$re = '/<c:out\s*?value\s*?=\s*?\"\$\{([^\"]+?)\}\"\s*?(?:\><\/c:out>|\/\>)/i';
$str = '<c:out value="${tmpChannel.channel.name}" />
<h4><c:out value="${tmpChannel.channel.name}"></c:out></h4>
<h4><a href="${homeLinkUrl}"><c:out></a></h4>
<h4><c:out value="${tmpChannel.channel.name}" /></h4>';
$subst = "${\1}";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php