"Five"

Channel 5 was launched on 30th March, 1997. It was created by Tom McGrath, then-president of Time Warner International Broadcasting and National Trans communications Limited. Lord Clive Hollick, then CEO of Meridian Broadcasting joined the project as lead investor as UK law prohibited Time Warner from owning more than 25%. Pearson television then joined and when McGrath left them to become President of Paramount they were replaced by CLT, owned by Bertelsmann who are one of the biggest media companies in the world. CLT and Pearson then merged in 2000 and became RTL Group. RTL Group are the largest TV and radio broadcasting company in Europe and have 39 TV channels and 29 Radio stations in 10 different countries with over 10,000 hours of programming every year.
In 2001 RTL Group bought out Pearson's 22% share and now owns 89.8% of the company while the rest lies in shares. They are now the largest independent distribution company outside of the US.
The Channel began with the name "Channel 5" in 1997. The channel featured poor audience figures in the beginning due to bad programs. "Channel 5" featured poor day television, which didn't compare with ITV and BBC daytime viewing, an afternoon and an evening film, which were often of poor quality and became renowned for using risque programming such as "Red shoe diaries" and "Sex and shopping" as well as soft-core porn films shown late on Friday nights. One of the main attractions to channel 5 was their gain of live football, which brought the channel very high ratings. The Channel currently had an audience of football fans, teenage boys, and the occasional film fanatic.
A scandal appeared when Dawn Airey, programming director 1996-2003 commented that "Channel 5" was "more than just films, football and ****ing".
In 2002 the company relaunched the channel, with a multi million pound makeover, as "Five" in an attempt to lose the smutty reputation they had gained. Since the change they have gained high rating American TV shows like "Grey's Anatomy", the "CSI" franchise and "Prison Break" They dropped "Family Affairs" in 2005, which freed up 10 million pounds, and they bought popular Australian soaps "Neighbors" and "Home And Away".
"Five" now holds a major role in terrestrial television and has a wide range of shows, such as early morning kids shows, popular US drama, Popular films, Both major European and American sport coverage, High rated soaps and good daytime television. "Five" have also gained popular comedy such as "Joey" and "Everybody Hates Chris", shows late night international sports programing such as "Major League Baseball" and "NFL".
Since "Channel Five" has become "Five", the quality and style of the programing has risen greatly and now captures a much wider target audience with their huge range of programs.
Recently the company have also bought a stake in digital terrestrial televisions "Top Up TV", in which they have set up two new channels, "Five Life" and "Five US", which are used to display some of the more popular programming options."Five Life" features mainly lifestyle programming aimed towards women and "Five US" shows popular American TV shows, drama and films.