The UK's Channel 4 has announced that it will be putting over a thousand hours of its back catalogue of TV shows on YouTube in full episodes, letting people watch them online for free.

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The roster will include panel shows such as 8 out of 10 Cats alongside reality TV like SAS: Who Dares Wins, but the key for Channel 4 is that it'll be putting adverts before and likely during the shows.

These will assumedly be programmatic via YouTube's platform, and could apparently represent a very new revenue stream for a channel that is under public pressure from the UK government to make more money.

Channel 4 has cited the far younger demographics that YouTube serves compared to broadcast TV as another major reason for the deal, in the hope that it'll make the brand a more familiar one for younger users.

The TV shows being uploaded shouldn't be too old, either - Channel 4 has said that certain shows will be uploaded to YouTube 30 days after they air, which suggests it could become a viable way to catch up with relatively recent releases that you might have missed.

Channel 4's YouTube channel is the assumed destination for the shows, so keep an eye on it if you're keen on watching some TV online.