Channel 5 succeeded the nationwide Leningrad TV channel dating back to 1938, which was immensely popular throughout the Soviet Union during the last years of Perestroika with such programs as 600 seconds of its editor-in-chief, Alexander Nevzorov. 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 only. During the tenure of Governor Vladimir Yakovlev (1996–2003) the channel, then entirely controlled by the city administration 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.