Five May Launch Digital Channel

Channel Five may be launching a women’s lifestyle channel in an attempt to strengthen its digital offerings as terrestrial programmers prepare for the impending multi channel dominance.

As rival broadcasters inject their programming strategies with a raft of digital options, Five has been criticised for being left behind, being the only UK terrestrial channel with no sister platforms.

However, Five does have two spare Freeview slots which could be used for digital expansion.

Reports earlier this year revealed that Five was considering creating a children’s channel, spun off from its current early morning Milkshake programming strand (see Five Eyes Expansion With Digital Children’s Channel).

The channel is thought to be the brainchild of Nick Wilson, controller of children’s programming at Five, however, according to recent reports from Campaign, this idea has been ruled out.

Five has been at the centre of speculation in recent months surrounding deals to secure its future in a digital-only TV environment (see NewsLine).

November saw the broadcaster rumoured to be in merger talks with digital broadcaster, Flextech, part of cable company Telewest, following the earlier breakdown of exploratory merger discussions with Channel 4.

ITV has been expanding its digital portfolio. Earlier this month the broadcaster was awarded Crown Castle’s spare Freeview slot (see ITV Scoops Crown Castle’s Extra Freeview Capacity), while more recently it announced that it had bought UK digital multiplex operator, SND, from United Business Media for £134 (see ITV Pays £134 Million For Multiplex Operator).

Elsewhere, Channel 4 has just announced that it will launch E4, as well as its timeshifted counterpart, E4+1, on the Freeview platform to coincide with the start of the sixth series of Big Brother at the end of May (see E4 Set For Freeview Launch Next Month).

Five: 020 7550 5555 www.five.tv