[Kunst]

Leave things as they are, Channel 5 is pretty established, and companies generally want to leave their status quo by not using the "big" network brands outside of the US

[chinamug]

Bad idea. I wonder, do people in Ireland still call Virgin Media TV, TV3?

Yes they do! It takes years for a PSB Name change to catch on. However, more and more people are now using the Virgin Name. When RTE2 became Network 2 in Ireland back in 1989, it took years for people and presenters to stop calling it RTE 2. Then when It changed back to RTE 2 back in 2004 it took years for people to stop calling it Network 2.

[Allanbuzzy]

Surely people just call it the short hand "Virgin One" or "Vee Emm One", right? Virgin Media One didn't really sound catchy at all and I'm surprised they only had the rights to the Virgin Media name, not the overall Virgin Group brand.

I can't imagine people growing to the name CBS as opposed to Channel 5. In comparison to both, CBS feels a lot more premium and well known for it's somewhat prestige programming, and while Channel 5 has slowly been adding on to that thanks to the common ownership with Paramount, I doubt it'll strike a core to it's viewers. The only feasible way I could imagine the CBS name being implemented to their channels is by calling themselves "CBS 5" but even that's a bit dry.

Plus, what are the sub channels gonna be called? CBSStar? CBSUSA? CBS Action? Oh wait, they already did that one.

[Roger Darthwell]

Surely people just call it the short hand "Virgin One" or "Vee Emm One", right? Virgin Media One didn't really sound catchy at all and I'm surprised they only had the rights to the Virgin Media name, not the overall Virgin Group brand.

I can't imagine people growing to the name CBS as opposed to Channel 5. In comparison to both, CBS feels a lot more premium and well known for it's somewhat prestige programming, and while Channel 5 has slowly been adding on to that thanks to the common ownership with Paramount, I doubt it'll strike a core to it's viewers. The only feasible way I could imagine the CBS name being implemented to their channels is by calling themselves "CBS 5" but even that's a bit dry.

Plus, what are the sub channels gonna be called? CBSStar? CBSUSA? CBS Action? Oh wait, they already did that one.

Very well put, also the ''CBS 5'' name would be very confusing, because there are CBS stations in the USA that are actually on channel 5

[Blubatt]

One must also consider that no US extant broadcaster has ever really been that successful in the UK. Besides owning channels and services. CBS, NBC, ABC, and FOX are known of, but they have no on-screen presence here

[WillPS]

One must also consider that no US extant broadcaster has ever really been that successful in the UK. Besides owning channels and services. CBS, NBC, ABC, and FOX are known of, but they have no on-screen presence here

 
Yes that's universally true except for MTV, Disney Channel, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Bloomberg, QVC and probably all the many others which I haven't recalled.

[Neil Jones]

 
Yes that's universally true except for MTV, Disney Channel, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Bloomberg, QVC and probably all the many others which I haven't recalled.

I think Blubatt meant in terms of high profile along the lines of the big four mentioned in their post. The big four networks. What you've posted are just UK variations/arms of the home network and none of them are really successful enough to stand on their own two feet as it were, with the possible exception of QVC.

Nickelodeon lives off its American sister for pretty much all its content, the same for an extent for Cartoon Network and Bloomberg is just a simulcast with a few opt-outs.

I believe cable network in the States has a much wider reach (or is more universal) than it does here, to the point where its just as successful as the linear networks, which isn't the case here...

[Kunst]

Indeed, that's what he meant and also I meant.

And rebranding one of the big UK channels to a US network name, definitely would spark some controversy they obviously want to avoid