Channel 4 30th Birthday

Yes. Although the ITC struggled to get enough frequency clearance to make C5 viable, so you ended up with quite small transmitters (population wise) from the outset. Large areas unserved, were unserved because no clear frequencies existed.

There was a second wave about 5 months later, when clearance was obtained for UHF Ch 35. That enabled Txs such as Waltham, Hannington, and Bilsdale to carry C5, boosting its viability.

That's why Channel 5 ended up launching on Astra 19.2°E, which also broadcast the Sky analogue channels.

Yes it did, after I'd struggled with mast head amps etc to get a decent a signal from the flea powered C5 Tx at Fawley Power Station

I remember walking into a bar in Montreux that summer, and they were showing a live England football match on C5. A glimpse of what would be possible for 'terrestrial channels' on a much larger scale from the following year !

Caradon Hill and Stockland Hill were the only two main transmitters in the TSW region which transmitted Channel 4 form day one 2 Nov 1982. Beacon Hill, Huntshaw Cross and Redruth began broadcasting Channel 4 later.


The roll-out of analogue Channel 5 was a different kettle of fish. For some reason it was never transmitted from Stockland Hill or Caradon Hill.

Because there were no clear frequencies to transmit it from those sites (and many larger ones).

The whole Channel 5 thing was interesting. As a Nottingham viewer, we got it from launch IIRC from the "Nottingham" transmitter (known locally as Kimberley), which is/was otherwise just a relay of Waltham. Waltham itself didn't get Channel 5 until a while later - so did Nottingham relay Lichfield for Channel 5?

I must've watched the pre-launch barker 50 times, and then there were Waltham's tests which were actually simulcasts of Channel 5 with the advert breaks replaced by "This is a Channel 5 test transmission...".

C5 was distributed to all the main stations (except Croydon), and many of the 'relays' by satellite. Kimberley only ever relayed Chs 1-4 analgue off air from Waltham, today it is fed by fibre optic cable for Freeview.

Was it the Astra PAL feed used?

The sad thing is 15 years later C5 still haven't shown anything better than their pre-launch barker!

Not true. There was a Claims Direct advert I found quite entertaining once.

No it was a digital feed supplied via 2 satellites called (IIRC) Orion.

Channel 5 at launch had 4 advertising regions, 2 of these were uplinked on each of the 2 satellites and each transmitter could select any of the 4 feeds either to target advertising or in case one transponder or satellite was out of action.

You could tell what advertising region you were watching on a teletext test page. There was only 1 Astra analogue channel and it was fed with one of the regions, I assume it switched as needed.