Five (TV)

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Five
Launched	30 March 1997
Owned by	RTL Group
Audience share	5.7% (September '06, Source:[1])
Formerly called	Channel 5 (1997-2002)
Website	www.five.tv
Availability
Terrestrial
UK analogue	Normally tuned to 5
Freeview	Channel 5
Satellite
Sky Digital	Channel 105
Cable
NTL:Telewest	Channel 105

Five (often referred as five, as per the logo), formerly, and more commonly known as Channel 5, is the British fifth and final national analogue terrestrial TV channel.

[edit] Company

Channel 5 Broadcasting Limited (As of 2006, still the legal name of the company, though it now trades exclusively as Five) was licensed by the UK Government in 1995 after an exhaustive bidding process that lasted from 1993 and throughout 1994. The initial round of bidders, which included Thames Television, was rejected outright and the government contemplated not awarding the license at all. The difficulty with the project lay in the frequency distribution plan which, in some regions, interfered with existing frequencies used for domestic video recording and satellite receiving equipment. To achieve national coverage, large numbers of domestic video recorders (which output at a nearby frequency) had to be retuned at the new company's expense.

Channel 5 generic logo, 1997-2002. Variants of this version were seen frequently prior to the launch, though the coloured bars remained in some form or another until 2002

One of the Channel 5 idents used from 1997-1999

One of the Channel 5 idents used from 1999-2000

five logo used from 2002-

The project was revived in mid 1994 when Tom McGrath, then-president of Time Warner International Broadcasting, put together a revised frequency plan with NTL and consulting engineer Ellis Griffiths, involving less re-tuning and greater signal coverage. Lord Clive Hollick, then CEO of Meridian Broadcasting (later United News) took up the project as lead investor as UK law prohibited Time Warner from owning more than 25%. Ironically, when McGrath left to become President of Paramount, Time Warner dropped out of the project and was replaced by CLT/RTL who today control the network.

[edit] History

[edit] Launch

The channel was launched on Sunday March 30, 1997 by the Spice Girls, performing a "reverse" cover of the 60s hit "5-4-3-2-1".

The first advertisement on the channel was for Chanel No 5.

[edit] Rumoured merger

On 27 February 2004 it was reported that Five and Channel 4 were discussing a possible merger; this was widely seen as a potential upset for Channel 4's pride. Some comics joked that the merged company should call itself Chanel 9 [sic] after the spoof foreign network on The Fast Show. Channel 4 and Five announced that merger plans were being called off in November of that year.

On 20 July 2005, RTL Group paid £247.6 million for United Business Media's 35.4% stake in the channel. The acquisition was approved on 26 August 2005.

[edit] January 2006 branding

On 23 January 2006, Five launched new idents which are based on human emotions. Instead of displaying the channel's logo, each ident displays a word that is suggestive of what is being shown (using Five's current branding style), such as 'love', 'hope', 'rush' and 'live'. Prior to the relaunch Five released a preview of the "love" ident. The ident has sperm with the word "love" forming from an egg.

[edit] Multi-channel strategy

British television has undergone a lot of change since Five's launch with the huge growth in Digital television. See Digital television in Europe#United Kingdom.

On 18 November 2005, it was announced that Five had bought a stake in DTT's pay-TV operator, Top Up TV. It was said that the investment may lead to the development of new free and pay services on DTT, and other platforms.^[1]

Following this, Five launched two new digital TV channels in autumn 2006 on Freeview, Sky, NTL & Telewest:^[2]

• Five Life, launched on 15 October 2006, providing pre-school shows under the milkshake! banner as well as drama, films, soaps, popular factual and lifestyle shows aimed at women.
• Five US, launched on 16 October 2006, offering drama, films, sport, comedy and youth programming from across the Atlantic.

Spin-offs from Five's existing hits also air on the new outlets.

The channels use Digital Terrestrial space that was previously occupied by Top Up TV's channels, but viewers will not require a Top Up TV subscription, or pay extra to receive the new channels. The channels will be funded by a "substantial additional investment" from the broadcaster's parent company RTL.^[3]

[edit] Broadcasting and reception

The British frequency plan only allowed for four channels to be transmitted using analogue terrestrial transmitters, so it was very difficult to allocate frequencies for the new channel before its launch on Easter Sunday 1997. UHF channel 37 was allocated in many areas, which entailed a physical visit to every affected UK TV set to re-tune the video or satellite receiver so it wouldn't interfere with the station's broadcasts. Some homes also needed equipping with a new TV aerial. However after launch in a large amount of areas the signal was visibly quite poor, this was due to using a different antenna band to other channels in the same area. This caused horizontal interference in many areas and gave it the nickname after launch of "the fuzzy channel".^{[citation needed]}

Eventually the sheer volume of assumed affected homes became overwhelming for the company and so to reduce the backlog the company began a test transmission with a telephone number, and based their engineer visits solely on people who phoned that number to complain that they couldn't use their video equipment. In homes where a re-tuning would not remedy the problem, consumers were provided with a filter to completely block the Channel 5 signal.

Unlike the other four analogue British television channels, the channel cannot be received via analogue terrestrial broadcasts in many areas, notably the south coast of England, where the signal would otherwise interfere with signals from television stations in France. Many areas in Scotland are also outside of the Five analogue broadcast area. The channel is available on all digital platforms (Sky Digital satellite, and Freeview digital terrestrial, and also most cable operators). Prior to the introduction of digital systems, it was provided free-to-air on analogue satellite for infill coverage, the only UK terrestrial channel to ever use this transmission system, and the first UK terrestrial on satellite. Channel 5 is also the only British analogue terrestrial channel without any availability in Ireland (all other analogue terrestrial broadcasters have carriage agreements with at least NTL Ireland and Chorus).

At its point of launch in 1997, the channel became the first terrestrial channel in the UK to use a permanent digital on-screen graphic for branding purposes and to make the channel easy to find for those who hadn't yet tuned to it. This on-screen logo was unpopular with the viewing public (previously, on-screen branding had always been the domain of satellite and cable channels, while the terrestrial channels kept their pictures clear), and was first reduced in brightness - then on 16 September 2002 was removed altogether to bring the "clear screen" concept in line with other terrestrial channels.^[4]

[edit] Programming

[edit] General

The soap opera Family Affairs aired on the channel from its opening night. It was the first soap opera to air regularly five nights a week since the 1960s and also the first to allow viewers to decide some storylines. Five, however, discontinued production of the soap in 2005, mainly due to low ratings. The final episode aired on 30 December that year. Its cancellation freed up £10 million for other programming.^[5]

The channel began with a reputation for lowest-common-denominator broadcasting, famously screening low-budget "erotic thrillers" on Friday and Saturday nights (prompting the comment by the channel's director of programmes, Dawn Airey, that it was all about "films, football and fucking"), and concentrating its output on entertainment and lifestyle shows at the expense of factual programming.

In the 2000s, the channel has shown some signs of adding more upmarket programming, such as the American series CSI (including spin-offs CSI: Miami and CSI: NY), Law & Order (including spin-offs Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order: Criminal Intent), Alias, LEXX, Star Trek: Voyager, Stargate Atlantis, Prison Break, NCIS, Charmed, Grey's Anatomy and House. As part of its attempt to move upmarket, Five won a bidding war with the other terrestrial TV channels for the rights to show the nascent Friends spin off, Joey. News media estimated Five's winning bid at anywhere between £250,000 and £500,000 per show, an amount unheard of for a new TV show, and very rare even for established TV shows in the UK. The second episode (broadcast 13 February 2005) got an audience of 4.53 million, making it one of the channel's highest rated broadcasts ever.

Five also shows many documentaries, some of which have been moderately successful, such as the Hidden Lives series. There was a period during 2003 and 2004 when it became known for World War II documentaries, many of which were repeats. This climaxed when Christmas Day 2004 was advertised as "World War II Day" on Five, but since then the channel has moderated the war documentaries on its schedules. In 2005 Five acquired the rights to the annual Royal Institution Christmas Lectures.

In a bidding war for terrestrial rights to hit US animated comedy The Simpsons, Five attempted to pick up rights to screen old and new episodes of the long-running cartoon, but were pipped to the deal by Channel 4. However Five were the eventual winners in a bidding war with the broadcaster ITV to show the Australian soap opera Home and Away. Five also picked up the rights for the ITV music show CD:UK, which it planned to launch in the summer of 2006.

In 2003, the channel controversially acquired the rights to the cult show Robot Wars, for so long a staple of Friday nights on BBC Two. It was hoped that this would become another jewel in Five's ever-brightening crown, but due to a fallout between the show's producers and the Fighting Robot Association (FRA), the first series to be shown on Five - the 9th series, billed as "The Seventh Wars" - was the last, and also the last ever of Robot Wars. After the last ever episode was broadcast, Five sold the whole series to children's cable/satellite channel Jetix.

Five announced on June 23 2006 that it would screen a new series of Make Me a Supermodel. This time the show will feature male and female contestants seeking a prize to sign with Select Modelling Agency. The second series debuted this year (October 2006) and has become a flagship show in five's lineup. Broadcast four times a week, with the 'walk off' catwalk live eviction show on friday (presetned by Fearne Cotton) the show has become popular with in its timeslot. Rachel Hunter returned as head judge on the panel. The new channel, Five Life launched an spin-off show called 'Make Me A Supermodel Extra' Presented by Anthony Crank and series one contestant Jasmine Lennard as co-host. But Lennard was fired only two weeks into the show for insulting Rachel Hunter live on air, calling her Rachel 'Munter'. After Lennard refused to apologise she was axed off the show. Some say this boosted ratings as people found Lennard annoying.

In September 2006, Five screened the second series of Trust Me I'm A Holiday Rep, where six celebrities work as holiday reps abroad. It has also been reported this year that Five shall screen a new celebrity reality show based on a beauty salon. The show shall be called Trust Me I'm a Beauty Therapist. ^{[citation needed]}

Five has also fronted itself at providing the best in drama. With its most watched programme CSI:Miami, and also CSI, CSI:NY, Conviction, Criminal Minds, House, Big Love, Law and Order, Grey's Anatomy, Prison Break and The Shield all becoming top ratings hits for five's schedule. In 2006 Five started to air home grown British drama's such as Tripping Over, and the Perfect Day Trilogy, which proved to be hits with viewers. Which show Five's leap into showing home grown dramas as well as popular American dramas. Five is expected to show more British dramas in 2007.

Comedy has became a popular line up in five's schedule. With the second series of Joey expected to air on five in 2007, and other American comedies such as Two and a Half Men and Everybody hates Chris being aired, Five is now becoming known for showing top American comedies as its competition Channel 4. British comedies such as Respectable and a second series of Swinging were aired and were front-runners in five's ratings. More new comedy both American and British are expected to air on five in 2007.

The channel has recently shown more lifestyle programmes of high quality, such as Diet Doctors, Extraordinary People, and the quiz show In The Grid, featuring contestants pitting their wits against each other and the all-powerful 'grid' in an attempt to win a big money prize. The show, hosted by Les Dennis, began in October 2006.

[edit] Sport

Late-night sports programming has been a feature of the channel since its launch, especially focusing on live coverage of major North American sports. The channel has covered Major League Baseball games, both regular season and playoffs since its first week on air, and also covers regular season National Football League and National Basketball Association games. Until 2004, it also covered the regular season and Stanley Cup playoffs of the National Hockey League; following the lost 2004-05 season, the broadcast rights passed to NASN. However, since 4 January 2006, Five is once again showing the NHL every Wednesday night. With the conclusion of Family Affairs, Five's MLB baseball coverage is the longest continuously run programme on the channel. Jonathon Gould and Josh Chetwynd are the co-hosts.

Five also shows a mix of European and international club football, notably coverage from the Netherlands Eredivisie, Portugal's SuperLiga, Primera División Argentina and Copa Libertadores from South America. Five has also regularly picked up the right to the international Confederations Cup competition, showing live matches and delayed coverage.

In 2005 Five secured the rights to show highlights of all of England's test and one-day cricket matches. This followed a period of much publicised success for the English cricket team and when the exclusive live rights to home England matches were controversially awarded to Sky Sports, Five was a surprise choice to pick up the highlights in light of Channel 4's excellent coverage and the BBC's previous interest. Prior to Channel 4, the BBC had held rights and Five were newcomers to cricket but the coverage has taken up where Channel 4 had left off in its coverage and has secured past cricketers such as Simon Hughes and Geoffrey Boycott to offer expert analysis on the day's play.

The channel has also covered motorsports, most notably Moto GP from 2000 to 2002 showing every race live before rights were snapped up by the BBC. For a brief time, Five showed professional wrestling in the form of the WCW Worldwide show between Summer 1999 and March 2001, when the company was purchased by World Wrestling Entertainment, and ceased to produce any more shows.

[edit] Participation TV

Quiz Call has quit Five after being bought out.

The Great Big British Quiz now airs on Five and Five's digital channels Five Life and Five US. Quiz Call who were Five's preferred quiz option has now been removed from Five's line-up since Channel 4 have sold Quiz Call on to an international company. However, there is speculation on Liz Fuller's Official Website (works on Quiz Call) that Quiz Call may be back next year on Five.

[edit] News

From 1 January 2005, Sky News was awarded the contract to provide the news for Five, replacing ITN, which had provided the channel's news service from the channel's launch. The main newsreaders on launch were: lead anchor Kirsty Young, Helen Fospero, Kate Gerbeau and Barbara Serra. Priya Kaur-Jones joined after Barbara Serra returned to Sky News, and John Suchet joined to fill in for Kirsty Young while she is on maternity leave, and has secured a permanent role at the channel when Kirsty returns.^[6] Lara Lewington has been the weather presenter since January 2003.

Five News is to become the first network TV news programme to guarantee a payment and an on-screen credit to viewers for their news footage and stories.In a bold move Five News will pay “citizen journalists” a minimum of £100 for stories and clips it showcases on Five News. This initiative will be launched on Monday November 13. As well as the minimum payment, contributors will also be entitled to an on-screen credit and to a share of the proceeds if Five sells the material on other parties. The “Your News” initiative has also seen the introduction of on-screen e-mail addresses for all reporters to encourage viewers to get directly in touch with their comments and views. Five News also plans to create a “Your News” section in their programmes reserved for “citizen journalism”.

[edit] Pop Idol

Its has been said that the creator of Pop Idol, Simon Fuller has been in talks with Five over the new version of Pop Idol after ITV's contract has run out.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] See also

• List of British television channels

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• five.tv
• RTL.com
• A Burglar's Charter Understanding Channel 5, from Off The Telly, March 2002
• thisisfive.co.uk Channel 5 history and idents
• idents.tv Channel 5 idents