The UK’s fifth terrestrial television channel launched a quarter of a century ago. After multiple changes in ownership and direction, the anniversary looks set to be quiet one.
On 30th March 1997, 25 years ago, the Spice Girls helped launch the UK’s latest TV channel. It was the last big channel launch before multi-channel digital TV arrived the following year. This meant Channel 5 had little time to gain the attention and loyalty of viewers.
But for a channel not adverse to screening the odd vintage TV clip show or two, the milestone will be a relatively quiet affair. You’d be hard pressed to find anything in the schedules this week to mark the milestone.
In the 1990s, Channel 5’s launch was supported by an army of engineers visiting households to adjust VCRs, who often used the same frequency range as those to be used by Channel 5. Channel 5 also became the first of the five terrestrial channels to launch on satellite, reaching viewers outside of terrestrial coverage.
The channel has undergone many transformations in the past 25 years, and is barely recognisable to the channel it once was. Many of its original daily programmes were axed within years of the launch, as the channel initially struggled to find its place in UK broadcasting.
Ten shows that tell Channel 5’s story…
A quick history in 5 paragraphs…
Initially, Channel 5 targeted a downmarket audience, with live football helping pull viewers away from the ITV network. By 2000, much of the original schedule was being replaced. In came daytime show The Wright Stuff, followed in 2001 by the arrival of Home and Away. In 2002, the channel relaunched as ‘Five’ with more new, distinctive programmes.
Reports of possible mergers with Channel 4 and even ITV followed throughout the 2000s. Then, in 2010, the channel was sold to newspaper owner Richard Desmond. The channel became known as ‘Channel 5’ once again and drifted downmarket again. Under Desmond, the channel went distinctively tabloid with the arrival of Big Brother and the short-lived OK! TV.
Just four years later, Channel 5 was sold again, this time to US media giant Viacom, becoming the first UK public service broadcaster to fall into foreign ownership. But rather than filling the schedules with US shows, Channel 5 heavily invested in UK factual shows and dramas.
The change is credited to Channel 5 controller Ben Frow, who rapidly filled primetime schedules with factual shows. Moving away from shows about royalty and supermarkets, Channel 5’s modern schedule compares with the likes of BBC Two, including a growing number of shows fronted by ex-BBC presenters. In 2020, the channel won the RTS Television Channel of the Year award.
Under previous owners, homegrown drama was simply too expensive. From 2020 onwards, the channel began to showcase a small, but hugely successful portfolio of UK drama. All Creatures Great & Small and The Drowning both feature in the top 10 highest audience figures for the channel. Drama helped Channel 5 enjoy its best year for a decade in 2021.
2022 is big year for broadcasting milestones: the BBC celebrates its centenary. And Channel 4 turns 40 in November.