thestar.com

A six-week tribute to C4 (seminars and screenings) was staged this summer at New York's Museum of Broadcasting. A nine-week salute, "Best of Four" has run on American public television. Five C4 movies were shown at the Cannes Festival this summer. And C4's Letter To Brezhnev and My Beautiful Laundrette are playing in movie houses across North America.

Today, many faces are red. Along with the critical praise, ratings are up to a respectible 10 per cent, and C4 is more than paying its way. A hybrid, created by Act of Parliament, C4 has a non- profit channel which can accept commercials which are sold through ITV, and has now become the channel of choice for considerable up- market and youth-oriented advertising. ITV, which also provides C4's annual funding from 13 per cent of its total advertising revenue, is now more than getting its money back.

This year C4 will be investing $15 million of its programming budget into movies. By Hollywood standards that would cover the cost of one low-to-medium priced movie; based on C4's track record, some 20 films designed for both TV and cinema will result. Of the 28 movies produced in Britain in 1984, C4 money was invested in 10.