizable numeral 4 made of separate black blocks with the numeral 7 attached to the lower right part of it.

Right from the start of broadcasting, 4seven was a free-to-air channel, available on all major platforms, including Freesat, Freeview, Virgin TV and Sky. On Freeview, 4seven jumped up and down the channels before settling on channel 48.

4seven has its HD version. First it was launched on Freeview and later added to Virgin Media. Now it is available on Virgin TV and Sky Glass.

The commercial idea behind launching the channel for show repeats was to multiply the advertising impact. If people tune in to the channel instead of watching the show on the web, they get exposed to the commercials included into the schedule, and reruns of popular shows on big screens definitely entice them to turn the telly on.