5 Under Fire

Last night’s Guardian Media debate put the big wigs at Channel 5 on the spot. A panel of high profile media experts slowly and painfully took the new channel apart.

Speaking on behalf of the advertisers, Tessa Alps, executive chairman of Drum PHD, said that she and her colleagues were, in a way, bound to love 5. 5 is more free commercial TV. Alps admitted “We did have a low expectation of what the programme budget could deliver, but it is doing better than predicted, as are the audience figures.”

It was then time for 5 to respond. Airey was upfront, admitting that 5 has budget problems but said that despite this many of her shows are as good as the oppositions’. She also accepted that some programmes did show a lack of funding. Nevertheless, Airey is not going to pull off any of the long-runners yet. She wants to give the productions a chance to evolve, if some shows still show no improvement they will be pulled.

Elstein revealed that 5 does have a financial reserve made available to them by their shareholders. This can be dipped into if it is used to buy programming which will guarantee a profitable return. Airey said that we can expect to see further major sporting events on 5 and all is to be revealed soon.

The Channel 5 team indicated that they had many brilliant surprises up their sleeves and if we give them a chance they believe that they can prove their worth.