[London Lite]

As part of the major rebranding of Channel 4 services, the VOD service will undergo yet another branding change to Channel 4 in the spring.

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[TVenthusiasm]

This will cause confusion to those who currently use All 4 - they may think they're watching a TV channel rather than a streaming service. If it was renamed Channel 4 Player or even 4 Play, then there will be no confusion and people will know where to watch their favourite shows if they missed the original broadcast.

[DTV]

To be quite honest, I doubt many will notice the change. All 4 has got to be up there in the 'rebrands that never took off' hall of fame. Although 4oD does seemed to have petered out recently, I usually just hear people refer to it as Channel 4 or Channel 4 iPlayer if they are talking specifically about the platform. It does certainly show something that iPlayer is the only 'catch-up' brand to have attained any kind of longevity or recognition.

The broader change to all Channel 4 does make sense when you consider their objectives, particularly trying to break into international markets (regardless of how achievable that is).

[MFTJA]

This will cause confusion to those who currently use All 4 - they may think they're watching a TV channel rather than a streaming service. If it was renamed Channel 4 Player or even 4 Play, then there will be no confusion and people will know where to watch their favourite shows if they missed the original broadcast.

I'd maybe avoid naming it '4 Play' - we already have two streaming services with names slightly linking to adult topics!

[cable]

doesn't really need additional branding, they just need to tag something like "catchup on the app or at channel4.com" to trailers or end boards.

[thomalex]

Makes sense to me. Whenever I want to catch up on something on Channel 4 I type Channel 4 into Google and go. As has been said I doubt few will notice the change.

[Granadarama]

This will cause confusion to those who currently use All 4 - they may think they're watching a TV channel rather than a streaming service. If it was renamed Channel 4 Player or even 4 Play, then there will be no confusion and people will know where to watch their favourite shows if they missed the original broadcast.

I don’t agree. The main Channel 4 website is already dedicated to All4, and the entire purpose of Channel 4 is to broadcast programmes produced elsewhere (among other things). Branding the VoD and TV channels with the same name makes sense as they provide the same service, just by different means.

I approve of this move because it simplifies the branding by turning the VoD service into the flagship brand. Since the rise of multichannel television, the television companies have been obsessed with building multiple brands for various imagined demographics, to the detriment of the master brand. This was understandable when quantity was the driving force behind broadcasting - more choice means a fractured audience who might tune into the other guy’s channel - but makes no sense online where content is already easily categorised into genres.

Making TV brands an integral part of a VoD service makes no sense while trying to market it as it’s own thing - seriously, if you don’t watch linear TV, as is the case with many younger people, what on Earth does the BBC Two section of iPlayer mean compared to BBC One? When BBC Three went “online only”, how was it any different to just having a youth category with a neon colour scheme?

Channel 4 used to be “just a channel”, ITV used to be “just a channel”, so I really believe it would benefit them all to just focus on that and let the sub-brands languish on linear TV. The BBC, ITV and Channel 4 have all had rebrands that put their master brands front and centre, so I expect more of this style of reorganising to take place. ITVX may well be along the same lines.

Plus most importantly maybe now trailers can drop the whole “on Channel 4 and All4”, “on ITV and ITV Hub” thing they love so much (come on, we JUST got past “on BBC One and BBC One HD”).

PS: Hello, long time listener, first time caller!

[all new phil]

This will cause confusion to those who currently use All 4 - they may think they're watching a TV channel rather than a streaming service. 

Don’t be silly.

[Jon]

This will cause confusion to those who currently use All 4 - they may think they're watching a TV channel rather than a streaming service. 

Don’t be silly.

Yes, that’s not the issue, you may have the issue of them needing to call it ‘on channel 4’s streaming service’ when referring to it on linear which is a bit clunky although ‘stream now on Channel 4’ or ‘on the Channel 4 app’ might work.

[JAS84]

Yeah - no different to calling BBC News the BBC News channel to disambiguate it from the BBC News bulletins on BBC One, for example.