Petersburg - Channel 5 is a television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 channel based in St. Petersburg, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, also known simply as Channel 5. Director General: Alexey Brodskiy, Producer General: Ljubov Sovershaeva. Channel 5 succeeded the nationwide Leningrad TV channel dating back to 1938, which was immensely popular throughout the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 during the last years of Perestroika

Perestroika

Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...

 with such programs as 600 seconds

600 Seconds

600 Seconds was an immensely popular TV news program that aired in the Soviet Union and briefly in the post-Soviet Russia. It was a nightly broadcast from Leningrad TV with anchor Alexander Nevzorov....

of its editor-in-chief, Alexander Nevzorov

Alexander Nevzorov

Alexander Glebovich Nevzorov is a former Russian and Soviet TV journalist, a film director and a former member of the Russian parliament. He is the founder of the horsemanship school, Nevzorov Haute Ecole.- Biography :...

. However, later the channel lost much of its popularity. In 1997 its nationwide network was transferred to the newly formed Kultura TV, and the channel continued broadcasting for Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast

Leningrad Oblast

Leningrad Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . It was established on August 1, 1927, although it was not until 1946 that the oblast's borders had been mostly settled in their present position...

 only. During the tenure of Governor Vladimir Yakovlev

Vladimir Anatolyevich Yakovlev

Vladimir Anatolyevich Yakovlev is a Russian politician, currently retired.In 1996–2003, he was the Governor of Saint Petersburg. In 2003-2004, prior to the Beslan school hostage crisis, he was Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Southern Federal District...

 (1996–2003) the channel, then entirely controlled by the city adiministration

Saint Petersburg City Administration

Saint Petersburg City Administration is the superior executive body of Saint Petersburg , Russian Federation. It is located in a historic building, Smolny....

 and supervised by Yakovlev's vice-governors for mass media and PR, Alexander Potekhin (1997–2001) and Irina Potekhina (2001–2003), became dragged into political scandals around the city's political elites. In October 2006 Petersburg - Channel 5 was licensed to broadcast nationwide again. As of now, its main owner is National Media Group.

According to the owners of the TV channel, the Channel 5 maintains its own independent news service.