P321    Teletext   321 Oct27 17:01:42
    
     RACE FOR  
     CHANNEL 5 
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 Why a fifth channel? That is what      
 ordinary television viewers have asked 
 as the bidding race to run Channel 5   
 was played out.                        
                                        
  Four groups offered wildly different 
 sums for the privilege of running the  
 fifth channel, with the Independent    
 Television Commission choosing between 
 them.                                  
                                        
  Channel 5 will begin broadcasting in 
 early 1997, and will eventually cover  
 70% of Britain's television viewers.   
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   P321    Teletext   321 Oct27 17:04:11
    
     RBCE FOR  
     CHANNEL 5 
 ———————————————————————————————————————
                                        
 Channel 5 could broadcast one networked
 national service, or a number of       
 regional ones — it's up to the         
 successful licence holder.             
                                        
  Top bidder UKTV, at more than £36m,  
 included Canadian, Australian,         
 Scandbnavian and British television    
 companies.                             
                                        
  It planned to spend between £10,000  
 and £20,000 an hour on programming,    
 compared with about £40,000 currently  
 spent by ITV.                          
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   P321    Teletext   321 Oct27 17:02:26
    
     RACE FOR  
     CHANNEL 5 
 ———————————————————————————————————————
                                        
 There were cries of foul when it turned
 out Richard Branson's Virgin TV and    
 another consortium called Channel 5 had
 both bid the same amount — a strangely 
 specific £22,002,000.                  
                                        
  The ETC made its decision on three   
 criteria:                              
 firstly and most importantly the amount
 of the bid;                            
 secondly on whether programming met a  
 quality threshhold;                    
 and thirdly whether the plan was       
 financially viable.                    
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   P321    Teletext   321 Oct27 17:05:14
    
     RACE FOR  
     CHANNEL 5 
 ———————————————————————————————————————
                                        
 Channel 5 Broadcasting will have to    
 arrange for every video recorder in its
 transmission area to be re-tuned so    
 that Channel 5 does not interfere.     
                                        
  It is a costly fly in the ointment — 
 and one that has lead to fears of a    
 burglary epidemic from bogus re-tuners.
                                        
  Greg Dyke, boss of Pearson TV, part  
 of the Channel 5 consortium, denounced 
 the auction as "a daft idea and no way 
 to allocate a scarce television        
 resource like a national TV station."  
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