The Channel 5 Thread

To be fair they might have meant "incoherently rambling like a drunk at closing time".

Its amazing how can one man do so much to a Channel. I thought being the boss should be about looking after everyone

No you pleb, he's looking after himself. And his wallet.

A wallet that's been leaking money that could be put to better use.

I do think people are giving him a hard time purely because of previous work. People can have more than one outlook on the way things work you know...

No, the head of a company is about looking after the company!

You don't take over another company to not change it especially a loss making one

I don't think he's going to be particularly bothered about Fiver & Five USA. I could see both channels merged and a separate kids channel launched.

Even though both channels have had some success, Desmond's priority is going to be making the main channel more solid. Fiver & Five USA always seemed to be extra channels just for the sake of it, because it was seen as a long term strategy. In reality, the strategy should have been in making Five a dominant player in the multichannel market as a multichannel itself.

Yeah I could see Fiver becoming an E4 style channel, and Five USA [which I don't think anyone bothers with anyway] becoming a Milkshake channel.

Kids channel? Were would that sit amongst his portfolio of porn channels - Television X, Red Hot TV and others? I'd like to list some of the print titles too, but I don't think the swear filter would cope, and its a little early on a Sunday for, "Buckets of *****"

Isn't it more likely that he's planning to use the DTT space he gets with the purchase of Fiver and Five USA to widen the spread of his porn empire, and that talk of poaching worthy and popular programmes for Channel Five is just that - talk?

I find it difficult to imagine him doing anything other than that which already makes him very wealthy indeed.

That's true, Private Eye have an entire page devoted to his various "outlooks." I'd scan it in if I thought you'd read it.

Well of course he no longer owns the print titles, and the concept that a person that owns a group of porn channels cannot be allowed to run a kids channel is ridiculous. For starters, it wouldn't 'sit amongst his portfolio of porn channels'; they are already run at arms length, and I'm sure that he didn't acquire Five via Portland TV.

Not a question of "not being allowed" to launch a kids (or anything similarly vanilla), simply that he's already operating a successful business model with hardcore porn.

According to Private Eye, "what does Northern & Shell announce on its website that it sees as the future of its pay-per-night porn channels? 'Digital terrestrial provides the newest opportunity for expansion'".

It's hardly hardcore porn, on the large part it's quite soft titilation.

Private Eye seems very bitter about anyone that has become successful via a route that doesn't involve daddy's money or going to Oxbridge.

I would rather Desmond owning Channel 5 than Associated or Murdoch. They have far more blood on their hands when it comes to society.