Two separate government studies identify spare frequency space on the UHF band, prompting political debate about the viability of a fifth UK terrestrial TV channel.[1]
1988
A government white paper on broadcasting includes provisions for a fifth channel after Booz Allen Consultants recommends it as an option. Booz Allen claims the extra channel would reduce the current ITV monopoly and also reduce advertising costs.[1]
1989
March – The Independent Broadcasting Authority recommends that the headquarters of a fifth channel should be situated outside London, preferably at a location north of Birmingham.[1]
The terms of a licence for a fifth channel are set out in the Broadcasting Act 1990. It would need to be a general entertainment channel with a remit for some public service broadcasting. Additionally, it is estimated that the channel's coverage would reach only 74% of the UK, and a video retuning operation would need to be undertaken.[1]
3 July – Columbia TriStar and Canwest, two backers of the four strong Channel 5 Holdings Ltd consortium, withdraw their support for the project, leaving Thames Television, which is proposing a network of city-TV stations, and Canadian businessman Moses Znaimer to take the project forward. As Channel 5 Holdings are the only current bidders for the Channel 5 licence there are concerns for the future of the process ahead of the deadline, but Channel 5 Holdings says it intends to put forward its bid as planned.[3]
7 July – Date of the initial deadline for applications to run the Channel 5 service.[1] One application to run the channel is submitted by Channel 5 Holdings Ltd.[2]
December – The ITC rejects the Channel 5 Holdings Ltd bid amid concerns about its business plan and investor commitment.[2] and subsequently considers not awarding the licence at all.
1993
July – The ITC publishes the findings of a technical review.[2]
October – More than 70 parties respond to the publication of the technical review, including some expressing interest in running Channel 5 should the licence be readvertised.[2]
1994
February – The ITC announces that it plans to readvertise the Channel 5 broadcasting licence, but it also has to seek confirmation that the frequencies it planned to allocate to the channel are still available.[2]
14 July – Stephen Dorrell, the Secretary of State for Heritage announces that Channel 35, one of the two frequencies planned for use by a fifth channel, will not be available. The ITC expresses concern over this, but still views Channel 5 as a viable option since 60% of the UK will still be covered by the remaining frequency.[2]
15 September – The ITC announces its decision to re-advertise the Channel 5 licence.[2]
1 November – A second attempt to license the fifth terrestrial channel begins and several companies apply.[2][4]
1995
2 May – Closing date for applications to run Channel 5. Four bids are received, from New Century TV Ltd (British Sky Broadcasting, Goldman Sachs, Granada Group, Hoare Govett, Kinnevik, Polygram, Really Useful Group and TCI International) who bid £2,000,000; Virgin TV Ltd with a bid of £22,002,000; UKTV (CanWest Global Communications Corp., Scandinavian Broadcast System SA, SelectTV Plc, The Ten Group Ltd) who bid £36,261,158 and Channel 5 Broadcasting Ltd (MAI (now United News and Media Plc), CLT/UFA, Pearson Plc, Warburg Pincus &Co) with a bid of £22,002,000.[2]
22 November – After Virgin TV challenges the ITC's decision to award the licence to run the UK's fifth television channel to Channel 5 Broadcasting Ltd, the High Court grants leave for a judicial review into the decision.[2]
1996
26 January – The findings of the judicial review of the ITC's licence awarding process are published. The review finds that there was no illegality or unfairness in the awarding of the licence to Channel 5 Broadcasting Ltd.[2]
18 April – The ITC confirms the awarding of the Channel 5 licence to Channel 5 Broadcasting Ltd, setting out its broadcasting remit. 50% of programming must be original, while there are quotas for the amount of public service programming that must be aired.[2]
Channel 5 retunes the UK's video recorders to avoid interference with video recorders which use the same frequencies as those allocated to Channel 5.
Engineering transmission tests are carried out at some sites.[8]
Logo used from 1997 to 2002
1997
2 January – Test transmissions begin for Channel 5 in some areas. Details of these are made available on Ceefax page 698 for a few weeks.[8]
31 January – Details of Channel 5's schedule are leaked to Broadcast magazine. A spokeswoman for the channel confirms the schedule is largely accurate but that the amount of imported content has been distorted; Channel 5's schedule will be made up of 70% UK-produced content.[9]
12 February – Channel 5 releases details of its programme scheduling. It will introduce the concept of stripping and stranding to British television, stripping being where a programme is shown at the same time each day, and stranding being where similar programmes are shown at the same time each day.[10] A full schedule is published on 18 February.[11]
30 March
Channel 5 launches at 6pm with the Spice Girls singing a cover version of Manfred Mann's hit "5-4-3-2-1" as "1-2-3-4-5".[12] Around 65% of the UK is able to receive the channel.
Channel 5 launches its overnight coverage of American sports when it broadcasts the first edition of Live & Dangerous. The programme broadcasts on weekdays through the night and includes live coverage of American sport as well as highlights from America and other global sports events. The first programme features the opening day of the 1997 Major League Baseball season.
Pre-school brand Milkshake! launches as a breakfast television block.
The first edition of 5 News is broadcast with Kirsty Young perching on the edge of a desk in a bid to present the news in a more informal way. The channel also provides hourly news updates on weekdays on the hour, every hour.
The first episode of the game show 100% is broadcast.
23 April – Channel 5 launches on satellite so that the third of the UK who live outside of its broadcast area can view the newly launched channel.[13]
31 May – Even though Channel 5 had said that it hadn't been intending to show live sport at peak time, it buys the rights to one of England's qualifying matches for the 1998 World Cup – an away match against Poland.
Summer – Channel 5 launches on the Astra satellite in a bid to reach the third of UK homes which cannot receive the channel.
Autumn – Football on 5 becomes a regular fixture as the channel purchases rights to UEFA Cup games and other away qualifying matches involving the home nations, showing the latter for the next decade.
15 November – The launch of OnDigital allows the channel to be broadcast across the UK via digital terrestrial television.
1999
23 June – Channel 5 axes the late night talk show The Jack Docherty Show. It had been struggling in recent times with fewer programmes broadcast each week due to low viewing figures.
May – The licence to run Channel 5's teletext service is awarded to Teletext Ltd and is valid for ten years from 1 July 2002.[2]
11 September – Channel 5 launches a morning topical talk show called The Wright Stuff.
2001
16 July – Channel 5 starts showing Australian soap opera Home and Away[14] after acquiring the rights from ITV the previous year.[15]
19 December – BSkyB has signed a deal with Channel 5 that will allow its breakfast show, Sky News Sunrise to be shown on the channel from 6am to 6:30am on weekdays and 7am to 8am at weekends. The programme will appear on Channel 5 from 7 January 2002 and will be the first time Sky News content has been seen on terrestrial television for a decade.[16]
24 December – The final episode of 100% is broadcast.
Logo used from 2002 to 2008
2002
5 August – The first episode of BrainTeaser is broadcast.
16 September – Channel 5 is rebranded as Five and the permanent digital on-screen graphic is removed.
27 February – Reports emerge of discussions between Channel 4 and Five aimed at a merger between the two channels.[18]
17 November – It is reported that merger talks between Channel 4 and Five have been called off after complexities arose between the public broadcaster Channel 4 and its commercial counterpart.[19]
2005
1 January – Sky News takes over the contract to provide Five's news service from ITN. The first scheduled Sky produced news programme had been due to air on 3 January, but two shorter bulletins for 1 and 2 January were hastily added to provide updates following the Indian Ocean tsunami on Boxing Day 2004.[20]
18 November – It is announced that Five had bought a stake in DTT's pay-TV operator, Top Up TV. It is said that the investment may lead to the development of new free and pay services on DTT and other platforms.[21]
30 December – The final edition of soap opera Family Affairs is broadcast. The series ends after 2,285 episodes.[22]
2006
May – Five becomes the terrestrial home of highlights of England cricket's home matches.[23] It had been the only bidder for the rights.
29 October – MLB on Five comes to an end as part of cost-cutting measures which sees the beginning of the end of the channel broadcasting live overnight coverage of American sport.
September – Five becomes the lead broadcaster of the UEFA Europa League meaning it can show the entire tournament, including the final. Previously it had only been able to show the early rounds due to the BBC or ITV having the rights from the quarter-finals onwards.
14 September – Entertainment news and chat show Live from Studio Five makes its debut.
4 February – The final edition of Live from Studio Five is broadcast. It is immediately replaced by OK! TV[29] which itself ends at the end of the year.
14 February – Five returns to its original name of Channel 5.
18 August – Channel 5 becomes the new home of Big Brother.[30]
8 November – ITN confirms it has secured a five-year contract to resume production of 5 News from early 2012. The broadcaster lost the programme to Sky News in 2005. Part of the new deal will see the 7pm bulletin move to an earlier 6:30pm timeslot.[31]
8 August – Football returns to Channel 5 when it takes over the contract to broadcast highlights of the Football League and the League Cup. It launches two new programmes under the revived Football on 5 banner. They are called The Championship and The Goal Rush. The programmes are broadcast from 9pm on Saturday evening.
25 September – Channel 5 and its sister channels are knocked off air for around an hour and experience some issues after returning. This is blamed on the activation of fire suppression systems at playout provider Red Bee Media's White City location, also affecting fellow broadcasters Channel 4 and the BBC.[44] Both Channel 4 and 5 experience issues into the next week, with the latter faring better. Both of the broadcasters' channels are thought to be operating in a 'disaster recovery' mode for the time being.[45]
8 November – Channel 5 relaunches 5 News as a single one-hour show, broadcasting from 5pm until 6pm.[46]
