1990s
- 1990
- The terms of a licence for a fifth channel are set out in the Broadcasting Act 1990. It would need to be a general entertainment channel with a remit for some public service broadcasting. Additionally, it is estimated that the channel's coverage would reach only 74% of the UK, and a video retuning operation would need to be undertaken.[1]
- 1991
- No events.
- 1992
- 14 April – The Independent Television Commission (ITC) issues an invitation to apply for the Channel 5 licence.[2]
- 3 July – Columbia TriStar and Canwest, two backers of the four strong Channel 5 Holdings Ltd consortium, withdraw their support for the project, leaving Thames Television, which is proposing a network of city-TV stations, and Canadian businessman Moses Znaimer to take the project forward. As Channel 5 Holdings are the only current bidders for the Channel 5 licence there are concerns for the future of the process ahead of the deadline, but Channel 5 Holdings says it intends to put forward its bid as planned.[3]
- 7 July – Date of the initial deadline for applications to run the Channel 5 service.[1] One application to run the channel is submitted by Channel 5 Holdings Ltd.[2]
- December – The ITC rejects the Channel 5 Holdings Ltd bid amid concerns about its business plan and investor commitment.[2] and subsequently considers not awarding the licence at all.
- 1993
- 1994
- February – The ITC announces that it plans to readvertise the Channel 5 broadcasting licence, but it also has to seek confirmation that the frequencies it planned to allocate to the channel are still available.[2]
- 14 July – Stephen Dorrell, the Secretary of State for Heritage announces that Channel 35, one of the two frequencies planned for use by a fifth channel, will not be available. The ITC expresses concern over this, but still views Channel 5 as a viable option since 60% of the UK will still be covered by the remaining frequency.[2]
- 15 September – The ITC announces its decision to re-advertise the Channel 5 licence.[2]
- 1 November – A second attempt to license the fifth terrestrial channel begins and several companies apply.[2][4]
- 1995
- 2 May – Closing date for applications to run Channel 5. Four bids are received, from New Century TV Ltd (British Sky Broadcasting, Goldman Sachs, Granada Group, Hoare Govett, Kinnevik, Polygram, Really Useful Group and TCI International) who bid £2,000,000; Virgin TV Ltd with a bid of £22,002,000; UKTV (CanWest Global Communications Corp., Scandinavian Broadcast System SA, SelectTV Plc, The Ten Group Ltd) who bid £36,261,158 and Channel 5 Broadcasting Ltd (MAI (now United News and Media Plc), CLT/UFA, Pearson Plc, Warburg Pincus & Co) with a bid of £22,002,000.[2]
- 20 October – Channel 5 Broadcasting Limited is awarded the licence.[5][6] It is a consortium of four investors — Pearson, United News and Media, CLT-Ufa and Warburg Pincus.[7]
- 22 November – After Virgin TV challenges the ITC's decision to award the licence to run the UK's fifth television channel to Channel 5 Broadcasting Ltd, the High Court grants leave for a judicial review into the decision.[2]
- 1996
- 26 January – The findings of the judicial review of the ITC's licence awarding process are published. The review finds that there was no illegality or unfairness in the awarding of the licence to Channel 5 Broadcasting Ltd.[2]
- 18 April – The ITC confirms the awarding of the Channel 5 licence to Channel 5 Broadcasting Ltd, setting out its broadcasting remit. 50% of programming must be original, while there are quotas for the amount of public service programming that must be aired.[2]
- Channel 5 retunes the UK's video recorders to avoid interference with video recorders which use the same frequencies as those allocated to Channel 5.
- Engineering transmission tests are carried out at some sites.[8]
- 1997
- 2 January – Test transmissions begin for Channel 5 in some areas. Details of these are made available on Ceefax page 698 for a few weeks.[8]
- 31 January – Details of Channel 5's schedule are leaked to Broadcast magazine. A spokeswoman for the channel confirms the schedule is largely accurate but that the amount of imported content has been distorted; Channel 5's schedule will be made up of 70% UK-produced content.[9]
- 12 February – Channel 5 releases details of its programme scheduling. It will introduce the concept of stripping and stranding to British television, stripping being where a programme is shown at the same time each day, and stranding being where similar programmes are shown at the same time each day.[10] A full schedule is published on 18 February.[11]
- 30 March
- Channel 5 launches at 6 pm with the Spice Girls singing a rewritten version of Manfred Mann's hit "5-4-3-2-1" as "1-2-3-4-5".[12] Around 65% of the UK is able to receive the channel.
- Channel 5's soap opera Family Affairs makes its debut.
- Late night talk show The Jack Docherty Show makes its debut.
- 31 March
- Channel 5 launches its overnight coverage of American sports when it broadcasts the first edition of Live & Dangerous. The programme broadcasts on weekdays through the night and includes live coverage of American sport as well as highlights from America and other global sports events. The first programme features the opening day of the 1997 Major League Baseball season.
- Pre-school brand Milkshake! launches as a breakfast television block.
- The first edition of 5 News is broadcast with Kirsty Young perching on the edge of a desk in a bid to present the news in a more informal way. The channel also provides hourly news updates on weekdays on the hour, every hour.
- The first episode of the game show 100% is broadcast.
- 31 May – Even though Channel 5 had said that it hadn't been intending to show live sport at peak time, it buys the rights to one of England's qualifying matches for the 1998 World Cup – an away match against Poland.
- Summer – Channel 5 launches on the Astra satellite in a bid to reach the third of UK homes which cannot receive the channel.
- Autumn – Football on 5 becomes a regular fixture as the channel purchases rights to UEFA Cup games and other away qualifying matches involving the home nations, showing the latter for the next decade.
- 1998
- March – MLB on Five launches when Channel 5 decides to create a specific programme for its coverage of Major League Baseball.
- 15 November – The launch of OnDigital allows the channel to be broadcast across the UK via digital terrestrial television.
- 1999
- 23 June – Channel 5 axes the late night talk show The Jack Docherty Show. It had been struggling in recent times with fewer programmes broadcast each week due to low viewing figures.
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