RICHARD DESMONDTAKES OVER CHANNEL FIVE

[welkram]

Good thing or not?

My personal thoughts are that its not.

But who could complain about Neighbours containing Asian Babes.

Or Home and Away featuring Horny Housewife's.

Or combining Hello with Big Ones.

As this country's largest pornographer he may already contributes to this Forum. Look out for sentences containing lots of fuck's, thats the give away.

[Bob Singleton]

Not a good thing.

I don't think anyone should be allowed to own more than one national daily and one national Sunday paper, let alone national dailies AND a TV and/or satellite network.

[Essex Lad]

Well, he will certainly not invest as he says he will and I suspect a return to "football, films and fucking" and probably combine the last two!

[RoddersUK]

If the cunt thinks that Big Brother will be an asset to 5 then he is a moron.

[Essex Lad]

He won't bring BB to Five - he wouldn't pay the rights fees for a start.

I would guess that a lot of expensive US imports will also disappear and we will get a diet of low-rent celeb shows, old films and "classic" TV shows. All this will be put forward as giving viewers a greater choice - it'll be like watching TV Gold on analogue.

Richard is many things but he isn't a moron.

[mrchapel]

Shit! Just change the name to the Jordan channel now

[Essex Lad]

Richard Desmond has told colleagues he would like to revive Top of the Pops, which was shelved by the BBC in 2006 after 42 years, if he buys Five. He wants to create a series of landmark shows in peak time and believes a live music programme would win a big audience. But acquiring the brand may be costly - the rights to the format are still owned by BBC Worldwide. The BBC has no plans to resurrect the show, although it screened a one-off New Year's Eve special last year. If he does press ahead with plans for a music show, Desmond may simply dust down the format and choose a different name.

He won't buy ToTP - too expensive.

[Marino]

I think it is a good thing.
We must remember that if it was not for him many of the adult producers would have all collapsed without TVX financing their movies. Although I do not work there. I had many great years at TVX and so have many other of your fav stars.

[one eyed jack]

Have to agree with you Marino plus when the media talks about him like hes a cunt then i suspect he is actually alright

I mean its not like he shot his girlfriend in half and on the run is it?

[Bob Singleton]

one eyed jack wrote:

> Have to agree with you Marino plus when the media talks about
> him like hes a cunt then i suspect he is actually alright
>
> I mean its not like he shot his girlfriend in half and on the
> run is it?
>


While Private Eye continually have digs at him about his "porn empire" (most often when the Express runs a story complaining about language and/or sexual content in a TV programme) they did also publish a lengthy story about him a while back (and he never sued for libel!) concerning dodgy deals with members of organised crime syndicates in New York.

He may have done a lot to help (directly or indirectly) many of the people on these boards, but I still don't want him owning Five (unless he's prepared to sell his newspapers).

As I said earlier, I'm not in favour of any one person having too much control of the media, and ownership should be limited to either a daily and Sunday national paper OR a TV station, not both.