Film 4 is a free digital television channel in the United Kingdom and Rebuplic of Ireland. Owed and operated by channel 4, Film 4 screens films and was first launched on the 1st of November 1998. Film 4 did not originally focus on broadcasting blockbusters but nowadays broadcasts mainly mainstream Holywood products such as "Aliens vs Predator".
Film4 was originally known as FilmFour and became Channel 4's second channel.
Later, additional channels were added, FilmFour World and FilmFour Extreme FilmFour World and Extreme however were both axed in 2003 and replaced by FilmFour Weekly, which screened four films across the week at the same time each day.
The subscription service ended on 19 July 2006 and the channel re-launched (under the slightly modified name of Film4) as a free-to-air service a few days later on 23 July. When the channel became free, it also returned to digital terrestrial as part of the Freeview brand, and became completely free-to-air on satellite television. Due to the change, the channel's availability increased from 300,000 (subscribers) to 18 million households. It also changed its broadcasting hours to 1.00pm-8.45am, and commercial breaks were included during films for the first time. The first film broadcast under the new format was the British non-subscription television premiere of Lost in Translation. It remains the only free film channel available on digital terrestria ltelevision.
Film 4's recent film success Slumdog Millionaire directed by Danny Boyle costing $15 million (£8.7 million) to make, has already gone on to take $160 million (£117 million) at the box office worldwide and could double this sum with a win of eight Oscars, including Best Picture. It is likely to go on earning millions of dollars a year for decades to come, thanks to DVD sales, TV licensing and technical convergance from internet streaming.
Slumdog is a story of an eighteen year old orphan named Jamal Malik who with the whole nation watching, is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on the Indian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. But when the show breaks for the night, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating; how could a street kid know so much? Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum where he and his brother grew up and their adventures together on the road. Each chapter of his story reveals the key to the answer to one of the game show's questions.
