Thousands watch C4 sitcom online

More than 370,000 people have watched Channel 4's new sitcom The IT Crowd online.

Transmitting the Graham Linehan-written comedy over the internet was a first for Channel 4 which - like every broadcaster - is experimenting with different ways of delivering shows

And it got off to a cracking start, with almost 150,000 online viewers watching the first episode – which was on the web a week before its TV broadcast.

Had that number been counted in the official viewing figures, it would have bolstered the slightly disappointing 1.8million ratings by eight per cent.

Interest waned after that, with an average of 34,000 watching the remaining five episodes online. However, Channel 4 claim that overall ten times as many people watched the IT Crowd on broadband as downloaded the Mighty Boosh last year

Rod Henwood, new business director at Channel 4, said: 'A key goal for Channel 4 is to make our TV content available over as many platforms as possible.

'The IT Crowd was the first time we’ve premiered a made-for-TV show online and these fantastic results demonstrate that a huge appetite for online broadcasts exists.

'The content of The IT Crowd made it ideal for online viewing, and to be able to use such a strong and relevant series for our first online premiere has given us a really good starting point to develop in the future.'

Channel 4 has just commissioned a second series of the comedy, which stars Richard Ayoade, Chris O’Dowd and Katherine Parkinson, to air next year.

Published: 5 Mar 2006