Five (TV channel)

Five is a television channel that broadcasts in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1997, it is the fifth and final national terrestrial analogue television channel to launch. Originally called Channel 5, the station rebranded itself as Five in 2002.

The British frequency plan had only allowed for four channels to be transmitted over the whole of the UK using analogue terrestrial transmitters. The ITC had identified that UHF channels 35 and 37 could provide coverage of around 70% of the UK population. However, these channels were used by many domestic video recorders for RF connection to television sets. Before the channel could launch on Easter Sunday 1997 the broadcaster had to provide over-the-phone instructions or visit any home that complained to retune the video recorder or fit a filter to completely block the Channel 5 signal.

However, for many transmitters channels 35 and 37 were 'out of group', which meant that the roof-top receiving aerials were specifically designed to filter out Channel 5's broadcasts. Many people either could not receive the channel at all, or required a new aerial. The broadcaster has added to the transmitters to improve the analogue terrestrial coverage since that time. The channel was also provided on the analogue Astra/BSkyB service, which enabled people outside the terrestrial reception areas to receive it via a satellite dish.

Unlike the other four analogue British television channels, the channel cannot 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 and parts of Cumbria. The channel is available on all digital platforms (Sky Digital satellite, Tiscali TV IPTV and Freeview digital terrestrial, and also most cable operators).

The channel was the first analogue network in the UK to use a permanent digital on-screen graphic, which was unpopular with the viewing public and removed altogether on 16 September 2002.[5] But the channel's logo then returned to the screen on 11 October 2007 to co-incide with the forthcoming launch of Five's new digital channels Five Life (now known as Fiver) and Five US.

Unlike the other UK terrestrial channels, Five is not available on cable, MMDS or digital satellite in the Republic of Ireland, the first such service not to be available in The Irish Republic - although its terrestrial signal can be received in areas bordering Northern Ireland, or coastal areas close to Wales.

[edit] Five's annual audience shares (1997 – 2008)
Five share of viewing since launch 1997-2008
Five share of viewing since launch 1997-2008

Below is the official audience shares in percent for Five since 1997. Generally, Channel 4's audience share lingers around the 10% margin, and BBC One and ITV's share lingers around 20%-30%.

Audience shares were at their lowest in the channel's first year, but almost doubled in the second year, and continued to increase until reaching a peak of 6.6% in 2004 (the eighth year). Two years later, however, the audience share had slumped to less than 5%