Spike, later known as 5Spike, was a British free-to-air television channel which aired both ABC seasons of BattleBots in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. It began airing World Championship I in September 2016, using former Robot Wars champions Team Razer to promote the show as they competed with Warhead.[1]
Numerous unique commercials were produced to advertise BattleBots on Spike, with 20, 30 and 40 second commercials made to the soundtrack of Daft Punk's single 'Robot Rock'. These were uploaded to Channel 5's YouTube channel on August 26, 2016 and aired on domestic television in the lead-up to its premiere. World Championship II later aired on the network in 2017.
No further seasons would air on Spike, with ITV picking up Discovery seasons five years later, in April 2022.
Televised Seasons[]
The following seasons of BattleBots have aired on Spike:
| Season | ABC Premiere | Spike Premiere |
|---|---|---|
| World Championship I | 2015 | 2016 |
| World Championship II | 2016 | 2017 |
Outside BattleBots[]
The channel originally launched as the British equivalent of the US channel of the same name, following Viacom's acquisition of Channel 5 in late 2014. Spike was launched in the UK on April 15, 2015 as a "driven, high-energy channel offering a point of view and program mix I think is different from anything else on British TV right now", according to Channel 5 programming director Ben Frow.[2]
In October 2017, the channel was rebranded as 5Spike to be more closely associated with the Channel 5 'Five' brand, with My5 remaining as the network's on-demand service. However, 2018 saw Paramount Network launch and then merge with 5Spike on January 7, 2020. From there, the Paramount Network channel was again rebranded to 5Action in 2022 to avoid confusion with the network's streaming service, Paramount+.
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