‘Channel 5 has changed, is changing and will continue to change’

Channel 5 has announced that it has retained the rights to the extended exclusive highlights to England home internationals in Cricket and that there will be a second Celebrity Big Brother this summer.

The channel also announced the launch of a Gadget Show app. The interactive app will show an x-ray view of the ad allowing viewers to look at the ad being filmed.

In front of an audience at the Hospital Club this afternoon, Nick Bampton, commercial director of sales, and Jeff Ford, director of programmes, explained how much the channel had changed since its launch 15 years ago this week. Channel 5 now has 47 million viewers a month – and during 2011 its average monthly reach increased by one million viewers monthly.

The exclusive highlights deal with the English cricket board allows Channel 5 to show home Tests, One Day Series and 20/20s for the next six years, which will include two Ashes Tests. Last summer Channel 5 reached 7.7 million people via cricket alone.

The event also show-cased other areas where Channel 5 has been growing. In factual TV, Channel 5 has increased its ABC1 impressions by 11% (while Channel 4 has lost 11% in impressions).

This January during Big Brother Channel 5 added 6.5 million young adults as viewers – and Cowboy Builders received a 50% increase in the young male audience.

Channel 5 also claims that 5USA delivers seven times more impacts than Sky Atlantic. This year Channel 5 has acquired Dallas and the US fantasy series Once Upon a Time, which will be premiering on 1 April.

Demand 5, Channel 5’s digital offering, can now be viewed on 17 devices. In the last year viewers have doubled.

“Channel 5 in 2012 is a positive, confident, challenging, unashamedly mass targeted channel, engaging the great British Public with the most exciting programmes on UK television,” Bampton said. “Channel 5 has changed, is changing and will continue to change.”