The Channel 5 Thread

Rumours abound that Richard Desmond, the multi-millionaire owner of the Daily Express, Daily Star, New! & OK! magazines, and Television X, Red Hot etc. is to become the new owner of Channel Five.

It will be interesting to see if existing programming will remain on the channel, and if there is any further dumbing down of the content should this come about.

I somehow can't imagine that Desmond would like the idea of Sky News being the provider of the news service on his channel ? Could he provide a service in-house ?

There have been several bidders including Richard Desmond and the winner will be announced tomorrow apparently.

It would be a nightmare all round if Desmond got hold of it, considering what he has done to Express Newspapers

"Live From Studio Five" certainly plunged new depths, so it will be interesting to see if they can sink any lower.

If Desmond's bid is successful, I can forsee the entire schedule being built around the aforementioned "news bulletin".

As much of their highest rated programming is contracted for quite some time (such as the CSI franchise and 'lifelong series contribution' for Home & Away) then I doubt much would change in the short term, no matter who bought them.

That's partly the reason why RTL reduced the value of the channel so much.

I read however that those contracts could be terminated by the respective broadcasters / programme makers should a change in ownership of the channel occur.

You could be right, 'Square Eyes', but if that were possible, then surely FIVE's Freeview/Freesat and other privileged positions as a PSB would be worth more than the current asking price of less than £100m.

Speculation recently was that it could be sold for a nominal £1 because of carry-over debts currently held by RTL and the programme contract commitments.

Probably reading far too much into this but I couldn't help but notice that "Five" has been renamed to to its former title "Channel 5" in today's Express TV Listings, as Richard Desmond looks poised to complete his purchase of the broadcaster.

Edit: If I'd actually read the entirety of the article I had linked to, I'd have found this quote:

looks like the deal has gone through.

Media Guardian are saying they have 'shaken hands' on a deal



http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jul/23/richard-desmond-channel-five-deal

Or Maybe he will give the top 4 broadcasters a kick up the back side!

I Think this will be good for many of us. Channel 5 was not that great to start with and its still trying to found its feat. heck it may even give ITV a run.

Yes because all the newspapers are struggling against the Daily Express!

If his time at The Express is anything to go by, it's very likely that what there is of Five (and it's not a big organisation to start with - they just schedule and commission) will be cut to the bone and any valuable assets stripped out. The decline of The Express under his ownership has been disastrous.

People are putting two and two together and getting 168. Lets be realistic here, he is, like the other main broadcasters have to provide a public service in providing certain programming. So the news is not going to change. I believe that with the money he has and has said he will invest into C5, we should see more celeb programmes and bring in ratings then surely that is ok? It is a commercial channel and as long some of its programming fits public requirements, then the rest of it he can do what he wants with it.

Might give Big Brother a fighting chance of coming back. It could provide a lot of content for his publications... even his porn channels if you look at their previous contestants!