Early years The channel began broadcasting on 1 February 1995 under the name VT4. The channel initially had no
Belgian broadcasting license and was transmitted via
London (actually from
NTL's
transmission station at Brookmans Park in Hertfordshire). There was initially mass refusal from the Flemish authorities, considering that VTM gained an 18-year monopoly for advertising. In reaction, Minister of Culture
Hugo Weckx initially banned the broadcast of VT4 on Belgian cable in January 1995, under the grounds that, although the channel was licensed in Europe, it should be under the protection of the Flemish legislation. In the same month, the
European Commission filed suit against the Belgian government, by dishonoring the cross-border directive imposed by the Directive. The issue over whether or not cable operators should add VT4 led to numerous other lawsuits, among them one by Turner regarding the carriage of Cartoon Network/TNT and CNN. VT4, however, was allowed to broadcast after the European Commission responded to VT4's complaint in June 1995. That month, the European Commission warned Belgium that it had to dismantle VTM's commercial monopoly in two months, or face legal action. The channel launched one day after
Ka2. Both channels competed against each other since the beginning and were initially catered to "unserved audiences". But like Ka2, the initial format failed as the Flemish market was not ready for non-mainstream networks, causing the channels to switch to primarily American imports on the cheap. In the summer of 1995, coinciding with the change, the channel hired John McCready (formerly of
Television New Zealand) who achieved success in six months. Successes included
The Jerry Springer Show (which in the summer of 1998 attracted VT4's largest audience share to date at the time) and erotic programming. During a three-day period comprising 9 to 11 May 1997, the channel aired the world's longest commercial, for Spaas candles, for a period of seven hours and twenty-two minutes, in the channel's overnight downtime period. Dirk Verhofstadt left VT4 in June 2001.
As a full-on local channel Since 2004, VT4 broadcasts legally from
Zaventem in Belgium. The new facilities enabled playout facilities for more than one channel, which was at the pipeline for SBS. It is available on the cable network in
Brussels as well as in
Flanders. It's also available throughout Belgium on the
IPTV network of
Belgacom, who offers
triple play everywhere in Belgium where
VDSL is available. It carried the
2006 FIFA World Cup, which was complemented by sister channel
VIJFtv's female-centric output for the period. The channel broadcast a one-off dubbed episode of
The Simpsons (the series was regularly broadcast in English with Dutch subtitles),
Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes, the first episode of the twentieth season, under the title (The Flemish Simpsons) as part of the 20th anniversary of the series, on 24 October 2009. For the dub, the same voice actors from the movie reprised their roles.
Woestijnvis joins; becoming Vier In January 2011, two companies, De Vijver Media, parent holding of Flemish television production company
Woestijnvis, and
RTL Group, announced their intentions to acquire SBS Belgium, including VT4. Specialists believed that the group's two channels were worth €100-150 million. The move came when
ProSiebenSat.1 Media, which acquired
SBS Broadcasting's assets, decided to sell its TV and radio networks in Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Flanders. On 14 June 2012, it was announced that VT4 would be rebranded as Vier effective 17 September. Vier's ratings and advertising revenue were higher than those of VT4 at the end of 2012. Vier and Woestijnvis boss
Wouter Vandenhaute had higher expectations, by trying to have at least 40% of the ad market. The channel suspended
Man Bijt Hond (later becoming a weekly programme) and moved
De Kruitfabriek to prime time, causing dissatisfaction from viewers. The programming measures didn't help, and by May 2013, its ratings fell by 25%. In 2014, the ratings slightly increased again. The channel had a 7% penetration in the "Verantwoordelijken Voor Aankoop" (Responsible for Buying) target group ages 18 to 54. In its first months, VIER tried to make its advertising breaks more appealing to viewers, including short games, excerpts from editorial programmes and animation films. According to a 19 November 2012 ruling from the
Flemish Regulator for the Media, these excerpts violated advertising regulations, as advertising must be clearly separated from programming. VIER scrapped these segments after that.
Telenet becomes a shareholder On 13 June 2014,
Telenet became one of De Vijver Media's three shareholders. It acquired
Sanoma's assets, but had to exclude
Humo from the agreement. VIER had a 12,8% share in 2016 among the 18-54 "Responsible for Buying" demographic, reaching its highest share ever. On 7 June 2019, it was announced that the channel would be eventually rebranded as "Four" as part of the rebranding of the three channels under the "Play" name. The following year, it was decided that the channel would instead rebrand as
Play4 on 28 January 2021.
Ditching the 4 On 13 October 2025, Play Media announced that Play4 was rebranded as
Play as part of the company wide rebranding campaign, alongside their streaming platform GoPlay rebranded as the same name. This caused the main channel of the group to ditch the numeral 4 after thirty years. Its sister channels also dropped their numbers and adopted names matching their themes. Jeroen Bronselaer justified that the rebranding operation was a difficult decision, as there were plans to either ditch the Play or ditch the 4 altogether. The removal of the number-based names stems from the fact that fixed days for television viewing are now in the past, and the company is eyeing towards a streaming-first strategy, by adopting a new name that can be recognisable on any platform. Stef Verbeeck also stated that there are still people calling it VT4, under the grounds that "the more iconic a brand, the more difficult such a name change is", citing the rename from
Sportpaleis to the AFAS Dome as an example. ==HD broadcast==