Five

World Screen Weekly, August 10, 2006

CHANNEL: Five, U.K.

LAUNCH DATE: March 30, 1997

OWNERSHIP: 100-percent owned by the RTL Group, a subsidiary of Bertelsmann.

NUMBER OF HOUSEHOLDS: 97 percent of U.K. households.

DISTRIBUTION: Terrestrial

DESCRIPTION: Five is a general entertainment channel covering a broad range of genres from drama to documentaries through news to kids. The channel has a varied audience, but is in the process of moving itself upmarket, and is now seeking a core audience of 16- to 34-year old ABC1s. In 2006 to date, Five has averaged a 6-percent share amongst British adults.

CHIEF EXECUTIVE: Jane Lighting

DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMS: Dan Chambers

CONTROLLER OF ACQUISITIONS: Vanessa Brookman

PROGRAMMING STRATEGY: According to Dan Chambers, Five’s director of programs, the prime-time lineup is a mixture of American drama such as CSI, House, Grey’s Anatomy, Big Love and Law & Order, as well as movies and documentaries. “We play more acquired programming in prime time than any other British terrestrial,” Chambers asserts. However, the channel still has slightly more local production in its schedule, at 55 percent, than it does acquired, which registers 45 percent.

U.S. drama is important to Five for a number of reasons: “It is good business and we do very well off the back of it,” Chambers explains, continuing, “it is also very much a part of the Five brand. People expect us to offer House, CSI, etc, and they come to Five looking for that sort of programming.” Recent acquisitions include Warner Bros.’ The Nine and Twentieth Century Fox’s Shark and Vanished.

Another reason for Five’s reliance on U.S. fare, though, is that the channel produces very little drama of its own—in 2006, just ten hours of original drama are slated for production.

This low level of drama production means that, aside from the Australian import Home and Away, Five has no soap opera. It is, however, very proud of its documentary output, including Extraordinary People, telling the stories of people with extraordinary abilities or disabilities; and Hidden Lives, offering an insight into the fascinating lives some people lead. The channel also produces a lot of lifestyle programming such as the motor show Fifth Gear, the technology review series The Gadget Show and a raft of property shows such Build a New Life in the Country and Property Developing Abroad. The originals slate also features history shows such as Revealed and art series Brian Sewell’s Grand Tour featuring the eponymous art critic.

Post 11 p.m., the channel gets edgier and more adult with series such as the reality show Trust Me: I’m A Holiday Rep and harder-edged crime series and sitcoms such as Suburban Shootout, which has been described as Kill Bill meets Desperate Housewives. The eight-part series features a fictional group of housewives who form a vigilante group initially to deal with graffiti and other low-level crime, but who end up splitting into warring factions complete with hand grenades and Uzis.

WHAT’S NEW: The big upcoming event at Five is the launch, slated for October, of two new digital channels. Five Life will be a female-skewing channel carrying, per Chambers, “human interest stories, great drama, crime, celebrity programming and lifestyle series,” but not, he says, “any telenovelas, as they would be too expensive for us.” The other new launch will be Five US, which Chambers characterizes as “the best of American programming, great drama, movies, documentaries, comedy and entertainment.” Both channels will be ad-supported and freely available on all platforms including cable, satellite and DTT.

WEBSITE: www.five.tv

—By Bob Jenkins