5USA is an entertainment television channel in the United Kingdom owned by Northern & Shell. It was launched on 16 October 2006 as Five US and was the second digital channel in the UK to be launched by RTL Group (the former owner) as part of their multi-channel strategy, the first being Five Life (now 5*). 5USA concentrates on showing imported movies and programmes from the United States, originally broadcast from 16:00 to 01:00, extending its hours starting at 12:00 in June 2007. The channel changes its programme slots and shows from time to time. 5USA is shown on Sky, Digital Cable, Freesat, Freeview and IPTV.[2]
It is a sister channel of Channel 5 and 5*.
The channel's highest ratings to date were on 12 February 2008 for the second part of the CSI/Without a Trace crossover. The show averaged 2.58m viewers between 22:00 and 23:00 equating to a multichannel share of 13.9%.
Those numbers made the show the most-watched multichannel programme in its slot - beating every other channel (digital and analogue) aside from BBC One, and is currently one of the highest ratings for a multichannel in the United Kingdom.
British comedian Russell Kane was the 'face of the channel', presenting short clips between some programmes which acted as space fillers to comply with advertising regulations in the UK (UK regulation allows fewer minutes of advertising than in the US) until 16 February 2009. The music used during the idents until February 2009 was "The Dress Looks Nice on You!" and "Jacksonville" by Sufjan Stevens. On 28 August 2007, Five US launched a timeshift channel named Five US +1 available on Sky. On 22 January 2009, it was announced that Five US would be rebranded to "Five USA" on 16 February. The channel rebranded for a/the second time as "5USA" on 7 March 2011.[3][4][5][6]
Programming
Current shows
- CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
- CSI: Miami
- CSI: NY
- Dark Blue
- House
- Justified
- Law & Order
- The Mentalist
- NCIS
- NUMB3RS
- Sons of Anarchy
- Til Death
- True Justice
- The Unit
- The Walking Dead
- The Whitest Kids U' Know
- True Justice
- Whose Line is it Anyway?
Former shows
- 30 Rock - Now on Comedy Central.
- The Beast
- Breaking Bad
- Conviction - Series discontinued and is in syndication on the Universal Channel.
- David Beckham's Soccer USA
- Dirt
- Everybody Hates Chris - Now on 5*, Channel 5, Comedy Central and Comedy Central Extra.
- The Fall Guy
- The Guardian
- Happy Days - Now on Comedy Central.
- House MD - Now on Channel 5, Sky1, and Universal Channel.
- IndyCar Series
- Joey - Now on 5*.
- Killer Instinct - Series discontinued.
- Medical Investigation
- Mission: Impossible - Now on Quest.
- NASCAR
- NBA
- NFL including Super Bowl
- NHRA Powerade Drag Series
- Nightmares and Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King - Series discontinued and is syndicated on Syfy.
- The Nine - Series discontinued.
- Pimp My Ride (US version) - Series discontinued.
- Pros vs Joes
- Sex and the City - Now on 5*, Comedy Central, Comedy Central Extra and E4.
- Shark - Ended its run of 2 seasons.
- The Shield - Wrapped up after 7 seasons, but only season 7 was shown on 5USA.
- Vanished - Series discontinued.
- Whacked Out Sports - Now on 5*.
Coming soon
References
- ^ "Television Broadcast Licensing Update October 2006". Ofcom. http://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv/ifi/tvlicensing/tvupdates/monthly/200610.
- ^ "Five launches Five US and Five Life". Channel 5. 25 August 2006. http://www.five.tv/aboutfive/press/pressreleases/20062508_fiveusandfivelifelaunch/.
- ^ Joanne Oatts (5 July 2007). "Five launches +1 services". Digital Spy. http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/broadcasting/a64300/five-launches-1-services.html.
- ^ Dietrich Jeffreys (11 December 2008). "Five US to be Rebranded.". The Three Rs. http://www.reviewsrantsrandomness.com/2008/12/five-us-to-be-rebranded.html.
- ^ "New brand identity for Five US". Digital Spy. 22 January 2009. http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/broadcasting/a144135/new-brand-identity-for-five-us.html.
- ^ Alex Fletcher (11 February 2011). "Illusion show heads up Channel 5 season". Digital Spy. http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/a303270/illusion-show-heads-up-channel-5-season.html.
- ^ a b Neil Wilkes (16 April 2007). "Five hangs on to key acquisitions". Digital Spy. http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/programming/a45289/five-hangs-on-to-key-acquisitions.html.
External links
- 5USA at Channel5.com.
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