jj20x

At the moment we only have the article on the Radio Times website to go by, so nothing conclusive. The bottom line here is that Channel 5 +24, has been stated has having only 5 hours a day of programmes (7pm until midnight), with the rest of the schedule filled with teleshopping slots. That may well be useful for Channel 5 to fill their unused capacity on Freeview but not particularly attractive to other platforms. Sure, 5* +1 also fills up the schedule with teleshopping but does actually have programmes from 2pm to 1am. 11 hours of programming compared to the 5 hours planned for the new channel.

This is basically a teleshopping channel with a few hours of programmes. I don't really want to see hours of teleshopping in the entertainment section, it's bad enough overnight. Hopefully Channel 5 will be bought by a company more interested in filling their schedules with programmes than being glorified shopping channels.

Note: On Freeview, 5* currently shares with Television X, hence the midnight closedown. Current reports suggest that the midnight to 10am hours won't be available to Channel 5 +24 on Freeview. This indicates that Television X could possibly be transferred to share with this new stream. That would allow 5* to extend its schedule past midnight on all platforms (or more likely, as this is Channel 5, allow them to carry the overnight teleshopping strands currently shown on VM / Sky on Freeview. )