Channel 5 Institution

Channel 5 is a television network that broadcasts in the United Kingdom. It launched in 1997, and was the fifth and final national terrestrial analogue network to launch, after BBC One, ITV, BBC Two and Channel 4. It is generally the fifth placed network in the country in terms of its audience share, and has been since its inception. The station was branded as Five between 2002 and 2011, during which time the channel was owned by the RTL Group. Richard Desmond purchased the station from the RTL Group on 23 July 2010.

Channel 5, like all of the public service broadcasters, broadcast a wide variety of programming. The channel mainly broadcasts entertainment programming, such as reality television, game shows and imported American drama. The channel broadcasts sports events not covered by other broadcasters and also broadcasts its own news service, 5 News, which is produced by ITN ( The channel frequently sticks to a regular schedule, which includes the programme Home and Away at 18:00 followed by 5 News at 18:30 and Big Brother later in the evening at 22:00.

Flagship programmes for the channel include the early morning chat programme The Wright Stuff (at 09:15) and afternoon Australian soap operas Neighbours (at 13:45) and Home and Away (at 13:15) each weekday.

The institution's programming is highly perceived as "low brow" viewing and programmes, such as Home and Away that are generally watched by lower class citizens, compare to those who will watch high brow programming such as Steven Fry: Out There on BBC2.