No doubt you’re already aware that you can watch 4oD Catch-Up on our new improved channel4.com (and if you haven’t tried it yet, what are you waiting for?). All the content is streamed which makes it really easy to use, you shouldn’t need to download anything - simply find what you want to watch and hit “Play”. Oh, and non-Windows users will be pleased to know that 4oD Catch-Up on channel4.com is now Mac and Linux compatible.

From around the end of June you’ll also be able to watch all our archive programmes on channel4.com. Which means all your favourites will be in one place and available for free.

- Channel 4 email to 4oD users

A quiz, dear reader. Does this represent:

(a) the end of months of brand confusion within Channel 4 between the download-based 4oD service and the streaming-based Catch-Up?

(b) a victory for consumers on a par with iTunes’ abandonment of DRM?

(c) a bit of an embarassment for the BBC?

(d) all of the above?

And the answer is (d), sort of. While the sheer range of stuff available on 4OD has always been impressive, the software was horrible, thanks both to the nasty, malware-esque Kontiki peer-to-peer software underpinning it and the bizarre Internet Explorer-based front-end Channel 4 put on top. One can’t blame Channel 4 for quickly switching, for the most popular, recent content, to a streaming system instead. The BBC made the same switch in the first few months of iPlayer. But while the BBC only ever offered recent programmes, Channel 4 still had that archive available. So 4oD struggled on, unloved and uninvested in, as a download service with horrible software. To confuse matters further, the 4oD name was also used in introducing Catch-Up streams and on digital TV.

Now Channel 4 has finally rationalised its offering, in the way that probably offers the simplest solution for consumers: the archive material is being integrated into the streaming service, creating a single portal for both recent and archive Channel 4 shows. Best of all, the pay wall is coming down. And the whole thing steals the thunder of the BBC, who are dragging their heels over their longstanding plan to make archive material available online.

This doesn’t mean that the new 4oD will be as pleasurable to use, or as popular, as the iPlayer. But it does mean 20 years of classic C4 programming instantly, freely available for consumers without any software installation. That’s a good thing.