The Channel 5 Thread

It's not random at all. Channel 5 is what it was originally called, and most people still call it this, and the company is still called Channel 5 Broadcasting Limited.

I agree that if a channel that didn't have the word 'channel' associated with its name wanted to add the word 'channel' to its name, then this would be random, but in the case of Channel 5, it's not random at all, they're just trying to reinforce a brand name.

Channel 5 has basically been refered to as such since the mid eighties.

That's odd. The channel didn't launch until 1997.

And no one mentioned it before it launched?

No more than people readily discuss programmes on 'Channel 6' these days, no!

The name "Channel 5" was always used as shorthand for the fifth terrestrial channel after it was first seriously proposed by the Government in the late 80s... just as the term "Channel 3" became the shorthand term for ITV.

However there was no compulsion on the Channel 5 franchisee to actually use a name like 5, five, Channel 5 or the like... just as "ITV" remained the generic term for the third network.

And for that matter, the fourth channel didn't actually need to be called 4 or Channel 4.

Even as a TV enthusiast, I can honestly say that I NEVER heard anyone talk about Channel Five until the mid-1990s.

I'm fairly certain that the general population were completely unaware of plans for a fifth terrestrial channel until advertising began in early 1996 about retuning VHS recorders.

It certainly wasn't a water-cooler topic in the mid-1980s. Most people had only just got used to the fact that they had Channel 4, never mind discussing another one!

If you look into the history of Five you will see it has been mentioned from the 80's as Channel 5.

I know early 90's there was a bidding round for having the slot but the whole thing was dropped until 96' I think, when the a new round of bidding took place.

EDIT: I found this as a reference http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jul/23/channel-five-timeline

Until the late 1970s it was referred to as ITV2, or the 'Fourth Channel'. TV sets up until 1980 were still being made with the label ITV2/IBA2 next to the fourth button.

The official name 'Channel Four' wasn't given until 1982, the same year the channel launched.

That doesn't confirm that that channel was known as Channel Five in the mid-1980s. It simply mentions that approval was given for it in 1990.

The general public were not disucssing 'Channel Five' in the mid-1980s, which was the original claim on here, so the attempt to say that the name had some history is misguided and misleading.

The first serious mention of a fifth terrestrial channel. called in shorthand Channel 5, was around about the time of the notorious White Paper on Broadcasting in 1988 which led to the 1990 Broadcasting Act.

There was a lot of discussion about what the fifth channel could be used for, though inevitably the controversy over the ITV franchise auction overshadowed this.

Mediaguardian the other day had a good timeline.

I am surprised to hear that a tv enthusiast from the period knew nothing - it was well reported in the tv news bulletins and quality press at the time - though I can understand why many people would have been oblivious to the notion until nearer the time of its launch.

That's what I was saying!

The name 'Channel Five' has no history for the general public before 1996, when they first saw media articles about it and the need to retune their VHS recorders.

Any attempt to claim that the name has a history before that time is meaningless. The channel had been discussed and then put on a back-burner until 1990. What was eventually created for the fifth channel had little relation to what was discussed in the 1980s.