Five.2 - CONFIRMED as the new channel from five

I agree, this is nothing new. Us "anoraks" already knew this much The only news will come when the Freeview slot is finally allocated - I understand the bids are getting quite high !!!

I hope now Five do get the slot, even though I don't have high expectation of Five.2 - but I think C4 launching a new channel for the sake of it wouldn't be their best long term strategy and devalue E4 and More4.

Somehow I don't see it...

Most of the country can't it (chanel 5) on terrestrial tv anyway so why bother with channel 5.2. I've only ever seen it in Southport and Wigan so there must be a very thin area across the country where you can see it.

I would hardly say 'Most of the country' - I know you can't get it on the South East coast as it interferes with the French - but alot of people can watch it on digital these days.

Here's a coverage map from blake-uk.com

http://www.blake-uk.com/images/c5map.gif

Not totally up to date, it doesn't include transmitters at Reigate, Hastings, Tunbridge Wells and Brighton that were added in 2003.

I live in Reigate and I still don't think anyone actually knows we can get Channel 5 on analogue now, even after two years. It didn't exactly arrive in a blaze of publicity, and it doesn't help that it's out of band anyway (UHF channel 42, where 1-4 are between channels 53-63). I live only two miles from the transmitter on Reigate Hill and even with a wideband aerial the reception is pretty lousy. I really can't see why they bothered.

That maps not correct. It lists Emley Moor as an "other" transmitter, when it's actually a Channel 37 one.

Your insisive and acurate post amazes me, realy it does.

Here in Redhill we get channel five with perfect reception - in fact it's better quality than the other channels. Though any kind of reception in Reigate does seem rather haphazard, especially at the bottom of Reigate Hill where my car radio reception is appalling!

Seems to have been overlooked here, but today Five has announced it's bought an unspecified stake in Top Up TV, saying it should aid their plans to get "free to air and pay" TV channels on air in the near future.

Yeah I was about to mention that. So the Five half of Multiplex A appears to be safeguarded for TUTV usage - speculation on DS was that Five would want one or more of their slots back off TUTV for their own multichannel aspirations.

Personally with regard for Five.2 I would like to see more of the daytime schedule on Five freed up - so the repeat of H&A would move to Five.2,. as would football.

And wouldn't it be great if Five.2 could be used as a proper, permanent, uninterruptable home for US Sports?

Sidebar
I don't know if anyone else on here is aware but the contract for MLB in the UK was for Five to have Wednesday and Sunday Night Baseball from ESPN. Wednesday night moved to William Hill's betting channel "Channel 425" suddenly midseason because all the previous WNB on Five were shown off-tape as opposed to live. So in the latter half of last season us baseball fans only had Sunday Night Baseball on terrestrial TV. If baseball went to Five.2 it wouldn't have to be shunted out the way for things like "World's Craziest Cop Chases 94" (although I have a feeling we'll see more of this carp on Five.2). Five.2 could become a serious contender in the sport market - with the announcement that Premiership football is to be shared out, Five.2 would have a great chance of snagging themselves a package or two.
/Sidebar