Maybe they should insert the Viacom ident at the end of every domestic program from the News to Big Brother including that show that Rylan Clark Neal presents.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGQVlfjWO20

Yeah that will make you sit up and take notice, especially if they compress the sound so that the mans voice is louder than all the other speech.

Very trendy

I was one of the re-tuner's, who had to go round houses to retune their videos and satellite equipment so they didn't get any interference from C5.

I can't blame the continuity announcer for being obsessed with Gabrielle!!!

I think there was a female continuity announcer who was equally obsessed with a British actor who played one of the main character on Sunset beach


Whittle is quite often repeated on Challenge

Isn't that on Horror now?

Channel 5 launched in 1997? I could have sworn it was 95 with friends dads and uncles all talking about tuning it in back then.

Nope, Easter Sunday 1997.

I remember watching the countdown because I was a big Spice Girls fan, and they were doing the launch. The clock went down to zero and they appeared on video doing a number based on the old 54321 hit. Pub quiz trivia - the first person to appear on Channel 5 was Emma Bunton, just. I think Melanie C might have been next. It's on YouTube. The first two presenters were Tim Vine and Julia Bradbury.

It's hard to believe that was nineteen years ago, and next year Channel 4 will be thirty-five years old.

It wasn't a great picture as I recall. Mind you neither was Channel 4 in the early days.

Television was simpler then, you didn't have 500 channels and catch up and Netflix and box sets and all that stuff.

But it was much better than it is now.

Sarahsaurus, this is bizarre. I don't recall it. Saying that... I wasn't a huge TV person back then. I only watched what others had on or went to bed then I could watch what I wanted.

Yes, TV was simpler back then. I remember always around friends houses and all they had like everyone else 1 - 4. Some had Sky but you were still stuck with only watching live broadcast.
Funny to think most people only had one TV in the house. I remember only having a little Nokia 14" TV in the bedroom. It was off more than on.

To think, unless you knew a real nerd, nobody spoke of the internet/downloading back then.

To give you some idea of how television watching has changed since 1997, look at the BARB Top30 ratings on their website. I looked at 1998, the earliest they go back on their website, so only a year after Channel 5 launched. Eastenders and Coronation St regularly got 18 million viewers .Now Corrie, although still ITV's most watched programme, struggles to get seven million. In fact the 30th top rated programme on ITV back in 1998 got more than that.

In Kent we never got it at all! first time I saw it was in some shit holiday caravan in Devon in 2001, watched some program which wasnt really that great seemed to consist of a bloke on a bike bunny hopping up on obstacles *shrugs* haven't a clue what that was. Then when I got freeview in 2006 I finally got to see the channel properly and tbh I wasn't really impressed. The only things I ever watched was the late night Indy Car coverage and some of the French, Dutch, Portugese football along with some Nascar action. I tuned in for Football Italiano when that came to the channel but when that was canned after only 1 season I didn't bother with much else on it. I have watched a few things on it since the Italian football went off it which has been some Christmas films back in December but other than that I just see it as a reality TV channel packed full of tacky crap.

Some say this thread has gone "elitist" etc I dont think its that, I think its because people have different tastes. Some like the drivel CH5 pump out but many don't, I barely watch it as none of what is on it appeals to me whatsoever. I missed out on the porn and football that was on in the early days which seemed to be when it was doing well, I can never remember why in Kent on the coast it was not receivable we only had 4 channels but tbh I didnt miss much so its not as if I was writing off to an authority somewhere asking why we couldn't get it.

... and nothing to show for it. Least watched channel in our house

I remember Trisha.

I'd wish people would stop mentioning "elitist" - what is snobby about not wanting to watch dumbed down poor quality TV, seemingly aimed at the hard of thinking?

I want to be entertained & educated - does that make me a snob??

Family Affairs was quite decent, Sunset Beach was all kinds of amazing and European football with a screaming Jonathan Pearce before he got neutered by the BBC was always brilliant. I also remember the news with Kirsty Young bring genuinely good and quite innovative in its presentation, but overall it feels like the channel could have done far more than it did and feels like a wasted opportunity.

I remember during the 1997 election campaign, which was right after Channel 5 launched, watching Kirsty Young interviewing Tony Blair on the news with the two of them sitting awkwardly on the edge of the newsdesk. presumably to try and make it look less formal. It looked frankly ridiculous, like they were doing it just to be different, but it attracted comment at the time, so I supposed it did its job of getting them noticed. Nowadays of course the news anchor on the main bulletins (eg the BBC and Channel4) often stands up while presenting, instead of sitting behind a desk, so maybe they weren't far off.

I looked for some footage on YouTube but there isn't any, unfortunately.

Just been reading a speech by Jeremy Paxman (2007) in which he says with more channels news is about making an impact rather than content.

Oh i think i do remember that show. Used to come on quite late. This is all i could find of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDsuPl3YTZ4

It was also shown on Bravo apparently. They did a similar sort of show a couple of years earlier.

I've watched the odd thing on C5, curiously many of them around 7pm

The cricket highlights are very good, but then they're produced by the same company that did the C4 live coverage and there is a crossover with the TMS commentators (Boycott, Hughes and Vaughan)

Tim Marlow used to have really good art programmes on C5, where he's review the latest exhibitions. I think he does these on Sky Arts now.

How Do They Do It, with Robert "Kryten" Llewellyn, the UK version of the Discovery programme

That Tarrant Extreme Railways programme was better than I expected, indeed the silly title put me of watching it!

And who can forget the "Thursday Night on Channel 5" chant aimed at teams dumped out of the Champions League and forced to play in the Europa League

When I think of Channel 5 at the beginning.

I think of Family Affairs, and a Gothic themed weekend kids programme, which I can't remember the name of.

And the Thursday Nights on Channel 5 chant, for there Europa League coverage

When it first started reception from Crystal Palace/Croydon was poor, I remember watching the England game (vs Poland I think) with a fuzzy picture. Then it opened on analogue satellite and Mother was fooled into thinking they'd fixed the signal for quite some time !

Do we know if they are planning anything? Would be a shame if they didn't do anything

I was a retuner for C5. Weird how some people spend more money on their TV than they do on their kids!

It could have been great if it had given some of it's better US imports the exposure they deserved - The Shield for example. I'm also pretty sure they had Breaking Bad when it first started. Their lack of PR around such shows meant that they shunted them to 1am on a Tuesday or something.

Special Anniversary Channel 5 schedule:

18:00: Cheap Quiz Show
18:30: Unfunny Quiz Show
19:00: Rejects (Soap Opera)
19:30: Obscure European football match with shouty commentator
21:30: Cheap Film
23:00: Cheap porn

Please Note: Only 15 - 45 minutes worth of the above schedule will actually be viewable depending on your location.

No. What makes you a snob is dismissing as 'hard of thinking' people who do not share your taste. So it's a good job you haven't .... oh!