E4 timeshift planned for July

Hot on the heels of launching a film channel devoted to repeats, Channel 4 will be timeshifting E4 from July, it was announced yesterday.

E4+1, broadcasting the main E4 schedule one hour later, will be available on Sky Digital and digital cable from launch.

Dan Brooke, MD of 4 Channels, explained: "E4's viewers are young and upmarket with busy lifestyles, so the launch of a second, time-shifted version will give them greater flexibility to catch their favourite shows."

The network also confirmed it was exploring ideas for other new channels, including a 'lite' version of E4 for digital terrestrial service Freeview and a highbrow factual channel called G4.

"We have capacity on Freeview which we're not occupying and in the long term that makes no sense," said Rob Woodward, manager of 4 Ventures. "We're reviewing the whole of our channel portfolio and at the appropriate time we'll look to make an announcement."