The Channel 5 Thread

Couldn't they just refer to it in text, and just use the standard logo, a bit like...

As I said in an earlier post, the original logo was the number 5, and was still referred to as 'Channel 5.' I've never heard anybody refer to the channel casually as 'Five.' Most people call a channel by what it was originally known as - how many people do you know who still call ITV1 'ITV'? Desmond is right to reinforce the name 'Channel 5' because that's what everybody still calls it... it also helps those delinquants who irritate the hell out of me personally when they refer to the likes of BBC One as 'Channel 1'.

Channel 5 used to show an adult-erotic themed movie every Friday night at approximately 11:50pm. These ranged from Playboy soft-focus productions to French-themed film-noir to bawdy British 70s efforts. Coupled with their Thursday night documentaries about the porn industry such as Sex and Shopping, Blue Movie Review and X-Certificate, and erotic dramas such as Red Shoe Diaries, they got a not-undeserved tag as the home of smut.

However, when you consider nowadays late-night TV is filled with people playing roulette and "quiz" games trying to rip you off, and also channels like Movies24 show not one but two full-blown erotic movies EVERY night, and there are the Babestations of this world as well, things in those days look a lot tamer now.

According to the Guardian Desmond is looking into moving Five/Channel 5/Channel Five/Whatever in with N&S.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jul/30/channel-five-richard-desmond

Not a surprise at all really. Combining it under the same roof as the rest of the company is a very obvious and easy cost saving, especially considering the nice location of Five's current HQ.

Five is a fairly small operation for what it is; only 300 staff and no technical facilities

I just Googled Northern and Shell building and it's huge so moving it wouldn't be a bad thing if they have the space. I think Global Radio moved to Leceister Square when they bought GCap so that all their radio stations were under one roof.

Has anybody seen the Express' Saturday magazine this week? There's a few pages about programmes on the channel, with each page including the somewhat-new 'Channel FIVE' logo... looks daft.

It's just stupid. Even when it was officially "Channel 5" it was usually referred to on screen as just "5" anyway - i.e. "Give me Five", "5 News", "First on Five" etc., plus in continuity. The logo was just "(5)" and usually accompanied by "five" in text.

If Sky had taken over for example and wanted to rebrand it "Sky Five" that would make sense - but slapping the word "Channel" in front of it is going to make zero difference to the ratings. I doubt even Express and Daily Star readers are thick enough not to realise "Five" is a TV channel.

I'm guessing this logo hasn't been used onscreen yet? If it hasn't, it's probably Desmond trying to reinforce his need for people to call it Channel Five that'll probably wear off in a while.

I agree with that, it seems to be a move to enforce the 'channel 5' name, not really the best way to do it though. I'm imagining that at some point in the future the whole channel will be rebranded once a programme strategy has been worked out.

Well exactly. ITV has never really been Channel 3, and neither BBC stations have used the word Channel. Channel 4 is of course the only one who has done. So the logic behind making it Channel 5 is quite random.

Well for those of us in Tyne Tees...