Four Shires Magazine

The continued growth and rapid expansion of the Country Channel has sparked a move across West Oxfordshire to larger and much improved premises and the development of a fantastic new TV studio.  The new buildings offer double the floor space providing room for, amongst other things, the new purpose built live record studio.  The new studio, currently in phase 1 of development, will enable the channel to diversify its existing content and transmit high quality live broadcasts as well as pre-recordings.  It can also be used to film, edit and produce entire programmes on site such as the highly successful series of ‘Face to Face’ interviews featuring key figures such as the Rt. Hon Hilary Benn MP, Orri Vigfussen (NASF founder and president) and Graham Wynne (RSPB CEO).
The move to the new site and the development of the new TV studio will not only facilitate further expansion, but also signals changing times for the Oxfordshire based Country Channel.  From its launch by David Cameron in June 2006, The Country Channel has gone from strength to strength and grown, from what was originally only a passionate vision, into probably the most watched countryside Internet TV stations on the planet.
A further boost for the Country Channel is the significant advances in fibre optic broadband technology, backed by the government, which will provide high speed internet connections to rural businesses and rural communities nationwide. To reflect theses improvements in broadband technology, the Country Channel now operates a next generation Microsoft Silverlight internet TV player.  The new player will not only have greater compatibility, but will also load quicker and be more ‘user friendly’.
With continued and sustained growth on the horizon and the development of the new Country Channel TV studio, the future looks very bright for the Oxfordshire based channel.  Paul Aitken (CEO of the Country Channel) is buoyant about direction in which the Country Channel is headed and in particular the development of the new studio: “It is three years since we launched the channel and we have achieved a huge amount in that time.  Our new state of the art TV studio will allow us to diversify our programming. It not only underlines how successful we have been, but also provides us with a springboard for further growth and expansion in the future.”