4oD is Channel 4's video on demand service. Now you can watch Channel 4 shows and films, whenever you want. 4oD is available on your PC and through our digital television partners BT Vision, Tiscali TV and Virgin Media.
With 4oD on your PC you can:
To get 4oD on your PC, you will need to download and install the 4oD application from channel4.com/4od.
If you have digital television from BT Vision, Tiscali TV, Virgin Media, you can also get 4oD direct to your TV. Please contact your provider for further information.
On PC
It’s free to download and install 4oD on your PC. You can then view a range of TV shows from the past 30 days for nothing with Free catch up. Plus there are many other TV shows to watch online for free. TV shows are available to rent for 99p each, including TV from our extensive archive and US dramas such as Desperate Housewives. Some TV shows are available to buy for £1.99. Plus you can rent films from our specially selected range from £1.99 each.
On digital TV
If you have digital television from BT Vision, Tiscali TV or Virgin Media, you can also get 4oD direct to your TV. Please contact your provider for further information about the service or visit the 4oD website.
4oD is available online on your PC and through our digital television partners, BT Vision, Tiscali TV or Virgin Media. You'll need to be a resident in the UK or the Republic of Ireland to watch 4oD.
On your PC
To be able to get 4oD on your PC, you will need:
Read about our minimum system requirements to find out more
Please note that Mac, Linux and non-XP users will currently not be able to use this service.
4oD on Digital TV
To receive 4oD, you will need to be a BT Vision, Tiscali TV or Virgin Media subscriber. Please contact your provider for further information about the or visit the Digital TV section of the 4oD website.
Unfortunately not at the launch of 4oD.
This is an industry-wide issue caused because the accepted Digital Rights Management (DRM) system used to protect online video content, which is required by our content owners, is not compatible with Apple Mac hardware and software. The closed DRM system used by Apple is not currently available for licence by third parties and there is no other Mac-compatible DRM solution which meets the protection requirements of content owners. Unfortunately, we are therefore unable to offer 4oD content to Mac users at this stage.
For free Catch Up shows, you will have the option to ‘stream’ or ‘download’ content. Streamed shows are available to watch almost immediately – all you need to do is select what you want, then sign in to your 4oD account to confirm what you want to watch.
All other TV shows and films are available to download. Once you have selected a programme and confirmed your order, it will start downloading automatically (the exception is pre-booked programmes which will download as soon as they become available). After you confirm your order, you'll be redirected to the My Downloads section where you can see the status of your download. The blue bar indicates what percentage of the programme has been downloaded. When the download is complete you'll see a message from 4oD on your computer and a Play button will appear under the item that has been downloaded. The status symbols under My Downloads at the top of every page of 4oD will show you the number of programmes you're currently downloading and those that are available to play.
Actual download times will vary depending on your connection speed and the amount of traffic on the internet at the time.
Shows and films you rent from 4oD are available for multiple viewings over a 48 hour period which starts as soon as you press ‘Play’ for the first time. You can check the expiry date of your programmes in the My Downloads section. This will generally be 28 days from when you bought it or within the remaining licence period available when you purchased the programme (whichever is sooner). Shows or films that you buy, rather than just renting, can be viewed as many times as you like once purchased.
4oD allows you to plan your downloads through our Pre-booking and Series booking options. Pre-booking allows you to book a programme up to 14 days before it’s shown on TV. To see shows available for pre-booking visit the TV Schedule which allows you to see up to two weeks ahead. You can also pre-book an entire series. To find the series you want to pre-book you can use the Search function or visit the TV Schedule or TV pages and select the Book Episodes button to set up a Series booking. Pre-book is only available for 4oD on your PC and not through our TV partners.
Once a programme has been broadcast on Channel 4 (and as long as we hold the appropriate rights for) it becomes available on 4oD as part of the Catch Up service. For the first 30 days, many of these Catch Up TV shows are available for free.
You can watch anything you’ve downloaded to 4oD or for that matter, any streamed Catch Up TV on your television. All you need to do is connect up your TV to your PC. Refer to the documentation that came with your computer for more information about connecting it to your television or click here to go to our special demo. Some newer video cards will come with standard RCA adapters for video and audio and will allow you to connect your PC directly to your television. Otherwise an s-video connection cable, that can be bought in computer and electronics shops, will connect your computer to your television. S-video is a standard 4-pin video connection on most televisions and video cards. S-video only transfers the picture, not sound, so you will also need to connect the audio out from your computer to external speakers, a stereo system or your TV.
Your 4oD downloads are stored on the PC that you have registered with 4oD. You will get the option to change your registered PC and you can always install 4oD to a different PC, but you can’t view downloads from one 4oD account on more than one PC.