Wedged snugly and unobtrusively next to The Body Shop on Covent Garden's Long Acre, Five's head office is a far cry from the glamorous portals of its UK rivals, ITV and Channel 4.
But the pull of the broadcaster Dawn Airey helped launch in 1996 was sufficient to tempt her away from a global content role at ITV's Gray's Inn Road HQ 11 months ago to become chair and chief executive of Five.
Her brief was to "put the fun back into Five" and to creatively renew a channel that had lost its way - to add a further F to the three Fs ("films, fucking and football") that famously defined her first stint at Five.
"We had gone from being young, noisy and loud to middle-aged really fast and we weren't sufficiently differentiated, which we have to be," explains Airey. "There's no point being me-too in this market."
So far, so logical. What Airey hadn't anticipated was the worst advertising recession in 60 years, which hastened radical restructuring and cost-cutting of the type all free-to-air broadcasters have undergone. "We significantly reduced the costs of running our business in terms of staff, overheads and programming budget," she says.
Add that to media agencies earmarking the RTL-owned broadcaster for an old-fashioned kicking in the 2009 trading season, which led to Five losing 25% of its revenue against an overall market down about 16%, and it's fair to say this wasn't a sentimental walk down memory lane for the much-travelled but respected TV executive.
"This year has been brutal in terms of dealing with agencies, but they're only doing what they think is appropriate for their clients," says Airey. "Our price was expensive. We were neither must-carry in terms of C4 and ITV or really cheap - we were piggy in the middle. Now, we're in a far better position and I'm pretty optimistic."
Upbeat she may be, but Airey is realistic about the future for free- to-air broadcasters. With the market down 6% last year and 16% this year, a further 3% drop in 2010 would erase a quarter of the market in three years.
"That money isn't coming back; it has gone from spot forever," says Airey. "And there's deflation - despite the market being down, there are still 5% more commercial impacts this year. TV is still the most effective medium for advertisers and as cheap as it was 15 years ago."
Diversify revenue
In this context, Airey can't see agencies and advertisers re-inflating the broadcast market. "The challenge is to diversify revenue streams," she says, highlighting micropayments and pay channels as options under consideration. Consolidation is also on the agenda, including abortive talks with C4 - Airey says Five was "jilted at the altar" - and ongoing conversations with "the usual suspects" and one "unusual suspect".
To address these challenges, Airey called in consultants Eden McCallum. She promoted caretaker chief executive Mark White to managing director. And she poached Richard Woolfe from Sky to be Five channel controller and Jeff Ford from C4 to be head of digital channels and acquisitions, describing him as "the best acquisitions executive in the country".
Contracts were renegotiated and products were deferred. Five scheduled more effectively and gave longer runs to series that had already been commissioned.
"We're the only family of channels to have grown audience share this year," points out Airey. "We've had a 16-week run of year-on-year growth, our best for more than a decade. We're still here and our reach is going up. We've taken significant costs out of the business, but it's running well - it's a happy ship."
Last week's autumn schedule launch provided further hints about Airey and her acolytes' vision for a refreshed and revitalised Five.
Highlights include FlashForward, a new US drama starring Joseph Fiennes and Jack Davenport ("the new Lost", according to Woolfe), and Live From Studio Five, a nightly magazine show hosted by Ian Wright, Melinda Messenger and Kate Walsh.
"When Dawn and I were at Sky we nicked Lost off C4, which was transformational for Sky1," says Woolfe. "FlashForward is going to put Five front of mind because it's an extraordinary idea that will captivate viewers of all ages, particularly the 16 to 34s we want to attract back."
Bold acquisition
FlashForward will have a global launch and be broadcast days behind US transmission. "It's a really bold acquisition," says Airey. "Everybody wanted it, but we stepped up and paid big money. It was a good deal, but people didn't think we had what was required."
Live From Studio Five is not just Five's version of BBC's The One Show, says Woolfe: "Like some of the best things to come out of Five, it will be copied. It's a great way to do news."
These fresh shows allied to a lean and mean business with a newly discovered smile on its face mean Airey is relishing the next 12 months. "We represent the best value ever for advertisers. We've got big brands, reach and great stars at a fraction of the price of C4 and ITV. That puts us in a really strong position as we enter the 2010 dealing season."
It will be left to Five's director of sales Kelly Williams to persuade hard-nosed agency operators such as GroupM's Mark Collins, VivaKi's Chris Locke and Chris Hayward, Aegis Media's Steve Platt and OPera's Marc Bignell that Airey's turnaround strategy can deliver must-have audiences for advertisers. Let the trading begin.
CV
2008
Chair and chief executive, Five
2007
Managing director, global content, ITV
2007
Chief executive, Iostar
2006
Managing director, channels and services, BSkyB
2003
Managing director, Sky Networks
2000
Chief executive, Five
1996
Director of programmes, Five
1994
Controller of arts and entertainment, Channel 4
1993
Controller of networked children's and daytime, ITV
1985
Management trainee, Central TV
Lives
In Chiswick, Oxford and Newcastle with partner Jacquie Lawrence and two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Dulcie
Drives
Lexus Hybrid
Airey on...
ITV: Based on current earnings, ITV is still a phenomenal multiple. It's the most highly traded media stock in Europe, which is extraordinary and shows somebody believes it's got huge potential.
Leaving ITV: The ITV job was absolutely what I was sold. I knew the challenges and thought they were perfectly doable. I don't look covetously at ITV - if I did, I wouldn't have left. I didn't leave because of anything negative about ITV; it was the pull of coming back to Five to sort out something I'd started and left in pretty good shape.
Michael Grade: He's done the homing pigeon thing a few times himself, which he forgot when I told him I was leaving. He was very unimpressed. But we talk to each other now. If knives are thrown at me, it's behind closed doors. Everybody needs to get on in TV - there's a high level of interaction.
ITV chief executive favourite Tony Ball: He will do an effective job. He wouldn't take the job if he didn't think he could add real value. He did well at Sky, he's done a very good job at Kabel Dutschland and I'm sure he'll do the same at ITV.