Five (TV)
From Freepedia
| five (TV) | |
| Image:Five.png | |
| Launched: | 30 March 1997 |
| Audience Share : | 5.2% (Sept '05 [1]) |
| Owned By: | RTL Group |
| www.five.tv | |
| Availability | |
| Terrestrial | |
| UK analogue: | Usually Channel 5 |
| Freeview: | Channel 5 |
| Satellite | |
| Sky Digital: | Channel 105 |
| Cable | |
| NTL: | Channel 5 |
| Telewest: | Channel 105 |
five, formerly known as Channel 5, is the United Kingdom's fifth 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 videorecorders (which output on that channel) had to be retuned 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. The channel is available on all digital platforms (Sky Television satellite, and Freeview digital terrestrial, and also most cable operators).
Contents |
Programming
Since the channel's first night, the soap opera Family Affairs has been airing in homes across the UK, and is one of the few original programs to have aired continuously since the first night of telecasts. Five have however announced that they will be discontinuing production of the soap in 2005, mainly due to low ratings. 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.
Recently though 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, Stargate Atlantis and House M.D.. As part of its move upmarket five won a bidding war with the other terrestrial TV channels for the rights to show the 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.
In a bidding war for terrestial 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. 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 govered 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.
From 1 January 2005, Sky News was awarded the contract to provide the news for five, replacing ITN, which had provided the channels news service from the channel's launch.
Company
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.
On 27 February 2004 it was reported that the owners of 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. C4 and five announced that merger plans were being called off in November of that year.
On the 20 July 2005, RTL Group paid £247.6 million for United Business Media's 35.4% stake in the channel. The acquisition remains subject to regulatory approval but is expected to be completed by the autumn.
Multi-Channel Strategy
British television has undergone a lot of change in the 8 years since five's launch. Digital television has grown in popularity with the free-to-air Digital Terrestrial Television service Freeview proving especially popular, with 5 million viewers buying set-top boxes within the service's first three years. Digital Satellite is also popular with 7 million subscribers. All of the channel's rival terrestrial services have adopted a "multi-channel" approach to broadcasting to combat competition from digital only television channels, launching services like ITV2, BBC Three and E4.
At present five has no sister channels, and rents out the digital spectrum gifted to it by the government to premium service Top Up TV.
It is believed RTL wants five to adopt a multi-channel strategy, and it is thought to be preparing a bid for Flextech Television. Flextech Television is the television channel operating arm of cable company Telewest, which may have to be disposed of before a merger with NTL can go ahead to complete consolidation in the UK cable industry. However, rivals Channel 4 and ITV are also believed to be preparing bids for Flextech Television, which runs and owns 10 television channels and has a 50% stake in the UKTV business.
