I think Jay Hunt could be the channel's saviour, her track record as controller at BBC Daytime shown she is capable of comissioning great shows on small budgets such as Masterchef, whether this translate now she's at Five remains to be seen.
A record of endless copy-cat property and antiques shows is hardly something to be proud of.
I think removing the 9pm movies was a big mistake for Five personally, though of course it was inevitable - but perhaps moving them back to 10pm, leaving the 9pm slot for CSI: Whatever, would have been a better compromise than losing them completely.
I think a main problem with Five is though that very few series get beyond their initial run, so Five haven't got a stable of programmes which will bring in the viewers year after year apart from the imports.
And in recent years the only niche of home grown programming they've broken into is property - but C4 really got their first, making Five just look like a copy-cat channel.
I think Jay Hunt could be the channel's saviour, her track record as controller at BBC Daytime shown she is capable of comissioning great shows on small budgets such as Masterchef, whether this translate now she's at Five remains to be seen.
A record of endless copy-cat property and antiques shows is hardly something to be proud of.
I think removing the 9pm movies was a big mistake for Five personally, though of course it was inevitable - but perhaps moving them back to 10pm, leaving the 9pm slot for CSI: Whatever, would have been a better compromise than losing them completely.
I think a main problem with Five is though that very few series get beyond their initial run, so Five haven't got a stable of programmes which will bring in the viewers year after year apart from the imports.
And in recent years the only niche of home grown programming they've broken into is property - but C4 really got their first, making Five just look like a copy-cat channel.
I agree yet again.
They need to try different things, but until they've got the viewers to back programmes up, they've got nowhere to run with it. As has been said Nick Baker's series did well for the channel, and I'm glad that it will be returning.
The old 5 did have a lot of returning series, especially entertainment series. The only prime time show that has kept returning to my knowledge has been house doctor (though that may have been axed for all I know).
I agree about the films too.
When watching that old promo, I quite liked how five had the simple, effective schedule every weekday.
6.30 Soap (Family Affairs)
7pm Showbiz (Exclusive)
8.30 News
9pm Films
11pm Chat Show (Jack Docherty)
Obviously they didn't mention what would be on 7.30-8.30, but I quite liked that idea. Where as now they could just mix films and dramas together.
Or have films top and tailing the week. I suppose it's all about what films they have to air, if at the moment they have rubbish films, then they have taken the decision to take them off as CSI would gain them more ratings.
I know it may sound daft, but do you think that they'd ever jointly commission a CSI:UK? Or get a similar production made in this country by the same team?
They need to try different things, but until they've got the viewers to back programmes up, they've got nowhere to run with it. As has been said Nick Baker's series did well for the channel, and I'm glad that it will be returning.
The old 5 did have a lot of returning series, especially entertainment series. The only prime time show that has kept returning to my knowledge has been house doctor (though that may have been axed for all I know).
I agree about the films too.
When watching that old promo, I quite liked how five had the simple, effective schedule every weekday.
6.30 Soap (Family Affairs)
7pm Showbiz (Exclusive)
8.30 News
9pm Films
11pm Chat Show (Jack Docherty)
Obviously they didn't mention what would be on 7.30-8.30, but I quite liked that idea. Where as now they could just mix films and dramas together.
Or have films top and tailing the week. I suppose it's all about what films they have to air, if at the moment they have rubbish films, then they have taken the decision to take them off as CSI would gain them more ratings.
I know it may sound daft, but do you think that they'd ever jointly commission a CSI:UK? Or get a similar production made in this country by the same team?
The problem with films is that digital channels like ITV2, E4 and Film4 use films to prop up their schedule, when Five will started it was fine to have films every night as no other channel was doing so but now it is seen as schedule filler unless it is a network premiere. i do think Five should stick to their current set up on having films in primetime twice a week on Wednesday and Sundays. Films do well on Five as Dirty Dancing managed to pull in more viewers than BBC Two and Channel 4 but it depends mostly on the film and thier current output deal with Sony Pictures does have fewer hit films compared to the other channels.
Like Channel 4, I think we will see Five move away from US imports due to cost and towards more Homegrown content. CSI and House are fantastic but once they finish, Five will be in a pickle as Channel 4 found out when Friends and SATC finished. One problem it what kind of British drama should Five aim for? Mainstream drama like Cracker, Prime Suspect or edgy dramas like Skins, Shameless or Teachers?
CSI: UK/CSI: London would be brilliant, I know the creative team have been trying to do it for years but haven't had time. it could be introduced in CSI: Miami or NY with one of the characters coming over to London to solve a connected murder and then it could become a UK only spin-off, I think Five would easily commission it as a co-production with Spike or A&E though I'm not sure which UK produciton company would want to produce a UK CSI.
I doubt the logo will change, I personally don't see any reason to change it other than for the sake of it.
Change for change's sake is why pretty much all rebranding happens; a perceived problem with the present brand is invented despite said brand apparently being amazing when it was introduced and the new brand conquers it. Along then turns up a load of unrelated new junk which may be better than the previous look (but usually isn't). That's what happened to C5 in 2002, it could well happen again now.
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Never understood the dislike towards five's logo, the circled numeral wasn't as good I feel. Hope the logo doesn't go, nobody else is using ultracool lowercase Helvetica Bold right now!
Admittedly, now the 'five' logo doesn't look so bad (albeit in no small part because in 2002 there was still some semblance of decent corporate branding left, whilst now it seems almost a requirement for every rebrand to involve a lowercase plain text logo) but a large part of the resentment towards it must stem from the look it was introduced with.
The original 'five' look, with those bizarre idents featuring random people in grainy 70's looking footage and the 'shorts' - those horrible pastel coloured powerpoint animations with that daft 80's sounding synthesized soundtrack, along with the cold, austere look of all the other graphics (thankfully only the endcap still survives) didn't in anyway help introduce a look which was just so plain dull when compared to what came before.
The presentation now is much better, and had they launched the new logo with presentation of this ilk it would in all likelihood have been much better received.
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The question is, as most people still refer to it as 'channel 5', do we expect a return to 'channel 5' and a new 5 numeral logo?
Well they only decided that the channel was
branded
as Channel 5 just before they withdrew the original logo, to create the idea that it was a clunky name needing change (remember 'Channel 5 is a name. five is a brand'?) The channel was almost always referred to as 'five' onscreen and the original ident set even had 'five' as text in the background.
If they go back to a numeral '5', they might start referring to it as '5' rather than 'five' in print, but I doubt there will be a specific 'rebranding' from 'Five' back to 'Channel 5'.
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Sounds pretty major, but that's good. It needs it. Hopefully they will create the right image for the network. I'm glad US and Life are changing, I never liked those names.
The problem with Life and US, is that C5 doesn't really know why they exist - they only have those channels because every other analogue terrestrial broadcaster had gone multichannel by 1998 and C5 had reached then end of 2006 with just the one channel. Thus they decided to go multichannel for it's own sake, rather than identify a need for more channels.
The paltry lineup on them is clear evidence of this - the only thing I watch on Five US is Mission: Impossible, and I never look at Five Life at all.
What would be better is if they sit down and think about what they're going to do with these channels - maybe in the short term it would be better to close one of them (replacing it with C5 +1 maybe?) and concentrate on a meaningful output for the remaining channel.
Any retooling of C5 I feel must include drastic changes for the 2 extra channels, atm the road they've gone down with them isn't working and they need to rethink them fast if they hope to ever build a strong portfolio of additional channels.
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The problem with five is that they haven't discovered their water cooler programmes.
I think the problem is that they did pretty much have the channel cracked at launch in a way which could have developed well - but it was cracked for an analogue broadcasting world where in most homes C5 would have to compete only with 4 other channels and 'multichannel competition' meant a couple of million people with access to about 20 extra channels.
Their early scheduling ideas were for their time quite innovative - indeed they even turned one of their launch weaknesses (a much more limited programme source than their rivals) into a strength (the striped schedule built around a core of programmes that didn't change so you didn't need to read the TV guide to know what was on).
The problem is that just as C5 starting gaining speed and developing, the broadcasting climate changed forever and whilst their long established competitors had a number of tricks up their sleave, the young C5 had none.
Further problems also set in with a run of early bad luck as what were keystone programmes in the early days ended up having comparitively short airings and have never really been replaced.
Improvement at C5 has got to be about more than changing the presentation; they need to take a step back and develop a realistic strategy for a broadcaster of their size to suceed and be distinctive -just as they did when they launched. As it is their original style may not have worked out as they had liked but they've just responded by trying to play catchup with their competitors, following where they lead. This needs to change.
I know Five are like most broadcasters scaling down their commitment to children's programming in some extent, but now ITV have left the market - and especially with Neighbours on the way - would moving (the quite well respected) Milkshake into the afternoons be such a bad idea?
Considering Five screen nothing but films from 1.30pm, they could easily establish a block of programming in the traditional late-afternoon slot - say from 4.00-5.30pm, with teen programming (even if mainly imports) at 5pm before Neighbours.
Getting kids watching at this time inevitably gets the parents around too, especially hanging around to secretly watch Neighbours and Home and Away, giving Five the chance to make the audience aware of what other programming is coming up on Five later as well.
That would mean cutting back to just the one Five News bulletin at 7pm - which would meet their requirements from OFCOM. If they wanted to compensate maybe introducing a late 15-minute bulletin at 11pm wouldn't be a bad idea - reverting back to the old tactics of selling Five News as young and trendy and getting viewers to stay up late for a quick fix of news rather than falling asleep to News at Ten.
The reality of course though is kids programming in the afternoon is never going to happen, though I do think Neighbours will take the 5.30pm slot and Five News will probably air at 5.15pm in a 15-minute slot.
I know Five are like most broadcasters scaling down their commitment to children's programming in some extent, but now ITV have left the market - and especially with Neighbours on the way - would moving (the quite well respected) Milkshake into the afternoons be such a bad idea?
Considering Five screen nothing but films from 1.30pm, they could easily establish a block of programming in the traditional late-afternoon slot - say from 4.00-5.30pm, with teen programming (even if mainly imports) at 5pm before Neighbours.
Getting kids watching at this time inevitably gets the parents around too, especially hanging around to secretly watch Neighbours and Home and Away, giving Five the chance to make the audience aware of what other programming is coming up on Five later as well.
That would mean cutting back to just the one Five News bulletin at 7pm - which would meet their requirements from OFCOM. If they wanted to compensate maybe introducing a late 15-minute bulletin at 11pm wouldn't be a bad idea - reverting back to the old tactics of selling Five News as young and trendy and getting viewers to stay up late for a quick fix of news rather than falling asleep to News at Ten.
The reality of course though is kids programming in the afternoon is never going to happen, though I do think Neighbours will take the 5.30pm slot and Five News will probably air at 5.15pm in a 15-minute slot.
That's not a bad idea considering the rumour going around that Five is going to bring back The Big Breakfast. If TBB is brought back then moving Milkshake to the afternoons is a vialable option though it may be trimmed down as it is currently a three hour block.
I think Neighbours in the 5.30pm slot could lead to the news move to 5pm and one of the afternoon films being either dropped or shortened.
Good points, i think moving Milkshake from breakfast would be a bad move considering it's does well for the channel at that time of the morning. Doesn't it do better than BBC Two and Channel 4 in the mornings?
Good points, i think moving Milkshake from breakfast would be a bad move considering it's does well for the channel at that time of the morning. Doesn't it do better than BBC Two and Channel 4 in the mornings?
It is true, it does do very well, though I do like the idea of moving it to the afternoon, especially if it is true about the big breakfast. Though I agree with Brekkie Boy, I would only like them to use the name if they were bringing the actual programme back, even if revamped, and maybe use the house (well our programmes do).
What's wrong with coming up with a new name for a breakfast idea.
Ideally it could be used on another channel, and if they do change the spin off channels and relaunch as one proper channel it would be good to have totally different a totally different schedule.
I'd extend milkshake to 9.30, followed as is now, just half an hour later and use the half hour from 12 for cooking the books, or another similar programme.
I've moved the lunchtime five news to 12.30 as it wouldn't compete with channel 4, and ITV1 no longer air their news in the slot
The repeats of Home & Away and Neighbours would now air from 1pm, but in reverse to how they air in the evening, the idea is that at first the neighbours audience would be able to watch at around the same time as they currently do on BBC One.
The afternoon would have a gameshow format or maybe air the ellen show on five (but make it the next day, so that you don't end up with a summer edition in october) before an afternoon magazine type programme, in similar veins to This Morning except in the afternoon, a bit like the old gloria hunniford programme too, it worked well, why can't a similar show do the same, except maybe with a younger view (not too young though).
A quick five news update at 5.15, before neighbours at its now traditional 5.30 with Home & Away at 6.
Two parts that I didn't really know were for 6.30 & 7.30, thus why 7.30 is blank. As for 6.30 I've put an Entertainment News programe in the vein of liquid newsm followed by the main five news.
8pm onwards is similar to now, and I've inserted programmes that are on now to give you an idea of the sort of programmes. One major difference is the entertainment wednesday, as no one else seems to do it on this day, and adding a mivie premiere on fridays.
I know people don't like the idea, but I do like the idea of a 5 day chat show, even if you don't like one programme during the night, you might still tune into the chat show.
I do like the idea of Simon Amstall, he would work well I think.
I'd also like to bring back the news updates on the hour
It is true, it does do very well, though I do like the idea of moving it to the afternoon, especially if it is true about the big breakfast. Though I agree with Brekkie Boy, I would only like them to use the name if they were bringing the actual programme back, even if revamped, and maybe use the house (well our programmes do).
What's wrong with coming up with a new name for a breakfast idea.
Ideally it could be used on another channel, and if they do change the spin off channels and relaunch as one proper channel it would be good to have totally different a totally different schedule.
I'd extend milkshake to 9.30, followed as is now, just half an hour later and use the half hour from 12 for cooking the books, or another similar programme.
I've moved the lunchtime five news to 12.30 as it wouldn't compete with channel 4, and ITV1 no longer air their news in the slot
The repeats of Home & Away and Neighbours would now air from 1pm, but in reverse to how they air in the evening, the idea is that at first the neighbours audience would be able to watch at around the same time as they currently do on BBC One.
The afternoon would have a gameshow format or maybe air the ellen show on five (but make it the next day, so that you don't end up with a summer edition in october) before an afternoon magazine type programme, in similar veins to This Morning except in the afternoon, a bit like the old gloria hunniford programme too, it worked well, why can't a similar show do the same, except maybe with a younger view (not too young though).
A quick five news update at 5.15, before neighbours at its now traditional 5.30 with Home & Away at 6.
Two parts that I didn't really know were for 6.30 & 7.30, thus why 7.30 is blank. As for 6.30 I've put an Entertainment News programe in the vein of liquid newsm followed by the main five news.
8pm onwards is similar to now, and I've inserted programmes that are on now to give you an idea of the sort of programmes. One major difference is the entertainment wednesday, as no one else seems to do it on this day, and adding a mivie premiere on fridays.
I know people don't like the idea, but I do like the idea of a 5 day chat show, even if you don't like one programme during the night, you might still tune into the chat show.
I do like the idea of Simon Amstell, he would work well I think.
I'd also like to bring back the news updates on the hour
Sorry for waffling on.
That is quite a good schedule though I think Cooking the Books is well suited for the 6.30 slot though i think it's a very BBC Two kind of programme (The Jay Hunt influence is starting to seep in), perhaps a gameshow or a daily cookery show similar to Daily Cooks or the now defunct Great Food Live for the 12/12.30pm slot.
On the subject of cookery, I think Five could commission a weekly food show in vein of a mix of Food and Drink and the Gadget Show with the title like The Food Show.
I've mentioned that CTB is ideal for 6.30 and the docusoaps that have been shown in that slot (Monkey Life, Zoo Days) have been successful as well. I have heard that there is plan to show a British serial drama in that slot. It's called Hanrahan Investigates and it's a detective series in the vein of The Bill than a soap.
The 7.30pm slot is going to used for stuff like Rough Guides, possibly more arts docs and programmes, Will Work for Nuts and Human Guinea Pigs plus Cricket Highlights which will be at 7.15pm. This slot is an altenative to the soaps so doesn't have to achieve high ratings.
I think Friday isn't really a great place for a Film Premiere as most people are out to see the latest films. The current Sunday Night for film premiere works well and should be kept for the Film Premieres and alternate the films with one-off dramas.
I have a feeling that one of the afternoon films will be kept as they are quite popular as serve as alternatives to the other teatime shows. I think the news will be at 5pm as the flagship news show with Natasha Kaplinsky or John Suchet with Neighbours following at 5.30.
I'm not keen on a five nights a week chat show as V Graham Norton and The Jack Docherty proved that you run out of guests and gags quite quickly but I think a mid week chatshow at 10pm or 11pm would be quite good. I think Simon Amstell would be a brilliant choice as a sort of anti-Graham Norton but it would have to work around his Buzzcocks and stand-up schedule.
I'd extend milkshake to 9.30, followed as is now, just half an hour later and use the half hour from 12 for cooking the books, or another similar programme.