Youth-orientated channel E4 will shutdown for the whole of polling day (May 7th) in a bid to encourage more young people to vote.
The channel is set to introduce viewers to Darren – the guy in charge of making sure E4 is on.
Darren works in the E4 control room and has ultimate responsibility for the ‘on’ and ‘off’ switch and, when polling stations open at 7am, Darren will switch E4 off.
Viewers tuning in for the remainder of the will see Darren manning the control room in place of the usual schedule, commercials and promos.
Dan Brooke, Channel 4’s Chief Marketing and Communications Officer said: “Less than half of under-25s voted at the last election so we’ve engaged the most powerful weapon that we have at our disposal to try and boost that number – switching off their favourite TV channel for the day!”
E4’s shutdown is believed to be the first for a UK channel and is part of Channel 4’s campaign to motivate young people to engage with politics.
Other initiatives include ‘X’ – an initiative showing young people how to register to vote online – and the first ever Youth Leaders’ Debate which takes place on Monday 28th April.
