| Five |
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Five, formerly known as Channel 5, is the United Kingdom's fifth national terrestrial TV Channel. 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 in March of 1997 – UHF channel 37 was allocated in many areas, which meant that large numbers of domestic video recorders (which output on that channel) had to be retuned by an army of retuners across the country at the new company's expense.
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. |
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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-view on analogue satellite for infill coverage, the only UK terrestrial channel to ever use this transmission system, and the first UK terrestrial on satellite. |
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| History |
| 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 interefered with existing transmitters for channel 3 (ITV) and others. To achieve national coverage entailed a physical visit to the home of every UK TV set owner and then "re-tuning" the set(s) to receive the new Channel Five and prevent interference with other local frequencies. |
| 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. Five, with its mix of popular programs acquired at significantly lower cost and original comedy fare, was an almost immediate success and in less than ten years has become firmly established as a leading UK national network. |
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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 after the spoof foreign network on The Fast Show. C4 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. |
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| Programming |
The soap opera Family Affairs aired on the channel from its opening night. Five however discontinued production of the soap in 2005, mainly due to low ratings. The final episode aired on 30 December that year. The channel had 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 it has shown signs of moving steadily upmarket, and has attracted large audiences as the UK home of many cult American series including CSI, Law & Order, Alias, Lexx, Star Trek: Voyager, Stargate Atlantis and House.
As part of its move upmarket Five won a bidding war with the other terrestrial TV channels for the rights to show the then-new Friends TV show spin off, Joey. News media estimate Five's winning bid at anywhere between £250,000 and £500,000 per show, either way in regions unheard of for a new TV show, and very rare even for established TV shows in the UK. |
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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 Channel 5, 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.
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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. In 2003, the channel controversially acquired the rights to the cult show Robot Wars, for its upcoming 9th series (billed as "Series 7"), 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 was the last, and also the last ever of Robot Wars. After the last ever episode was broadcast, Five sold the whole series to cable/satellite channel Jetix.
Late-night sports programming, which has been a feature of the channel since launch, continues, especially focussing on live coverage of major North American sports. |
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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; but following the lost 2004-05 season, the broadcast rights passed to NASN. However, five has since regained broadcast rights and will start showing Ice Hockey again every Wednesday night as from 4 January 2006.
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. |
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| 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 the 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.
Following this, Five launched two new digital TV channels in autumn 2006 on Freeview, Sky, NTL & Telewest:
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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. |
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