HOTTES NEWS TODAY!!! EastEnders and Casualty are now streaming on Channel 4 – here’s why

If you’ve checked out the Channel 4 streaming service recently, you might have noticed that Casualty and EastEnders are now on there. Now, these aren’t new episodes — they’re classic instalments.

Casualty currently has seasons 23 through 26 (the episodes from late-2008 to mid-2012) on Channel 4, with more arriving on Monday 6 July.

As for EastEnders, there are 149 episodes of ‘season 27’, which starts off in April 2010, right in the middle of the Syed-Christian-Amira drama, and goes up to Christmas. Even more episodes will hit Channel 4 on Friday 10 July.

At one point, BBC soaps being available to stream via Channel 4 might have been considered unthinkable, so why is it happening now?

The reason is fairly simple: These are the classic episodes also available on streaming service U, which covers the UKTV channels like U&Drama and Alibi that famously show a lot of repeats (and are actually owned by the BBC, despite having adverts).

In 2025, Channel 4 and UKTV announced that they signed a deal to carry U content on Channel 4 streaming starting in January 2026 — which is why you might have also seen BBC classics like Red Dwarf and Have I Got a Bit More News for You on there.

A partnership like this isn’t unheard of, as ITV and Disney+ have been sharing content through the ‘A Taste of’ project for a while now. It has seen shows like The Bear appear on ITVX and even (almost) up-to-date episodes of Coronation Street pop up on Disney+, for limited times.

When their collaboration was first announced, ITV and Disney stated that the goal was promote each other’s services, giving people, well, a taste of the content available in the hopes that they go and sign up.

Even before that, major British broadcasters — the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and 5 — have been licensing their shows to big American streamers such as Disney+ and Prime Video as a way to monetise their back catalogues.

While the idea of two BBC staples being carried by Channel 4 may have seemed mind-boggling years ago, now it’s pretty par for the course.