According to reports, the new free channel will be aimed at older viewers, such as fans of the programme 'Frasier'. The older grey market is underserved, but is increasingly being targeted by advertisers.
The company already runs two pay-television channels, E4 and FilmFour. E4 is targeted at a younger audience and shows popular American series such as 'Friends' and 'ER' before they come to terrestrial television, as well as extensions of its successful home-grown programmes such as 'Big Brother' and 'The Salon'.
Mark Thompson, chief executive of Channel 4, told the Financial Times: "Economically, it doesn't make sense for us to make E4 or FilmFour free-to-air right now."
He added: "There might come a point where it makes sense for us to launch free-to-air channels, either those or other free-to-air channels and we'll look at that. It depends on the number of households and what the advertising revenue Freeview homes could achieve."
Freeview has been a great success, with latest figures suggesting that 500,000 of the digital boxes required to receive the service have been sold in the four months since it launched.
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