The standard-definition channel is available on Freeview and Freesat platforms, while the high-definition variant is offered free on Freely, and as a pay television service on satellite and cable.

[2] During this time the collaboration produced John Polson's Siam Sunset and Mark Lamprell's My Mother Frank in Australia.

[citation needed] On 7 April 2001, FilmFour expanded with the launch of three additional digital networks.

The other addition was the timeshift service FilmFour +1, which carried all of the main channel's films an hour later.

[3] All three channels were initially exclusive to Sky Digital but were made available on NTL cable from November-December 2001.

The switch to becoming a free channel meant it also lost the ability to adhere to looser broadcasting regulations regarding content on subscription channels - it thus now routinely edits films to make them suitable for pre-watershed screenings before 9pm and removes particularly explicit content from the more extreme material it shows after that time.

Prior to the arrivals of Movie Mix and Movies4Men on the Freeview platform, Film4 was the only free film channel available on digital terrestrial television.

On 20 July 2010, a high-definition simulcast – Film4 HD launched exclusively on Virgin Media's cable television platform on channel 429, only available on certain packages.

[21] The capacity on PSB2 was made available by the "Sewing Quarter" service moving to Freeview COM6 (DVB-T) multiplex operated by Arqiva.