 Its most successful broadcast to date was on 11 October 2010 when an episode of "The Inbetweeners" pulled in over 3.7 million viewers.E4 launched as a pay-TV companion to Channel 4 on 18 January 2001.On 16 December 2004, Channel 4 announced that the subscription channel would become a free-to-air television channel by launching on the digital terrestrial television system.