Last logo of the old Tele5, used during the latter half of 1992, after the channel had been bought by Leo Kirch and scheduled for closure. On air, the white parts were transparent and the red parts were solid white
The first Tele 5 was a direct successor to Germany's first music television channel called Musicbox which had aired on the same frequency from 1984 up to 1988. Prior to 1988, Silvio Berlusconi bought part of Musicbox and thus initiated the switch from music television channel Musicbox to the generalist channel Tele5, which then broadcast from 11 January 1988 to 31 December 1992. The shows of Tele5 were still produced in the same Munich building as had been those by Musicbox, a music video show named Musicbox remained part of the regular program schedule of Tele5, and several Musicbox show hosts transferred to Tele5.
From 1988 to 1992, Tele5 was part of Berlusconi's Europe-wide network of sister channels all with the number 5 in their names and a stylized flower in their logo, which also included Canale 5 (1980-today) in Italy, Telecinco (1990-today) in Spain (originally also styled as Tele5), and La Cinq (1986-1992) in France (which soon replaced the flower with a star). In Hamburg, Tele5 shared the same terrestrial frequency with RTL Television (then RTLplus), such as that from circa 8 or 9am to circa 5 or 7pm, Tele5 was broadcast on the frequency, and during the primetime and nighttime hours RTLplus was broadcast.
During its four-year lifespan, Tele5 especially due to its children's programming increasingly took market shares from Leo Kirch's German television networks, which prompted Kirch to buy the channel in 1992 and convert it into DSF (Deutsches Sportfernsehen, German Sport Television) on 1 January 1993.
At the time, most of the other channels had a few weekly or daily series for children. Some channels had "double features" with two shorter shows running "back to back". With "Bim Bam Bino", Tele 5 was the first German channel that had a big all-week program block for children and teens. Only broadcast in the morning hours at first, the show soon grew to encompass also afternoons and eventually even early evenings. At the time the channel went off air, "Bim Bam Bino" made up the biggest part of Tele 5's program and ran from about 9am to 6 or 7pm.
Legacy shows of the old Tele5
Some of the shows that had their German premiere on the old Tele5 went on to find a new home. Bim Bam Bino was taken up for production by kabel eins, while the original Bim Bam Bino crew went on to do the similar children's programming puppet announcer show Vampy on RTL II. Many of the cartoon shows priorly broadcast on Tele5 as part of Bim Bam Bino at first appeared partly on the kabel 1 version of Bim Bam Bino, partly on RTL II's Vampy.
Bitte lächeln (a format based upon America's Funniest Home Videos) was the only Tele5 show that was briefly taken up by its successor DSF before moving on to RTL II, and later ran under the new title Schwupps - Die Pannenshow on Tm3, and during its entire run remained hosted by Mike Carl who had already hosted it on Tele5. By the time Bitte lächeln aka Schwupps had moved to Tm3, a few of the cartoon shows originally on Tele5 were also taken up by Tm3 for its morning hour slots.
The most successful survivor of the old Tele5 was the game show Ruck Zuck (based upon Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak), which remained in production for over a decade on various channels after the closure of the old Tele5, appearing on RTL II, tm3, and even the new Tele 5 (see below).
The new Tele 5
In April 2002, the company Tele München Gruppe relaunched the channel, now with a primary focus upon movies and TV series. The new Tele 5 originally started with Jochen Kröhne as CEO, who had been program director on Musicbox (1984-1988) as well as on the old Tele5 (1988-1992). Kröhne left the new Tele 5 in 2005 and was replaced as CEO by Kai Blasberg. Jochen Bendel, one of the show hosts of old Tele5, appeared on new Tele5 from the beginning, including by hosting new editions of the game show Ruck Zuck, until he left the new Tele 5 in 2005 as well.
Since 1 May 2012 Tele 5 Austria goes on air. It broadcasts the same program as Tele 5 Germany, only the advertisements are adjusted for the Austrian viewers. After the advertisements Tele 5 broadcasts program notes of the Austrian channel ATV. The marketing of the ads are in a cooperation with ATV, too.[1]
Tele 5 in High Definition
Tele 5 HD
Since 19 October 2011 Tele 5 broadcasts in HD via the SES-Astra service HD+. Like the other channels, which are broadcast in HD, the normal SD-program is upscaled for Tele 5 HD.[2] Customers of Vodafone and Telekom Entertain can receive Tele 5 HD, too.
