5 (British TV channel)


5 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel 5 Broadcasting Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Paramount Skydance's UK and Australia division. It was launched on 30 March 1997 to provide a fifth national terrestrial channel in the United Kingdom.
Channel 5 was renamed Five, from 16 September 2002 until 13 February 2011. Most of this was under the RTL Group's ownership with Richard Desmond purchasing the channel on 23 July 2010 and reverting the name change. On 1 May 2014, the channel was acquired by Viacom for £450 million. Channel 5 was rebranded as 5 on 12 March 2025 along with its streaming service.
It is a general entertainment channel that shows internally commissioned programmes such as The Drowning, All Creatures Great and Small and Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild. The channel has also relied on imports from the United States, including the CSI franchise, the NCIS franchise, the first three series in the Law & Order franchise, Power Rangers, The Mentalist, Body of Proof, Once Upon a Time, Dallas, Under the Dome, and sitcom Friends.

History

Pre-launch

and Saatchi & Saatchi were the main companies behind the pre-launch advertising campaign: "Give Me 5". The channel would be both modern and mainstream. A logo and visual motif were used, and an attempt was made to establish a collection of Channel 5 faces; through the spring of 1997, billboards of Jack Docherty were displayed, along with other unknown characters.
A series of pre-launch screens were displayed on the frequencies Channel 5 would begin broadcasting on in the months before launch as well, including a trailer for the channel and information screens. After re-tuning, around 65% of the population's televisions could view the channel on launch night, and a month after launch, the channel launched on satellite to provide coverage to the rest of the UK.

Launch and RTL Group ownership

The channel's launch on 30 March 1997 at After a brief voice over by continuity presenter David Vickery, the first broadcast was the Spice Girls singing a cover version of Manfred Mann's hit "5-4-3-2-1" as "1-2-3-4-5", for which they were reportedly paid around £500,000. Presenters Tim Vine and Julia Bradbury were the first people to introduce the nation to the UK's fifth terrestrial channel with half an hour of previews.
The rest of the Channel 5 launch night schedule, along with the official viewing figures, was as follows:
TimeShowViewers
6pmThis Is 5!2.49
6:30pmFamily Affairs1.70
7pmTwo Little Boys0.68
8pmHospital!1.12
9pmBeyond Fear1.70
10:30pmThe Jack Docherty Show1.16
11:10pmThe Comedy Store Special0.73
11:40pmTurnstyle0.49
12:10amLive and Dangerous0.08
4:40amPrisoner: Cell Block H0.03
5:30amThis is 5!0.03

Overall, an estimated 2,490,000 tuned in to see Britain's fifth free channel launch, a figure higher than that achieved by the launch of Channel 4, fourteen and a half years earlier.
The first advert shown on Channel 5 was for Chanel No. 5 perfume.

Re-brand as Five (2002)

On 16 September 2002, Channel 5 re-branded to Five, in a multimillion-pound project directed by Trevor Beattie. The channel's director of marketing at the time, David Pullen, said:
By 2005, Five's growth has been rapid, but was still operating a single channel, unlike the BBC and its commercial competitors. Some of its spectrum on Freeview was leased to pay-TV operator Top Up TV, which would outweigh the cost of launching a new Five-branded free-to-air channel.

Northern & Shell ownership (2010)

Five was taken over by Richard Desmond's publishing group Northern & Shell on for £103.5million. Desmond pledged to top up the broadcaster's total budget to about £1.5bn over the next five years, including new investment of £50m to £100m a year to boost programming and the equivalent of £20m promoting the channel and its shows in a marketing campaign in Northern & Shell publications.
Upon completing his takeover of Five on 23 July 2010, Richard Desmond remarked; "I prefer Channel 5 to Five, but... we haven't met with the team yet to discuss these sorts of details". The day after, Desmond's Daily Express newspaper noted that the channel's name was to change: "From today the rather vague 'Five' reverts to the much more informative Channel 5". On 11 August 2010, Desmond confirmed the restoration of the original name used from 1997 to 2002. The restoration was revealed onscreen on 14 February 2011.
The relaunch also saw investment in a range of new programming with the debut of the nightly entertainment show OK! TV. Audience figures for the relaunch were boosted with increased viewing figures for the main 5 News bulletins and improved figures for OK! TV in the 6.30pm slot over its predecessor Live from Studio Five. On 18 August 2011, Channel 5 relaunched Big Brother, starting with Celebrity Big Brother 8 and followed by Big Brother 12, having bought the rights to air the programme following its cancellation by Channel 4 in April 2011. The deal was worth a reported £200million. The show helped the channel's viewing figures and audience share to rise slightly, from 4.4% to 4.5%, in 2012. It was only achieved by Channel 5 and BBC One later in 2012; all other terrestrial broadcasters fell in comparison.
In 2013, Ben Frow, the channel's Director of Programming, revealed that the station would be moving away from broadcasting just American imports, by introducing shows from other countries such as Canada, Ireland and Australia to the schedules. The station has since begun screening the Australian prison drama Wentworth Prison and the Irish gangland series Love/Hate.

Viacom/Paramount Global/Paramount Skydance Corporation ownership (2014–present)

In January 2014, it was reported that Richard Desmond was looking at selling Channel 5 for up to £700 million. On 1 May 2014, Desmond agreed to sell Channel 5 to Viacom through its international networks division Viacom International Media Networks for £450million. The deal was approved on 10 September 2014 and at the same time, it was announced that it was to co-commission programmes with its pay channels such as Nickelodeon and MTV.
Under Viacom, the channel planned to increase its original programming output, increasing its budget by 10%. On 11 February 2016, Channel 5 also unveiled an overhauled brand, meant to reflect a new remit of "Spirited TV with an Emotional Heart".
In December 2019, Viacom re-merged with CBS Corporation, forming ViacomCBS and making Channel 5 a sister to CBS in the United States and Network 10 in Australia. Channel 5 received Channel of the Year honours from the Royal Television Society and Broadcast Awards in 2020, with judges for both recognising the network's expansion under ViacomCBS.
On 20 August 2024, it was reported that Paramount was planning a rebrand of Channel 5 to occur in early 2025, which would see its on-air name shortened back to "5". In addition, catch-up platform My5 will also be consolidated under the "5" branding to unify its linear and streaming outlets, following the lead of Channel 4. In addition, plans to consolidate Pluto TV with My5 were shelved. The rebrand took place on 12 March 2025 and prelaunch promotional material featuring the same '5' logo in a new yellow colour appeared on public transport locations around London.

Availability

Cable

  • Virgin Media : Channel 105 and Channel 305

    IPTV

  • Sky Glass : Channel 105
  • Freely : Channel 5

    Online

  • TVPlayer:
  • Sky Go:
  • Virgin TV Go:
  • Pluto TV:

    Satellite

  • Freesat : Channel 105 and Channel 128
  • Sky : Channel 105, Channel 205 and Channel 805

    Terrestrial

  • Freeview : Channel 5, Channel 38 and Channel 105

    Broadcasting and reception

The British frequency plan had only allowed for four channels to be transmitted over the whole of the UK using analogue terrestrial transmitters, but the ITC identified that UHF channels 35 and 37 could provide coverage for around 70% of the UK population. These channels were used by many domestic video recorders for RF connection to television sets. Before the channel could launch, the broadcaster had to provide over-the-phone instructions or visit any home that complained, to either retune the video recorder or fit a filter to completely block the Channel 5 signal.
For many transmitters, channels 35 and 37 were 'out of the group', which meant that the roof-top receiving aerials were not designed to cover Channel 5's broadcast channels. Many people either could not receive the channel at all or required a new aerial. The broadcaster progressively added to the transmitters to improve the analogue terrestrial coverage since that time. From 23 April 1997, the channel was also provided on the analogue Astra satellite service, which enabled people outside the terrestrial reception areas to receive it via a dish.
Unlike the other four analogue British television channels, the channel could not be received via analogue terrestrial broadcasts in many areas, including some parts of the south coast of England where the signal would otherwise interfere with signals from television stations in France; many areas of North East England, especially around the major Tyne & Wear conurbation; many areas in Scotland; most of Wales, most of Northern Ireland and parts of Cumbria. The channel is available on all digital platforms. On 5 November 2008, the channel launched on digital satellite service Freesat, on the Astra 28.2°E satellites.
It was the first terrestrial channel in the UK to use a permanent digital on-screen graphic, though this was removed in September 2002; however, the children's programming strands kept the DOG. In October 2007, the channel's logo returned to the screen.
Channel 5 is available in Switzerland on Swisscom TV and Cablecom.
On 30 September 2009, the channel temporarily ceased broadcasting on Freeview from around 9:30am until midday. This was due to changes to the Freeview platform, which necessitated moving Channel 5 from a commercial multiplex to a public service broadcasting multiplex. This was to increase the coverage of the channel from around 70% to 99% of the country by using relay transmitters: these only carried the three PSB multiplexes but did not carry the three commercial multiplexes.
On 20 September 2019, it was announced that Channel 5 had joined BritBox, a digital video subscription service created by the BBC and ITV.
On 11 December 2023, terrestrial broadcasts to the Falkland Islands began on all local BFBS platforms, replacing BFBS Extra.