Channel 4 puts shows on YouTube

Peep Show is among the series to be uploaded to YouTube

Broadcaster Channel 4 is to put entire programmes on YouTube free of charge.

Under the deal, Channel 4 will make its 4OD catch-up service fully available on YouTube's UK site, alongside archive shows like Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares.

Other series that are "particularly popular with online audiences" including Skins, Teachers and Peep Show, will be streamed on the site.

Programmes are expected to appear over the next couple of months, with a full service up and running by 2010.

Other UK broadcasters, including the BBC and ITN, currently make clips and selected shows on the video-sharing website.

However, this is the "first time that a broadcaster anywhere in the world has made a comprehensive catch-up schedule available," said Channel 4 and YouTube in a joint statement.

Under the three-year deal, each company will take a share of revenues from any advertising sold around the programmes on YouTube.

Channel 4 was the first UK broadcaster to launch a video on demand service in late 2006, and was also the first to sell advertising around TV content online.