Paramount Network to rebrand

I said when they launched it would be better positioned as a movie channel, and there are enough films across the C5 portfolio to enable that to happen, even if it is padding out the schedule with Hallmark/Lifetime movies at times.

Really though have lost track of C5's digital line up - 5Spike, 5Select, My5 and even Paramount, which even if not all movies should have been a more premium offering, all basically seemed to be the same.

Perhaps the Channel 5 name is doing the spin-offs damage and they would be better rebranding them to remove it? I mean 5 STAR as a name means sod all. It has an image of tacky/trashy programming for years and almost no effort ever seems to be put into the channel. Paramount showing benefits and bailiffs / police camera programming is laughable. They murdered their own branding before it even got a chance to take off and if they act quickly they could undo that damage before it has a lasting effect.

5 USA => Paramount
More premium name, all the content that 5 USA currently has with more modern US shows/movies acquired, the main channel so gets highest slot possible on EPG's (so 21 on Freeview, 129 on Freesat, 128 on Sky, 150 on Virgin) and is in HD on satellite also, not just cable!

5 STAR => 5 EXTRA or a new channel name using one of Viacoms brands
A mixture of lifestyle and reality programming during the day with repeats of Channel 5's biggest hits and some films in the evenings. Finally gets a HD variant also. Could even use the same idents and on screen presentation as Channel 5 but with EXTRA added underneath or to the right to save money if they go the EXTRA name route.

5 SELECT doesn't really need to exist from a viewer point of view. It is just an extra way of getting ad revenue for Viacom. The "premium" programming shown on the channel can easily be shown elsewhere. Viacom likely won't close it, but I can't see how it is needed in the age of +1's (which in themselves are starting to close) and catch-up TV/apps.

They’re all such joyless names, aren’t they?

I can’t quite work out why, but the names E4, Film4 and More4 have something about them that 5 Star, 5 USA and 5 Select just don’t.

Say what you will, but at least ‘Fiver’ had some character.

That's quite the contradiction... you've just answered why 5SELECT exists!

As for your other suggestions, no thanks! '5 EXTRA' would be totally meaningless, it is fine as 5STAR.

Paramount Network will be changing into a movie network in the US so they will not be turning the UK one into a crime drama channel. 5USA is perfectly successful as it is.

This.

Ditto for programme names that can't be seen in full on the EPG until you press the ℹ button, as they spill-over into the synopsis box.

One example that springs to mind is ITV's "Tonight" programme, which is always listed in EPGs as "<episode-specific title>: Tonight".

Isn't CBS All Access becoming Paramount+ in the US and rolling out internationally. I expect that's linked to this.

I meant in terms of the viewers, and acknowledged that it only exists purely to make them more money.


So, someone who lives outside the UK asks you what sort of channel 5 STAR is and what audience is it for, what programming does it offer. Please explain what answer you'd give for that.


Why not? They turned it into a benefits/cops with cameras channel from the more premium skewing channel it started as!

To me it would make sense to rebrand to absolutely anything else ASAP.

If they launch Paramount+ over here after a channel named ‘Paramount’ has been showing Life on the Dole: Reversioned and 15 year old episodes of Traffic Cops you’re asking to be ignored.

The Frankenstein AMC/CBS/Chello channels have a more ‘premium’ feel to the programming.

I think 5star and 5USA are fine as names

Again, I think Paramount Network in the UK is completely unsuited for what should've been "5Spike" (or 5Max at most, or something like that)

EDIT

And, obviously, I do not believe they would use the Paramount name in the UK, not when you have Channel 5


5USA and 5Star are as "strange" (so relatively not strange) as E4 and More4 and Film4 are, it's just that you think so because of a bad connotation Channel 5 as in the UK

Consider yourselves lucky anyway, something like RTL or certain other commercial broadcasters in Europe (esp. Mediaset) are much worse than Channel 5 will ever be

I think it’s more a case of E4, More4 and Film4 having been able establish themselves (to varying degrees) as brand names in their own right because their profiles and target audiences are quite clear. (And in E4’s case it was also helped by some pretty distinct branding and marketing throughout the noughties.)

Channel 5 itself has had plenty of identity crises over the years, so it’s no wonder they struggle to find a clear strategy for some of their digital offshoots.